the progress she’d made on her hair. “Oh,” she said.
“Why do you ask, kala?”
“I just wanted you to stay there.” His daughter’s voice was low, hinted at her disappointment. Gia watched Kai, staring across the table with a look he didn’t know how to read. It almost looked as though she was worried, maybe a little sad with his answer, but she didn’t speak. Gia didn’t do anything but sit up straight, urging Keola to do the same. His daughter leaned her head back, eyes closed as Gia began to braid her hair again. “I just…wanted you to be close to Miss Gia.”
Kai looked at his daughter, then to his GM when Wilson and Pérez sat at the table. He could make out their badly concealed laughter and how they shot glances from Kai to Gia, as though they were waiting for him to react.
“Your dad and you will have a nice place, a bigger place than where he is now,” Gia answered the girl, looking away from her players as each of them stared at her. Wilson’s chewed on his top lip and he seemed to make an effort keeping his thoughts to himself, but Pérez openly stared, his gaze moving over Gia’s face and down her body. Kai didn’t want to know what thoughts occupied the man’s head.
“But you’ll be alone. Who will take care of you?” Keola stifled a yawn but still continued. “You don’t even have a puppy.”
“Gotta have a puppy, mami,” Pérez said, shooting a wink toward the GM. He flinched against the pain when Wilson kicked him under the table. “What? It’s true, no?”
“I’ve told you before, sweetie,” Gia said, working fast to finish the braid in the girl’s hair, “some women live on their own, like you and your mom did.”
“But we had kupunakane and kupuna and Auntie Nalani.” She looked up, to stare at Gia. “Do you have anyone like that?” Gia shook her head, a small smile moving her mouth when she glanced down at his daughter. “See? Then you should have someone to look out for you.” Keola held the section of hair Gia wasn’t working on before she continued. “That’s why makuakāne should stay with you or…maybe you can come live with us where we move.”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” Pérez said, swinging his feet to the side when Wilson tried to kick him again.
“Keiki,” Kai told his daughter, leaning against the table. “Miss Gia is a grown lady and she’s my boss. Besides, I won’t live with anyone but you and your auntie.”
“But what if you get married?”
“I’m not…” Kai sat back, scrubbing his face when his daughter’s question went unanswered, when the tension in the room thickened so that he could barely breathe. Gia caught his gaze, moving her head as though she wanted him to know she would handle the girl’s question.
“Kee, why don’t we go read that new book your kupuna bought you? I’m getting sleepy, aren’t you?” The girl nodded, jumping from Gia’s lap before she went to Kai, standing on her toes to kiss him goodnight.
“My sweet girl, you sleep well,” he told her, his throat burning when she held onto his neck.
“Night, makuakāne.”
He waited until Gia had led the girl down the hallway, until he heard the quiet thump of her door closing before he downed two of the three shots Wilson had poured for him.
“Jesus,” he mumbled, leaning back.
“Man, girls are hard,” Wilson said.
“You have no babies,” Pérez told him, head shaking when Wilson glared at him. “What? It’s not true?”
“I have nieces and a lot of damn sisters.” He refilled Kai’s glass and pushed the bottle across the table. “I’m practically a fucking expert on little girls.”
“But not big ones,” Pérez said, laughing at his own joke.
Kai appreciated their banter. He was grateful for their presence. The whole week hadn’t been just them arguing and fussing or trying to get him piss drunk. Wilson and Pérez both were decent men. They knew what Kai needed. They’d slapped his back, helping him stand when he thought the sight of Keeana in that coffin would have him crashing to his knees. They kept the overzealous fans out of his daughter’s home. Both his friends had made this week easier. They’d distracted him from the constant ache that threatened to explode from his chest.
“I know them good enough.” Wilson drank, nodding to Kai and his still full glass. “Too good, it seems.”
“What’s that mean? There’s no such thing as being too good with women.”