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In the meantime, I know you probably won’t accept this bonus check without another assignment, so I’m asking that you take on the role of director of my charity, Big Island Kids. In this envelope you’ll find contact information for some local contacts, including Dr. Jean Ann, a pediatrician who has been helping volunteer efforts and is a very good contact. Please touch base with them to get up to speed.
I am writing you this letter because I think it will be harder for you to argue with this paper.
Yours,
Kai
She read and reread the letter, and then she stared at the check in her hand. That was it? He was going to head to the finish line without her? She couldn’t believe that he’d just decided on his own, without even talking with her! She could’ve told him that she still had something to offer, that she knew she could help him take the visualization further, that she had a whole notebook of calming techniques she’d still planned to try, along with acupuncture and a hot-stone massage. She had a plan, but he’d decided it all for himself. Without consulting her.
He was infuriating! He complained about her making unilateral decisions, but he was just as guilty. She reread the letter again. What did she know about managing a charity? Nothing! She was a personal trainer. She flipped the letter over and realized there was more to his message.
PS: We’ll have more to talk about after the competition. I haven’t forgotten what I promised.
Oh, he hadn’t, had he? Again, he assumed she’d just welcome him back with open arms? Completely ludicrous.
And this check? She glared at it, anger thrumming in her temples. A bonus check? It felt more like a “shut up and leave me alone” check, and she didn’t want to take it.
She thought about tearing it up but then hesitated. What if he never even noticed she hadn’t cashed it?
She needed to give it to him in person. And she wasn’t about to let him go surf Jaws without her.
Not when they’d worked so hard. She was going to fly to Maui and see him herself.
She grabbed her phone and dialed her sister.
“Kiki,” she said. “Can you watch Po for a couple of days?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
KAI SAT ON the warm sand on the north shore of Maui, watching the waves roll at Jaws. They were churning up there today, bigger than forty feet, yet the monsters didn’t keep surfers away, especially with the competition in just a few days. An army of Jet Skis hit the waves, with surfers trailing behind like water skiers, trying to get the timing just right, taking their lives in their hands to get the ultimate rush.
“Whoa, that is some crazy shit out there, man,” cried one of the camera crew. They were milling about the beach, trying to get their stuff together. “The surf reports weren’t kidding.”
“Yep,” Kai said. “We call that pure Hawaiian juice.”
“You’re crazy, man. You are. All of you are.” The camera guy shook his head as he watched a surfer let go of the towline, balancing on his surfboard, and crest the fifty-foot wave. He rode as though his life depended on it, because it did.
Falling at Jaws felt like falling off a five-story building—or having one fall on top of you. Kai had once hit the surf going at least fifty miles an hour, and the force of impact was so strong it had ripped his life jacket straight in half.
That was Jaws.
The huge waves broke into foam, churning the water white for about a hundred yards in all directions. The surf came ashore onto a rocky lava beach, where broken Jet Skis lay scattered like metal corpses. Rising up from the craggy beach was a tall cliff, where spectators parked their cars and sat on the hoods, watching the surfers crazy enough to try tow surfing. Kai glanced out at the powerful waves crashing into the jagged black shore and almost felt the bone-jarring crunch of them pounding his own head.
Nerves swam in his stomach. He tried to close his eyes and meditate, but the roar of the ocean invaded his every thought. It was loud; too loud.
He hadn’t been back since the last time Bret had towed him.
Kai hadn’t been ready; his knee had given way after he’d ridden a little while. He’d crashed, hard, dragging his board behind him. It had been a hard fall, but Bret had powered in to save him on the Jet Ski. He’d had seconds between crushing waves. With sixty pounds of weight in every cubic foot of water, a forty-foot wave could break bones. Mere seconds, and he’d managed to time it just right and dragged Kai to safety on the back of the towline of the Jet Ski.
