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“He probably wonders why someone who likes ‘substantial boats’ between them and the ocean would come on a parasailing cruise. There’s going to be a whole lot of nothing between you and the water in just a couple minutes.”
My breath froze in my lungs. When I landed in Hawaii, I’d realized pretty quickly that I knew precious little about the islands. But if there was one water-related activity I did know about, it was parasailing.
My stepmom had sent me the video of her and Dad parasailing during their honeymoon in Cancun. The unedited version, complete with a sloppy make-out session eight hundred feet above sea level.
Gag!
I’d never been able to figure out what was more disturbing about that video, the PG-13 kissing scene or imagining what it would be like to sail eight hundred feet above the water!
I stumbled backward and plopped onto a seat beside the railing. My heart pounded, and my ears rang with screams from my subconscious mind, reminding me of what a coward I was when it came to heights. Suddenly there didn't seem to be enough air to breathe. But I guessed that was okay since there would be nothing but air where I was heading.
I was about to be strapped in and flown around like a kite—a nervous and unwilling kite. I looked back at the beach and had never regretted my inability to swim to shore more than in that moment.
I questioned my decision not to tell Kai about my fear of heights. It was like my mother always said, secrets were no good for relationships. They only ever brought about terrible things like new stepmoms and death-defying tours of Hawaii.
But I had to go through with this stunt if I had any hope of showing Kai that I wasn’t an old stick in the mud.
“Hey,” Kai stepped up to me, concern pinching his brows. “You’re still cool with this, right?”
I forced a few slow breaths, trying to reassure myself that I wasn't going to suffocate in the open air. “Still? I had no idea we were going parasailing. I thought we were going on a boat ride.”
“I asked you if you wanted to go parasailing yesterday, and you said yes. Remember?”
Who was he trying to kid? I totally would have remembered him talking about parasailing. One didn’t discuss life threatening pleasure cruises lightly.
Then it hit me. A sinking feeling settled on my stomach when I remembered not paying attention to what he was saying while we paddled our canoe yesterday afternoon. “All I remember you mentioning was your mom’s cooking.”
“Yeah, mom’s probably working on dinner right now. But I asked if you wanted to go parasailing early in the day and have dinner later. You don’t remember any of that?”
I shrugged. “I guess I was a little preoccupied.”
He sat down next to me and bumped me with his shoulder. “You’re still chill, right?”
“Who, me? Of course I am.”
I wasn’t.
I SO wasn’t.
“Strap me in,” I said. “I’m ready for some fun in the sun.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.”
A large clang from the back of the boat got my attention. I gulped like a cartoon character about to get their comeuppance when I saw the tangled rigging that had just fallen on the deck.
Uncle Leo wrapped the boat's steering wheel with a rope to hold a steady course into the unknown—aka straight for a watery horizon that looked like it was a million miles away. Then he hurried to the back of the boat where he knelt and tried to untangle the ropes.
I leaned close to Kai and spoke in a tone low enough that only he could hear. "Are those harnesses newer than that boat we rode in yesterday?"
"Oh, yes, much newer. You don't have anything to worry about. Uncle Leo has never lost a customer yet."
Yet?
I gulped again.
Did last wills and testaments typed out in farewell text messages to best friends hold up in court?
Kai leaned back and used the I’m-only-stretching technique to end up with his arm around my shoulders. I was so freaked by the mound of tangled ropes that I barely noticed.
