Noble paused, her expression lowering into concern when she caught Gia’s gaze. She’d become her friend. By now Reese seemed to know when Gia had something bothering her—like the prospect of having dinner with your dead boyfriend’s twin and his cousin…who you’ve been sleeping with. But, she couldn’t say that.
“Breakfast,” she told Reese, nodding to Kona when he gestured ahead of him and Kai. She offered Reese a wave, wanting to explain everything. The woman had missed a lot. She doubted Cat had even had a chance to give her an update on the situation with Wilson, but Reese and Ryder had been busy. Life did that when you made plans—it moved onward. Now Gia had to follow behind Kona and Kai and figure out how she’d make the same confession to two different men and explain why hers never had.
22.
GIA
KONA HALE was not a man who shied away from a good meal. Not, he admitted, when he worked out. Not when he traveled and not, it seemed, when he tried to impress his family.
Gia was not his family. She was a bystander—a witness to the show he seemed eager to put on as he smiled at the wait staff and ordered appetizers and entrees.
“Keira and I came here a few months back. Hawthorne was playing a charity show at The Liberty. She’s friends with Lager’s new daughter-in-law. She got to meet the man and I thought she’d pass out.” He nodded to a tray of warm rolls when the waif-like waitress set it in front of Kona. “Brah,” he told Kai, “cinnamon butter. You have to taste this.”
Gia had abandoned her game face. Kai’s mood had shifted, and a cloud of worry pulsed between them, something thick and heavy that neither of them seemed able to shake. But Kona, ever the diplomat, ever the celebrity, hadn’t seemed to notice. He led them right through the lobby of the restaurant, a place that boasted authentic old-world meals and atmosphere. It seemed to measure up to the claim.
They were seated in a private room at the back of the building, the double doors closed as they sat around a small round table made of hand scraped oak fitted together with dove-tailed joints. There was a fire blazing in the open stove behind them and wine was served from large decanters of thick pressed glass. Everything felt old and archaic but homey.
If Gia had visited any other day, she would have loved it.
But Kai had not let the frown and worry move from his features and she could not keep her performance going indefinitely. By the time the waitress poured her third glass of wine, Gia gave up the pretense that everything was fine.
“So, Gia,” Kona said, wiping his fingers on the linen napkin in his lap. “Your Uncle Mike still coaching at Purdue?”
“Retired last season,” she told him, nodding when Kona dropped his shoulders. “I know. He hated to do it, but it was time.” She cleared her throat, brushing off the stare Kai gave her. “Said he wanted to sail Corsica again while he can still remember which direction to guide his boat.”
“I understand that.” Kona’s smile was easy, and it lessened some of the tension constricting Gia’s chest. But then he nudged Kai, pointing at her, making her lineman glance her way and that tightness returned. “Her uncle was a bastard, but man did he get my fat ass in shape.” Kai nodded, glancing at Gia before he grabbed his beer, not commenting to his cousin.
Gia saluted Kona with her drink, a memory of Luka and Kona barely managing Uncle Mike’s laps up the stadium during spring training coming to her mind. “I do remember. Those laps looked brutal.”
“Thought you only met Kona once,” Kai said, looking into his glass.
She didn’t want to have this conversation. Not here, not with Kona listening, but wouldn’t back down, wouldn’t retreat if Kai wanted to know the truth. Gia was tired of hiding from it.
“I told Keola I’d met him. That wasn’t a lie.” She glanced at the man in question, dismissing his frown when he looked between she and Kai. “I told you my uncle got me into the athletic department. I was the water girl that semester. I knew…a lot of the players.”
Kai sat back, abandoning his beer to watch her, his expression going blank. He didn’t speak, didn’t do much more than keep his focus on Gia’s face. “I thought the apartment was your ‘friend’s.’”