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He shot me a teasing look as if he knew what I’d been thinking. “Maybe we'll get lucky and Waianae will blow its top for the first time in more than two million years. You know, just for you.”
"Two million years? How does this place even qualify as a volcano after sleeping for that long? What a bust."
"We don't mind. It's not exactly great for the locals when mountains explode, you know."
I bit my bottom lip, feeling stupid all of a sudden for rooting for one of nature's most dangerous displays of power. "Yeah, sorry. I wasn't really thinking about it that way. I don't want anyone around here to get hurt."
He glanced my way and captured my gaze. "I know. You'd never wish harm on anyone."
I broke our gaze, more from guilt than from wanting him to get his eyes back on the road. He was right. I didn't wish harm on anyone, Kai in particular.
When we finally found our way onto a straight patch of road, I had the chance to burn the spectacular view of this peaceful volcano into my memory. Lava or no, it was still an impressive sight.
The lush tropical forest to our right began to thin as we continued down the road.
“We’re almost there,” Kai said, pointing to a break in the trees that revealed the ocean beyond.
If someone had told me yesterday while I was paddling that outrigger that I’d be happy at the prospect of getting into another boat, I never would have believed them. But anything would be a relief after sitting in the passenger’s seat of that golf cart with Kai behind the wheel—even floating precariously on top of thousands of sunless feet of water teeming with sharp-toothed life.
Kai took a quick turn down a narrow road leading toward the water. My knuckles were white as I clutched the back of the seat.
Yep. That boat was looking better by the moment.
A nice, chill boat ride around the bay was just what the doctor ordered for these frazzled nerves. Add in some of Lolani’s home cooking, and we had the makings of a fantastic low-key afternoon.
We zoomed into a small parking lot that was nothing more than packed dirt with a thin layer of sand and pebbles on top. Kai laid on the breaks and we skidded to a stop.
The wheels of our cart may have stopped rolling, but I couldn’t disengage my fingers from the metal pole supporting the canvas roof overhead. Kai hopped out and came around to my side before I’d managed to catch my breath. “I’m impressed,” he said.
I swallowed my shaky nerves before speaking. “Impressed with what?”
“Whenever I take my mom on a ride like that, she slaps me in the back of the head and screams for me to slow down.”
I put on my best shocked face. “Really? Why slow down when going faster is so much more fun?”
You hear that, Kai? I like fun stuff.
One side of his mouth pulled into a teasing grin. “You sure you had fun?”
“Of course. Why would you even ask?”
He ran his index finger over the knuckles of my hand still holding on to the support pole. Fire shot up my arm. “You were holding on pretty tight the whole time.”
I shrugged, unsure of how to answer him without revealing my true play-it-too-safe nature.
“The whole reason for that drive was to get your blood pumping—to loosen you up a little bit.”
I peeled my fingers off the metal and took a quick glance to make sure they hadn’t left a permanent impression.
I stood up, threw my shoulders back, and planted a fist on my hip. “Excuse me? You don’t need to loosen me up. I am extremely loose.”
Kai snorted out a laugh and shook his head. Heat shot into my cheeks when the meaning of my clumsy words dawned on me.
I died a little bit inside.
“NO! I mean I’m chill—but not as in Netflix and chill.” My cheeks were literal flames of fire. The more I tried to fix my horrible choice of words, the worse I made it. “I mean I’m not tightly wound. I’m… I’m loosely wound. I’m perfectly relaxed.”
Stop talking! Why couldn’t I just stop talking?
