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From villain to hero and back again.
Could that man possibly move any slower?
It didn’t matter that a white sandy beach stretched out to my right. Who cared that turquoise waters were lapping ashore so close I could smell them? Was that ukulele music I heard floating on the easy breeze rolling in from the sea?
I didn’t know, and I didn’t care.
All I cared about was putting the fiasco of Cafe Dolphin Dinner Plate as far behind me as possible—and I couldn’t do that if I was doomed to loiter on the street just outside the dining area.
“Can we hurry it up a little?” I asked, impatience welling up inside me. If Kai didn’t get the lead out, I was going to blow, and I’d just proven how volatile my eruptions could be.
“In a minute,” he said, thumbing through a stack of giant sun hats on a street vendor’s cart.
“Just grab one. Any one. You’ll look gorgeous no matter what you wear,” I blurted.
Kai’s head snapped around and his eyes drank me in. I bit my bottom lip. Had I really just said he would look gorgeous? Out loud? One of his brows wagged at me in the most seductive way.
Yep. I’d said it out loud.
“I just want to get moving before anybody from the cafe comes this way.” I cast a wary glance over my shoulder. I still felt a hundred judging eyeballs staring my way from the outdoor dining space. I supposed it wasn’t every day diners witnessed a grown woman hacking a mouthful of fish into a cement planter.
But to be fair, it wasn’t every day I thought I was eating the forever-smiling puppy dog of the sea, either.
Kai finally stepped away from the cart, clutching a giant hat in his hand. It was cute. The kind I might wear paired with a white, gauzy sun dress for a day at the beach.
“Nice hat,” I said. “Are you planning to wear it home, or will you have them wrap it up for you?”
“She’s a comedian. Nice. I love a woman with hidden talents.”
I played along, taking a miniature bow and pretending not to hear the L word.
“Very hidden,” Kai teased.
“You’re hilarious. Now, can we go please?”
“Sure, but you should take this first.” Kai wasn’t offering me a drink in a coconut—not yet, at least. A floppy-brimmed hat wasn’t quite as romantic, but it was still sweet. “I got it for you. I’m not in the habit of wearing women’s hats on the beach.”
“You bought me a hat? What’s it for?”
“People usually wear them… you know, on their heads.” His eyes teased me again, but my pulse shot through the roof when he invaded my space and placed the hat on my head. “You’ll need these, too.” He opened a pair of oversized sunglasses and slid them onto my face.
He was slow and deliberate.
Breathe. Don’t forget to breathe.
I wasn’t sure, but I had a sneaking suspicion those glasses were rose-colored, because Kai was looking better than ever.
I ignored the fleet of butterflies harassing my stomach. “Is this my disguise so nobody from the cafe will recognize me?”
“Well, it wouldn’t do my reputation any favors to be seen with a fish-spitting crazy lady.” The corner of his mouth turned up into a half-grin, but something smoldered deep in his eyes that made my limbs quiver and my breath come in short hiccups. “But I actually had something else in mind when I picked these up. Follow me.”
He had a knack for stepping in and out of the most intoxicating moments without warning. How did he do it? I stood blinking for a few seconds, watching him head toward the beach.
It was beyond frustrating—and I was beyond hooked.
“Where are you going?” I called after him, stepping out of my wedges and into the warm sand.
“You might be on vacation, but I’m working. I have to earn my paycheck.”
