know I learned that the love I had for him only got bigger and brighter every day of my life.” Kona looked at his kids, his head shaking. “I know that if he was here, he would be smiling. He’d make sure everyone in this place knew they were welcomed and loved.”
Next to Kai, Gia smiled, curling her body toward him to lean against his chest.
“I know,” Kona continued, “that he’d make sure everyone he loved knew how to fly.” Gia grabbed Kai’s hand, squeezing it before she nodded. “Today, every day, let’s honor Luka and our ohana and the people that matter the most to us.”
“IS it still hard to see him?” Kai asked Gia, holding her hand when it seemed his voice surprised her. She sat bundled in her coat on the edge of the pier, her feet dangling off the side. She watched Keola and Makana, Kona and Keira’s young daughter, playing with their son Koa, and Makani, as Ransom lay his head on a blanket-wrapped Aly’s lap, on top of the Adirondack chairs next to the fire pit. Keira and Kona’s Northshore property was quiet, serene and at the moment, filled with the sound of laughing children. “He’s a good-looking kid.”
“You know, he’s not that much younger than you.”
“I see you deflecting, nani wife.” Kai moved behind her, brushing the hair off her shoulder to rest his hands against her neck. “Not going to answer?”
“It’s not hard for me to see Ransom. He’s a sweet boy, and he looks like that sweet boy I loved a long time ago, but I’m not pining for Luka or projecting on your cousin.”
“You sure?” He rubbed his thumb between her shoulders, earning an approving moan from Gia when he massaged away the tension there.
“Yeah, baby. I’m very sure.”
Kai looked down at that beach, to the kid who looked so much like the shadow he sometimes thought he’d always be living in. Then Gia pulled his arms around her waist, turning to bring his face close to hers.
“I’m not sorry I loved Luka.”
He nodded, unsure why she was telling him something he already knew. “This isn’t a secret to me.”
“I had to love Luka. I had to have a first love to get me to my last love.” Gia held his face, kissing him once. “You can’t have a last love without a first love.”
“Unless you only have one love,” he said, frowning at his own logic.
“But then, you’ll never appreciate how good that last love can be.” Gia shook her head, shutting her eyes, her mouth moving up into a smile that reminded Kai of the expression she made when she had one of those dreams she refused to tell him about. She promised they were always about him and always about the things he could never convince her to let him do to her. “If I never loved Luka, if I’d never lost him, then I would have spent my whole life not expecting much from love.”
Kai tilted his head, his eyebrows furrowed when she smiled at him. “And?”
“And if I didn’t expect much, there wouldn’t have been much, but because I had something really good with Luka, exceptional, in fact, I knew love was supposed to be this really wonderful thing.” Gia’s smile went wider then as she rubbed her fingers over Kai’s eyebrows, as though she wanted to smooth them out. “Then you came along and pestered me,” she smiled when he rolled his eyes, “and wouldn’t let up and showed me that really wonderful thing could be something greater and grander and utterly beautiful. Luka’s love was like this warm, steady flame, burning bright. It was constant for so long, but yours, husband, yours is…” Gia closed her eyes, inhaling against his neck, “yours is like the brilliant incandescence of a burning sun. It’ll never die.” She kissed him, laughing when he nipped at her bottom lip. “Always warming me, always keeping me out of the cold.”
Kai held Gia’s face between his hands, unable to withhold the low moan that left his throat when she teased him with a slip of her tongue. “You’ll always be warm with me, ku'uipo.”
“Promise?” she asked, leaning against his chest, her breath warm on his neck when he wrapped her in his arms.
Kai laughed, lowering his mouth to her ear. “I told you a long time ago, nani. You and me? Fucking combustible. That won’t ever change.”
“Nope,” she said, leaning up to take Kai’s mouth. “Never.”
I HOPE you enjoyed reading Offsides as much I loved writing it. If you’re looking to fall in love with a whole new series, check out my Seeking Serenity series.
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CHASING SERENITY
Graduate student Autumn McShane has had her share of heartbreak. She's been abandoned and betrayed and she lost her beloved mother in a tragic car accident five months ago. That loss damaged her body and fractured her spirit but she's learning to recover, until her ex-boyfriend returns to town, intent on making her life miserable.
Declan Fraser hates her ex as much as Autumn does, but the last thing she needs is to put her trust in the hands of another man, especially one like Declan: his hard body and lulling Irish accent makes more than a few girls weak-kneed. The talented rugby player is rude and sarcastic, with tattooed, muscular arms and a cocky attitude, but he's the only one who can help Autumn win an ill-advised bet that, if lost, could cost her more than she's willing to pay. The reluctant alliance between Declan and Autumn stirs up cravings she doesn't want to admit, but Declan is a hard man to resist.
Just when Autumn starts letting down her carefully constructed walls to the sexy bad boy, he betrays her when she needs him most. Autumn suspects Declan has secrets, and she is determined to uncover what drove him away from her, even if that means fraternizing with the enemy. But will the truth return Declan to her arms or add to the scars on her heart?
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, thanks to my Sweet Team and my Saints & Sinners reader group and all my wonderful newsletter subscribers who wait patiently for updates while I research, read and disappear into my fictional worlds.
Thank you to my ride-or-die Chelle Bliss for believing in my words like no one else on the planet, for always being my biggest bully and loudest cheerleader and for her never-ending love and support. I don’t deserve you!
Thanks to my girls, Chelsey, Trin, Faith, and Grace and to the Moon Baby for your love and patience and to Chris, who really and truly held me up during this writing process.
As always, thank you to my Corporate Hell sistas—Barbara Blakes, Marie Anderson-Simmons, Kalpana Singh, Sarah Cooper, and Sherry Jackson. I love you all more than you will ever know.
Thank you to the amazingly talented Kate Farlow with Y’all. That Graphic for the assist on the bundle covers. You’re a life saver, lady!
Finally, thank you, dear reader, every single one of you, who have picked up a THIN LOVE book, or read something that Kona Hale said or thought, or in some way influenced and embraced it. You are the reason this man and his family keeps coming back with more stories to tell. You are the people who keep him and his family alive. I thank you, he thanks you and hope that you never get tired of hearing about the Riley-Hale ohana and the beautiful, crazy lives they lead.