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The electricity generated in my body at those thoughts could have powered the entire island of Oahu for a month. But each time I came up for breath in my imagination, five obnoxious words flashed across the billboard of my mind in bold, accusing letters…
Why. Didn’t. He. Kiss. You?
I tilted my chin to my chest and cocked my head to the side, trying to catch a whiff of my underarm on the sly.
Powder fresh.
I scrubbed my index finger over my teeth. Not a single flake of mahi mahi to be found stuck between my chompers.
I was desperate to know what I’d done to trip Kai’s breaker and power down his romantic circuits.
I sighed as we neared the familiar beach littered with derelict boats. My alone time with Kai was coming to an end sooner than I liked. As much as I detested the antique we paddled along in, I kind of wished we had a little farther to go.
I needed more time to figure out what had gone wrong while we were treading water. Sure, once it was all over, I’d convinced myself that kissing Kai wasn’t a good idea, but in the moment, it was all I’d wanted to do. And I was pretty sure Kai had been of the same opinion.
But something sure did change his mind in a hurry!
“So…” Kai drew the word out, catching my attention.
“Yes?”
“Alright then,” he said, as if something had just been decided. “I’ll get everything set up for tomorrow.”
My eyes widened. What had I just agreed to? I suddenly felt like I was sitting in my ninth-grade algebra class all over again. My sadist of a teacher only ever called on me when he knew I hadn’t been paying attention, and this situation was no less uncomfortable.
All I could do was play along until I figured out what Kai was talking about. “Well, maybe not so much a firm yes as a definite maybe.” My bluffing game was strong.
“Well, I’ll need more than a maybe by this evening so my mom can have the food ready.”
Food? His mom?
My heart skipped a beat. Was he seriously about to take me home to meet the folks? That was it. Mystery solved! Hawaiian men must not kiss the women they’re into before getting their family’s approval first.
If I learned anything from Lilo and Stitch, it was about the importance of family to Hawaiians. And this man was after his mother’s blessing.
So. Sweet.
Suddenly I developed the twangy draw of a Southern Belle in my head. “Why, Kai, this is so sudden,” I imagined myself saying as I peeked at him over a lacy fan.
“Mom’s an awesome cook. She always caters the food when we’re showing someone around the island.”
Imagine a blue whale taking a flying leap off the Empire State building. How hard do you think it’s going to hit the ground? Not as hard as reality hit me.
His mom’s contribution to the family business was to cater. Yeah, that was so much more plausible than anything I’d dreamed up two minutes before. I made a mental note to kick myself later for having based my outlook on Hawaiian culture on a cartoon movie I’d watched when I was six.
My cheeks heated by at least fifteen degrees. There I was, a strong, capable career woman, and I’d allowed myself to take a non-stop trip to Crushville. Population one, because crushes are rarely returned, as Kai’s failure to kiss me proved.
I blamed my infantile regression on the sun. Sure, I was wearing that hat Kai bought for me, but it was woven from dead grass.
Hello! The sun had killed that grass, so how much protection would it provide for my pea brain? Not a whole lot, I could tell ya that.
I had to remember one important fact. I was the enemy. Even if Kai didn’t know it yet.
I blinked my eyes several times to refocus my brain. “I’m sure your mom’s an amazing cook. You can tell her I’m in.”
It was way past time that I sobered up and got to work. I had trade secrets to pilfer and by golly I was going to nab them even if it meant swiping the recipe to Kai’s mom’s secret sauce… assuming she had a secret sauce to snitch.
If my life were an action movie, it would’ve been time for the montage sequence to begin. I could almost hear the bad-to-the-bone music that would play while I strutted around in slo-mo, kicking butt and taking names. Beth had come to Oahu, and she wasn’t taking prisoners.
