“We only use that place for parades,” Kona admitted, his expression tightening as he looked between them. “What am I missing here?” He waved the waitress away when she came by to offer him another beer.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were related?” she asked Kai, not bothering to look at Kona or acknowledge his question.
“I didn’t tell anyone.” Kai leaned forward, elbows on the table, his mouth held into a tight line. “Didn’t much matter. Third cousin no one knew about until I started playing ball? Who the hell gave a shit?”
“Brah,” Kona said, his voice carrying loud enough that both Kai and Gia finally looked at him. “That’s not fair.” Gia had never seen Kona angry. Not even when she yelled at him in the team house. Back then, she’d been a scrappy nothing girl taking on a giant. But there was real hurt on his features now, something that reminded Gia of the look Kai had given her that night in her apartment when he found her Polaroids. “If we’d known…”
“I don’t blame you, man,” Kai admitted, his features relaxing. “This,” he said, pointing between he and Gia, “this has nothing to do with…” He paused, scrubbing his face before he picked up his beer and finished it, finally turning his head to face Kona. “I was a kid and you were a star. You didn’t owe me a damn thing and you still offered, and you didn’t need to. Shit, how many damn Kais are there in our ohana?”
Kona laughed, slapping his cousin’s back. “Fuck’s sake, at least five.” He turned to Gia, his head shaking. “Our family isn’t known for their creativity. This poor buggah comes in probably thinking he’s unique, and he looks like every other asshole with the same damn name.”
Kai nodded, leaning back to let the waitress refill his glass, his attention on the beer, on his cousin’s laughter, anywhere, it seemed, but Gia.
“How many have you met so far?” Kona asked Kai, slipping his glance to Gia before he focused on his cousin.
“Just the one that owns the bar in Kaimuki.”
“Ah, yeah. That asshole lives at Tommy’s. Never had more ambition than to be a beach bum.”
The admission shed light on a few things. If Cat had been looking into Kai and came across several with different last names, none of which were in the system then there wouldn’t have been info on them. Thinking on it, Gia knew she should have realized how tight-lipped their family would have been. They probably had gotten used to people digging for information on Kona. She remembered reading about his and Luka’s birth father. The man had abandoned them when they were little. There was supposedly an entire family that Kona didn’t even know that might be interested in meeting him…and getting access to his money. Look what had happened to Kai in his town, his own family taking advantage of his generosity.
Of course Cat hadn’t been able to find out the truth.
The pendant he’d worn when Gia first met him in her office. It had to be Luka’s.
“And your girls,” Kona said, sitting up to look at Gia, bringing her out of her thoughts. He seemed eager to keep her engaged in the conversation. “What was your roommate’s name? The little redhead? Man, Brian had a thing for her.”
“Claire. Claire Lambeau.”
He snapped his fingers, grinning. “That’s right. What happened to her?”
“She’s a D.A. in L.A. county. Never married. No kids.” Gia picked up her glass and took a long sip, remembering the horror stories Claire had told her of the cases she handled the last time they had dinner. “Given her job, I can’t say I blame her. All those exploited and abused kids? All the broken homes and abandoned wives and children? All the families destroyed by violence? Seems like an awfully big risk to have a family in this crazy world.”
“Nah, you can’t look at it that way,” Kona said, that perpetual smile stretching across his face. “I wouldn’t trade my pēpēs for anything.”
Kai looked at his cousin and for the first time since they’d sat down, he didn’t frown. “That’s the truth,” he admitted.
Kona nodded, returning Kai’s smile. “How old is your little girl?”
“Almost nine,” Gia answered for Kai, her eyes widening when both Kai and Kona glanced at her. She licked her lips, playing off the answer with a shrug. “We…used to live in the same building,” she explained, looking at Kona, not daring