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Jun nodded. The apology went a long way toward smoothing her ruffled feathers. Po was not a responsibility she’d ever considered sharing with anyone, and yet, even as Kai stood there, she wondered what it would be like to have a partner or to have Po’s father in the picture. Probably, like yesterday, it would be a huge pain in the butt. If her partner disagreed with her, then it would just lead to one argument after another. The thought exhausted her. She knew what was right for Po, didn’t she? She didn’t need any help.
“It’s okay.” It wasn’t, exactly, but Jun liked the apology. She sipped some more of her coffee.
“I don’t know if you’ve thought about it any more, but maybe the doctor was right...”
Jun’s hand tightened on her coffee mug. She didn’t want to go over this again. Po wasn’t crazy. He didn’t need to go see a psychologist. He just needed to heal in his own time. “Did you just apologize for something you’re going to do again?” Her chest grew tight, as if she was about to enter into another round of fighting. If she had to, she would.
Kai opened his mouth and then quickly shut it. He shook his head and held up his hands in surrender. “Right, not my place,” he conceded. “Sorry.”
He took a step closer and Jun felt suddenly as if she were being pulled into his orbit. The man had more magnetism than ought to be allowed in one person. His dark hair flopped forward across his tanned forehead. She wanted to reach up and put her hands in the thick mop and was curious whether it would be as soft as it looked.
Jun could hear Po’s laughter from the other room. Would she allow Kai to kiss her, right here in his kitchen, mere feet from her boy and his aunt? Yet his lips were all she could think of, how soft and enticing they were the first time they covered hers. Was she really fantasizing about making out with the man who’d made her so angry?
“What’s on tap today?” Kai asked, rubbing his hands together. “I’m ready to get to work. My manager, Kirk, he wants to get photos of me surfing and...”
“And you’re worried.” Jun remembered his performance, or lack thereof, on the board.
“Yeah.” Kai met her gaze. “You saw me out there. How can I shoot videos for a surfboard when I can’t even surf? And how am I possibly going to compete?”
“Okay. Let’s talk about the knee. Are you ready to be honest with me about it?”
Kai shrugged. She noticed how much he wanted to shut down anytime the subject of his knee came up. It was beyond a sore spot. Jun recognized an Achilles’ heel when she saw one.
“What do the doctors say?” she asked him.
“They say I’m recovered. That I’m 97 percent for strength and flexibility.” Now Kai avoided her eyes. “They say I’m healed.”
“But you don’t think so.”
Kai shook his head. “The knee feels...different. It’s hard to explain. Like a rubber band, I guess, an overstretched one. One that’s going to snap at any moment. I don’t think the doctors are right. I keep telling them, but they say there’s nothing they can do.”
“No more surgeries?”
“Nope. I asked them if they could just cut it out of me and replace it with a robotic one, but they just laughed. I guess I can’t go bionic yet.”
Kai looked so dejected that Jun wanted to comfort him somehow. She took a step closer and touched his arm.
“Hey, Western medicine doesn’t have all the answers,” she said. “Sometimes doctors miss the obvious things.”
“They do?”
“Yeah. That’s why I am such a fan of alternative medicines. Why I want to open my own clinic one day. Eastern medicine treats the whole person, not just an injury.” Jun realized she’d been touching Kai a little too long. His arm felt warm beneath her hand. She withdrew quickly, her face flushing a little with heat. Could she not even casually touch the man without having a reaction?
“So when does the knee feel weak? Like when you’re walking?” Jun looked down at Kai’s knee. It looked identical to the other one, except that it had the scar from surgery, still too white against his bronzed skin. Kai tested his weight on the knee, bouncing on it.
