AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bret had stopped big-wave surfing himself at his wife’s request the day after he came back from his honeymoon, but he’d kept on towing Kai, out of respect and because of their shared history. Towing was supposed to be safer than surfing. Most of the time.
But both men knew how dangerous it all was. You rode the devil, and sometimes he’d bite you. They’d lost friends out there on the reef.
“Sarah wants me to stop towing after this year,” Bret had told Kai on that beach. “She’s having a baby and she wants me to stop. Says no dad should be out in these waves.”
“I get it, man.” And Kai did. It was going to be their last season together.
When Bret started talking about maybe Kai not being ready, Kai had just thought it was the nervous soon-to-be dad in him talking. It had never occurred to him that Bret was talking to him earnestly, that he truly thought Kai wasn’t ready.
Bret had been right. Kai hadn’t been ready and he’d nearly killed them both that day.
As he looked out on the ocean, vast and blue and powerful, Kai sucked in a few deep breaths, hoping that there’d be more weights in the afternoon. Jun might want to meditate, but he didn’t want to be alone with his doubts in silence. Not today.
Kai swiped at the sweat across his brow and saw his house in the distance. He’d grown up in a tiny little two-bedroom house, next door to Allie and her grandmother’s coffee farm. His aunt had worked odd jobs when he was little: babysitting or working the register at gift shops or stringing leis for tourists. Kai and Jesse had always had food in their bellies and clothes on their backs, but it hadn’t been easy. Now Kai had a bigger house than he’d ever dreamed of owning and more clothes than he knew what to do with, most of them with his name on the label, like the ones he was wearing. Kirk, had told him that they might be closing a deal with a big-box store to bring the line to a mass audience. That would mean even more money.
“I’m trying to close the deal before the competition,” he’d said. “But they might want to wait. See the kind of press you generate after hitting Jaws again.”
Kai wondered what would happen if everyone found out he was a fraud. If he wasn’t a surfing champion, if he wasn’t trying to break world records for surfing hundred-foot waves, then how fast would all the money go away? How quickly would Kirk desert him?
And then there was Bret. He’d warned Kai to stay off Jaws. Or else. He knew the man wasn’t kidding, either.
Sweat dripped down Kai’s bare back as he made his way up the stairs to his backyard, his knee protesting every step. The pain was gone, he noticed, but the strength wasn’t there. Not in the least. The flimsy-rubber-band feeling just wouldn’t go away.
He crested the landing and walked by his immense pool and Jacuzzi tub, wishing he could slip into the warm water and hit the jet bubbles, but his workout wasn’t done yet. If he knew Jun, she’d have something else planned for him.
He noticed Po’s sand bucket and shovel left near the back door, washed out but still drying, pictures of happy green sea turtles swimming around its blue base. He realized how odd it was to see children’s things near his house. Yet he didn’t find it unsettling in the least. He kind of liked the bucket there, lined up beside Po’s tiny little sandals. So small. The boy had been an unexpected joy of the week.
Just then Po came bounding up to the back door, grinning. “Kai! Fist bump!” he shouted, as he did now every time he saw Kai, since he’d taught the boy how to do an exploding fist bump.
“Bam!” Kai said, and the boy giggled as the two bounced closed fists together.
“All right, that’s enough,” Aunt Kaimana said. “Kai has to train.”
“For big waves!” Po cried, and then threw his little arms out as if he were catching a wave on the shiny wooden living room floor.
“Come on, little one, it’s close to naptime,” Aunt Kaimana said, tapping the boy on the shoulder.
“Aw, do I have to?”
“Believe me, kiddo, take advantage of naptime now,” Kai told the little boy. “You’ll wish you had naptime when you’re a grown-up.” Kai glanced around the empty living room. “Where’s Jun?” Kai asked his aunt.
