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Right. I had to get my head out of the clouds and back in the game, too. For the second time that day, I’d forgotten I was working. I scurried up to him and we walked in-step down the beach, putting the congested area near the vendors and cafe behind us.
My frazzled nerves were lulled by the rhythm of the water at my side. The clearest blue sky I’d ever seen stretched out as far as my eyes could see while palm fronds bent in the sea breeze. This was as close to paradise as this world was ever going to get, but I couldn’t allow myself to enjoy it too much.
I wasn’t here to enjoy the view—of nature, or the dimpled wildlife.
I had a job to do.
“So,” I said, adjusting my new sunglasses and feeling every bit like the slimy spy that I was, “I think I remember you saying you were going to work with your dad?”
“Not with him. For him.”
I winced, knowing what it was like to work for family. The poor guy was probably hounded mercilessly, reminded every day of what a failure he was. They probably told him to lay off the donuts if he didn’t want to grow a pair of saddle bags the size of watermelons on his hips by the time he turned thirty.
Okay, I may have been projecting just a tad, but still, I couldn’t imagine his family working situation was much better than mine had been. A million-pound weight rolled off my chest and I took my first deep breath in a very long time. Getting Kai out of a job working for his dad was something I could totally get behind.
I’d gone from villain to hero in my own estimation in ten seconds flat. I was his secret ally in the fight against the misery that was family businesses.
I patted him on the shoulder. “I just spent the past eight years working for my stepmom, so I get it.”
He looked at me as if he had no idea what I was talking about. Obviously, he was still in the denial stage of grieving his new job situation.
“Your pain, Kai. I feel your pain.”
He burst out laughing. “Pain? Kalua Family Tours is the family business my grandfather started fifty years ago. I honestly love this job.”
I pulled the sunglasses from my eyes and ripped the hat off my head. I couldn’t have a serious conversation while dressed like Carmen Sandiego. “Why were you going for the job with Blue Pacific if you love working for your dad so much?”
“I thought that was what I wanted. But I was wrong. Once I got home it was like a light bulb went off, and now I know I’m doing what I was meant to do. I’m where I belong.” He stopped walking and looked at me. “You getting that branch manager position was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
Ah, that innocent smile—that innocent, oblivious smile.
If you only knew, Kai. If you only knew…
The pieces of the puzzle were coming together now. All the questions for Kai at the interview. My surprise hiring. Chuck’s quick getaway at the cafe.
Every one of the butterflies in my stomach keeled over dead and dropped like flies. I hadn’t been hired because I was a shark. Chuck had chosen me because Kai would have never agreed to killing his family business.
Nope. I was the special gem of a gal who’d agreed to that.
I made a mental list and took a quick inventory of my life.
Find my dream job in Hawaii. Check.
Find my dream guy in Hawaii. Check.
Put my dream guy out of work, crush his family business, and steal away his purpose in life. Check, check, and checkmate!
Aloha to me.
Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any worse, we stopped at a spot on the beach littered with tiny boats—boats so little they had no business even thinking about touching salt water.
I laughed a little inside when Kai walked up to one and pretended he was about to push it into the water. But the joke was on me, because he wasn’t kidding around. “What are you doing?”
“You can’t get to the cove by bus, donut girl.” He pulled his sandals off and tossed them into the boat. “Are you going to make me do all the work? Push!”
My mind screamed “no!” but my body moved forward and helped him push. The tiny canoe-like boat bobbed in the water, its outrigger lashed to two arms by a few scrawny ropes. “This doesn’t look safe.”
“Safe is boring. Get in the boat.” Kai stood in the water up to his knees, his smile daring me to get in.
