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Secrets have consequences.
Working my old soul-sucking job must have caused my smile muscles to atrophy, because by the time Kai and I had finished playing in the ocean like a couple of kids, my cheeks hurt from grinning so much.
Now we were zipping around the island in a rented golf cart, and again, I couldn’t stop smiling. He was giving my cheeks a better workout than any physical therapist ever could.
Physical therapist!
Maybe if Kai became one for real, he wouldn’t mind if I closed his family business down. He might even be grateful to me for helping him find his true calling before frittering away his best years working in the pristine and rugged beauty of his beloved island.
Nope.
I didn’t believe that sorry line of reasoning either. There was no scenario where Kai would be okay with what I’d been asked to do, no matter how many times I tried to justify it to myself.
I forced the whole situation out of my head. This was va-ca-tion time, as Kai had put it. All work-related thoughts were off limits.
I held on for dear life as Kai took a sharp turn that put the ocean to our backs.
“Where are we going? I thought we were on our way to the marina.”
He steered our turbo-charged golf cart along a curvy road that quickly led us far away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist traps closer to shore. “We are. We’re taking the scenic route. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.”
Relaxing was going to be difficult for me to do if he didn’t slow down.
What would my mom say if she could see me now? The woman had been a professional worrier ever since I’d taken my first breath.
She’d even insisted I wear a bike helmet to a roller-skating rink for my best friend’s eleventh birthday party. Heaven forbid that I should fall down during a buddy skate and bump my noggin. And here I was years later with zero protective headgear and no seatbelt to speak of, while every bump and hard turn threatened to toss me overboard.
Maybe, just maybe, I was being a tad overly dramatic. But in all fairness, the ground was flying by entirely too fast for a contraption without doors. The more I thought about it, this benign little vehicle started to feel more like a deathtrap than anything else.
But was I going to tell Kai? No. Way.
I was still out to prove to him that I knew how to have a good time. And protesting about the lack of seatbelts—while it may have been the prudent thing to do—would be super uncool and an absolute buzzkill.
So, I did the next best thing. I sucked it up and smiled wider. “It’s gorgeous here,” I said.
He glanced over at me, his eyes sweeping over the length of my body in an instant. “Yes, it is.”
He winked at me just like he had the first day we met. I still hadn’t developed an immunity to it. My cheeks warmed and tingles coursed up my spine.
I looked out over the landscape to distract myself from the effect Kai had on me. As I did, I had to admit, the detour wasn’t so bad when I wasn’t in danger of being flung out of the cart.
It was a scenic route worth taking. The ground rose sharply to our left and was covered in vibrant hues of green that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from. I was convinced that every other shade of the color I’d seen before was nothing more than a poor counterfeit for Hawaiian green!
“That’s Waianae.” Kai pointed to the mountain beside us.
“Do you guys name all your mountains?” I’d already forgotten the name he said. Between clutching anything within reach so I wouldn’tbounce out of the cart and my desperate attempt to look like I was enjoying his wild driving, I was a little busy.
“It’s not just a mountain. It’s a volcano. I thought you might like to see it.”
"Wow! I knew there were volcanos here, but I thought they’d look a little scarier somehow."
"You sound disappointed, nani."
"No, not at all… well, okay, maybe a little. Nothing about this beautiful place screams Mount Doom. Where are the rivers of red lava? No smoking vents? It doesn't seem very volcano-y to me."
Kai’s warm and cozy laughter made my insides get all warm and ticklish. I found myself staring at his profile way more than the quiet volcano beside us.
He had the best smile. I could stare at it all day!
