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She looked at her toddler with his adorable face tilted to one side, and she caved.
“Okay,” she told Po. “Go on and sleep in my room. But just for tonight.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
JUN STOOD ON Kai’s porch the next morning, wishing she’d called ahead and told him she couldn’t make the training session. Po bounced beside her, full of energy. He’d slept soundly the entire night, but Jun hadn’t. Po sprawled and kicked while he slept, spreading out like some kind of helicopter playing Twister. She could almost still feel the tiny imprints of his little feet in her back as he rolled around in the bed. In the morning, his head had been where his feet ought to have been, but he’d bounded awake at 6:00 a.m., bright eyed and rested, while Jun felt as though she’d spent the night trying to sleep comfortably next to a Mack truck.
She’d been this close to calling in sick but had decided to come at the last minute. She dragged herself to work even with the worst cold, and she wasn’t about to let a single sleepless night derail her. Not, of course, that it was a single sleepless night. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten four straight, uninterrupted hours. Kai opened the door cautiously.
“I wasn’t sure you’d show today,” he said, glancing at Po.
“Why wouldn’t I show?” Jun was ready for a fight if Kai wanted one, and if he was going to question her work ethic, he was going to get one.
“Well, with Po at the ER and everything... How you doing, kiddo?” Kai held up a closed fist and Po eagerly bumped it with his own.
“Fist bump!” he yelled, then made an exploding sound. “I’m fine, Kai! Where’s Auntie? I want to show her the rock I found outside. Auntie!” Po was already tearing through the house, looking for Aunt Kaimana.
Jun sniffed the air and smelled the pungent aroma of Kona coffee.
“Is that coffee?” she cried, feeling almost as if she were being led into Kai’s beach house by her nose.
“Yes, I just brewed a pot of Dallas’s special blend,” Kai said. “It’s for Kaimana. Not me. I’m not breaking any of your rules.”
Jun’s felt as if the only thing holding her eyes open at this point was the promise of pure caffeine.
“Do you want some?” Kai studied her, a blatant challenge in his eyes.
On a normal day, she’d have told him what he could do with that gloating face. But this was not a normal day. She feared she might face-plant in his foyer any second. “Yes, please.”
She followed him into the kitchen, where he poured her a delicious-smelling brew.
She inhaled and took a delicious sip. Kona coffee, the finest in the world, and only grown in the lava-rich soil of Hawaii.
She examined the Hula Coffee mug she held in her hands. She recognized the logo from the local coffee shop in downtown Kona. “I suppose you know the owner of this coffee shop, too.”
Kai laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Uh, yeah. I own it. With Jesse.”
Jun nearly choked on the coffee. “How much money do you have?”
Kai barked a laugh and Jun realized she was being too direct. Just like her mother. “Sorry. I mean, that’s rude.”
“Nah, it’s just honest. Most people think it but don’t say it. I like that you said it.” Kai smiled at her and the soft expression in his eyes made it hard for Jun to stay mad at him or even keep him at a distance. She’d been wanting to. After the kiss on the beach and then his butting into Po’s life, she wanted to be cold and unfriendly, but with his broad shoulders and lean athletic body so close to her, she had trouble staying icy. Or even remembering why she wanted to in the first place.
“I talked to my manager about setting up a charity for kids of the tsunami and he said we could do it. Even maybe call it Big Island Kids.”
Jun stared at him, waiting. “That’s good,” she said, trying to keep her voice neutral. She regretted biting his head off yesterday about the charity. Some kids could use it, she had no doubt. She just wasn’t going to take a handout.
“Listen, Jun, I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said. “I mean, not sorry that I said something, but...Po is your son, and I don’t have a right to butt in. I just... I wanted to help.”
