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His throbbing knee seemed to be the least of his worries at the moment. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for a month.
“You ready to go?” Jun asked him, dark eyes wide with concern.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” Kai stood up. Jun rushed to help him, but he shooed her away. He wasn’t an invalid. He could get around.
I just can’t surf.
A wave of bitterness washed over him then because he knew it was true.
They drove to his Napili Point condo mostly in silence. Kai had insisted on taking the wheel. He needed something to do. Jun had fought him on it, but he won with the argument that the doctor had cleared him. His brain wasn’t rattled. He was fine.
As they were pulling up to his two-bedroom condo, Jun’s phone rang, and she fumbled in her purse for it. “Hi, Jesse.”
Kai sent Jun a sharp glance. Since when did his sister have Jun on speed dial?
“Kai’s fine,” she continued, worriedly glancing at him. “But how...YouTube? This fast.” Jun’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “I don’t know who posted it...”
Kai did. Henley, probably, or one of the crew guys. “Great,” he muttered. “Just great.” He tugged his own phone out of his glove compartment, where he’d stored it for safekeeping that morning. He’d had dozens of calls and messages, including one from Dallas.
You okay, man? That was awful. Text me and let me know you’re alive.
Kai sent off a quick message. No sense in letting Dallas worry.
And Dallas wasn’t the only one who’d been worrying. Kai also realized he now had a dozen new voice mails and twice as many missed calls. The YouTube video must’ve gone viral, because it seemed everyone he knew had called him. Kai flipped through Twitter on his phone. He was actually trending.
Jesse had left two voice mails, and there’d also been calls from Gretchen, Allie, his cousin and some others, and three from Kirk. It was nice to know people cared. Even if Kirk was most likely concerned about his bottom line. Kai scrolled through the missed calls and stopped when he saw Bret’s number. He blinked. Bret hadn’t called...since the last time he’d towed him to Jaws. He hadn’t left a message, but Kai could guess Bret was furious he’d surfed Jaws once more. Bret had warned him off it.
“I know it looks bad, Jesse,” Jun said, still talking on her phone to his sister. “But Kai’s fine. Really. We just came from the hospital and the doctors say he was lucky.” Jun paused, listening. “I will...I know...I will...He’s right here. Let me see if he’ll come on the phone.”
Kai shook his head furiously, but Jun handed him the phone anyway, thrusting it nearly into his lap. Reluctantly, he picked up. “Hi, Jesse.”
“Kai! What the hell! Are you trying to die out there?”
“I know it looks like it, but...”
“You’ve got to quit this. You realize that? You’ve got to quit. My heart can’t take it.”
“Jesse, I...” Kai had nothing meaningful to say. Part of him knew she was right. He just wasn’t ready to admit it out loud.
“Kai, you’ve got to stop this...okay?” Jesse’s voice broke and Kai felt the reverberation in his chest. He didn’t want to make his sister cry or worry or any of those things. He hated upsetting her.
“I’m sorry, Jesse. Listen, let me call you back later, all right? I’m okay. I’m fine and we can talk later.”
Jesse let out a long sigh. “Okay,” she finally said. “I’m still mad at you, though.”
“I know.” Kai knew he deserved it. He hung up and handed Jun her phone back. He looked at the missed call from Bret.
You have no business being out there, he’d said the last time they’d ever worked as a team. You need to face facts. Kai wasn’t ready to face Bret or anyone else. He trudged to his condo’s front door and went inside, feeling fatigue heavy in his bones. Jun followed him, anxiously shadowing his every move, as if worried he might suddenly faint. Kai switched on the lights. Jun watched him as he gingerly walked to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. The wall of windows behind him overlooked a peaceful little cove where he often found sea turtles swimming. Above his head loomed the open-air balcony of the loft master-bedroom suite, complete with Jacuzzi tub and multispray showerhead. The condo was the least luxurious of all his properties, yet Kai felt at home here. He was also acutely aware, given his modest upbringing with his Aunt Kaimana, that most people wouldn’t find anything “common” about the split-level condo with the seaside views.
