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Happy endings DO exist!
Kai stood in the doorway like a wall of bronzed muscle clad in a bright-aqua Hawaiian shirt. Technically, I supposed all his shirts were Hawaiian, but this one looked the part with its larger-than-life white and yellow floral pattern.
His eyes were as stormy as the bank of clouds pressing in toward shore. The hard line of his jaw and the steely expression on his face made it clear that I wasn’t welcome inside his family’s place of business. Well, that and the fact that he wasn’t budging from the defensive position he’d taken up as soon as his eyes had landed on me.
“Kainalu.” I recognized Kai’s mother’s voice and heard feet shuffling across the floor on the other side of the door. “Step aside, and let the young lady in.”
Lolani’s round face peeked out from between Kai and the doorjamb. “I’m sorry, Beth. I don’t know where my son’s manners are today.” She hip-bumped Kai to the side and shot him a disapproving look.
I stood tall, determined to behave like a professional instead of the lovesick puppy I actually was. There was business to attend to—the business of saving this family’s livelihood, whether I was considered public enemy number one or not.
“It’s fine. I just wanted to stop by and give this to you.” I pulled the report out of my bag and held it out to Kai.
He glanced at it but didn’t move. “What is it?”
“It’s the marketing plan I wrote.” The papers I held out felt like an awkwardly rejected handshake. I didn’t know whether to keep the pages suspended in the air between us or let my arm fall to my side. My cheeks heated as I wondered if there was a graceful exit on this fun little joyride.
Lolani elbowed her son in the ribs. “Don’t keep her waiting. Take it.”
Kai snatched the paperwork from me and tossed it on a nearby desk so fast anyone would think it was a hot potato with leprosy.
She fixed her eyes on me. “I’m sorry, again.”
“Please don’t apologize. I don’t deserve it.”
Her lips pulled up into a kind smile, and she seemed to look into my soul. “Life isn’t always about what we deserve. It’s about forgiveness.” She shot a pointed look her son’s way at her last words.
Kai heaved a sigh. “It’s also about decency and honesty.”
He might have been looking at his mother, but I felt the full force of his words. Ouch!
“And when someone takes a wrong turn in life, what then? Forgiveness, that’s what.” Lolani punctuated her last words with a firm nod of her head.
The air was getting thicker by the minute, both with humidity from the next squall that was about to make landfall, and with familial tension. An argument was definitely brewing between Kai and his mom. I hated that I was the cause of it.
As much as I wanted to stick around and talk them through the paperwork Kai had unceremoniously scattered across that desk, I needed to leave before I caused any more trouble.
I cleared my throat to break the tension between them. “I’ll be leaving now.” I pointed at my report. “I hope it gives you some good food for thought.”
“Is this your olive branch?” Kai’s voice was pinched. “A sneak peek into the future to see what Blue Pacific is going to do to us?”
“What? No! I wrote this for you. It’s a market analysis. I know how determined Chuck is, and I wanted to give you some ideas to help attract new customers. I don’t want your business to fail.”
Kai didn’t say a word, but he didn’t have to. His eyes said it all. He’d trust his life savings to a Ponzi scheme before ever trusting me again.
So much for my hopes of fixing everything with a few words of marketing wisdom.
“Thank you, Beth,” Lolani said. “That was very kind of you.”
I nodded and gathered my luggage to walk away but paused a moment to take one last look at Kai. “Remember the day we met back in Cleveland?”
The distrust in his eyes turned to sadness. “Yeah.”
“We were both after the same position. But neither of us knew the job meant shutting down tour guides here on the island.”
Kai’s eyes blinked several times and the lines on his face softened. “No, we didn’t know that. But you still kept the truth from me once you found out.”
“I’m sorry. I got caught up in the excitement of having a chance to live my dream life. And for about five minutes, I tried to be someone I wasn’t.”
