But the way Kai looked at Gia made her feel naked. She hated how attracted to him she was. She hated how easily he could draw her in just by looking at her, taking care of her—something no one had ever done before.
“Thank you,” she said, pulling her foot back, stopping short when Kai held onto her leg.
“What I did for my people, I did because they needed it. If it left me short—”
Gia shook her head, sitting up to take his hand, wanting him to listen, to understand her clearly. “I don’t know what it’s like to grow up with no family.” When he tried to move his hand from her touch, she curled her fingers around him. “You’re my lineman. I did research. I had to. What I’m saying to you has a point so listen. Please.”
Kai eased, turning his hand so that her fingers rested against his palm.
Gia liked that. It felt…easy. It felt natural. “I grew up the only girl in a house with four boys. My parents both had a lot of siblings they were close to. Everyone is Catholic. No one believes in birth control. There were a lot of damn kids. It’s so noisy there, Kai, you have no idea.
“But everyone is there for everyone else. We all have each other’s backs. We do for each other without being asked. So, when you tell me that you and your sister were kids who didn’t have your own people until you teenagers, I get why you wanted to keep them. I get why you wanted to help other people who didn’t have the things you didn’t have when you were coming up. Trust me, I understand.”
“How can you? It’s a different world you lived in.”
Gia nodded, understanding that he’d probably never really know about her, about what had happened to her twenty years ago. Her struggle might be small compared to his, but it was still a stab to her heart she didn’t think would ever heal completely.
“Everyone has a struggle, Kai. Everyone is carrying something.” She watched him, waiting for the argument that never came before she continued. “Loyalty, you’re great at. I know that firsthand. But you’ve got to figure out who matters more. The people who were there for you before you made it…” Gia looked to those pictures on the wall, to that little girl who had her father’s beautiful smile, “or the girl whose entire future is dependent on the decisions her father makes today. She’s your legacy. You have to give her a solid foundation.”
For a long while, Kai just watched her, his gaze unfocusing, his attention shifting from her features, to the pictures of his daughter, of the life they led back in Hawaii. Then, he nodded, staring down at Gia’s hand, moving his thumb across her wrist, his head shaking as though he’d never considered what sacrificing for others would mean for his child’s future.
“I’m…an idiot sometimes…” he admitted, seeming unable to look at her. Then Kai cleared his throat, running a hand over his face before he stood, offering Gia a hand. “Come on. I’ll help you to the bathroom and you can grab a shower and get into some clean clothes.”
“The super…I need…”
“I’ll take care of it,” he told her, staring out of the window when another lighting strike lit up
the sky. “Might want to hurry in case the power goes out.”
“THERE IS NO WAY,” Gia said, her laughter louder than she meant it to be when Kai made that face. “Wait…how in the hell…”
“It’s the Pennywise eye-thing. I tried it a hundred times. This is the closest I came to it.” He crossed his eyes, moving one to the right, alternating the left and right at the same time to make them look like pinballs hitting against each other and Gia lapsed into a fit of hysterics.
“Stop it…oh God!”
“Wilson can do the Pennywise thing…I don’t know how the hell he manages it.”
“It’s impossible,” Gia said, holding her stomach. “It’s gotta be some computer graphics thing.”
“Nah, the guy who plays Pennywise said he does it. I saw the interview. It’s the freakiest damn thing.” Kai reached for his glass, squeezing more of the frozen margarita mix into it, his nostrils flaring again, as he sniffed the drink. “I can’t believe this is what we’re stuck drinking.” He’d found several pouches in the back of his freezer from, he guessed, when the mysterious friend of his’s wife had hosted a girl’s weekend for her cousin’s