the difference was he’d wait until she wanted him to do it. That was what separated him from Tim.
“He’s not that bad.” Jun tried to shrug it off. Maybe she liked that Tim put his hands on her at every available opportunity. That thought irked him.
“Come work for me. Get away from Handsy McHands.” Kai grunted a little as he worked to finish one set of lunges on his good knee.
Jun laughed. “Time to switch legs,” she said.
Kai strained slightly as he switched over to his weaker knee. Surprisingly, the knee held.
“What guarantee do I have that you won’t hire me one week and fire me the next?” she asked him as she watched his form. “Remember, don’t extend the knee over your foot. Keep it aligned.” She kneeled down to touch his knee to show him what she meant. Her touch was cool and electric all at the same time. He wasn’t going to be able to balance at all if she kept touching him like that.
“We can sign a contract. It’ll say you’re entitled to six months’ severance, even if I fire you after day one.” His breath came quicker. Working the weak knee took more concentration and a lot more effort.
Jun froze, staring at him, her mouth slightly open. “Are you serious?”
“Look in my shirt pocket.”
Jun reached into his open pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it and saw it was a contract just like the one he’d described.
“I told you I’d do what it takes for you to come work for me.”
Jun considered this, biting her lower lip. “I don’t know.”
What was it going to take to get this girl to say yes? Kai grunted as he did three more lunges, the weights growing heavier in his hands, the strain on his bad knee building.
Sweat trickled down Kai’s temple. The muscles in his legs burned. His weak knee felt as if it could buckle at any moment. He badly wanted a break.
“We can stop now, right?” Kai was only partly joking.
“Three more.” Jun nodded at him to keep going. He wasn’t sure he could. Then, after the very next lunge, his knee gave out, wobbling unsteadily beneath him.
“Watch out...” he grumbled, and in a panic, he dropped the fifty-pound weight, nearly sending it crashing into the free-weight stand as it bounced to the ground. Thankfully, Jun was nowhere near it, nor was anyone else, and Kai managed to regain his balance by steadying himself against Jun, who was suddenly right beside him, holding him up with an arm around his waist.
“You okay?” Jun breathed, eyes wide with fear as she looked down at his bum knee. The muscles on that leg looked fine to the naked eye, but Kai was convinced they were still smaller than those of his other leg. Nobody saw it—not Gretchen or his doctors—but when Kai looked at his knee, he still saw the pale shriveled leg they’d pulled out of the cast ten months back.
“The knee isn’t...healed?” The fact that Jun seemed to be able to see right through him, right to the heart of his whole problem, made him feel naked suddenly, and vulnerable. Too vulnerable.
“I’m fine,” he said, shaking it off. Shaking her off, and stepping away from her touch. “It’s no big deal.”
But he suspected Jun knew he was lying. He could tell from the way she stared at him, the skepticism evident in her dark eyes, her lids blinking away the judgment. He wouldn’t be able to bluff his way through training with her. Yet the thought of admitting the depth of his problem, of the ways his body was failing him, made him panic. Saying his body was weak out loud just made it more real than he wanted it to be.
“I’m fine,” he said again, this time not looking her in the eye. He didn’t want to see the flash of pity there.
“Everything all right over here?” Tim appeared then between them, an unwanted intrusion.
“Just slipped out of my hand,” Kai lied. “Not her fault.”
Tim glanced at Jun and then back at Kai. “Maybe that’s enough for today?” Tim didn’t bother to disguise his animosity toward Kai, which didn’t bother him a bit. They both wanted the same woman. No sense in trying to dance around it.
“Kai, need some water?” Jun asked, nodding toward a dispenser in the corner.
“I’ll get it,” Tim offered, eager to do what he could to speed Kai’s exit from his gym, no doubt.
Once he was out of earshot, Kai looked at Jun. “I guess you can tell training me won’t be easy.” Kai couldn’t help sounding defeated. His knee had failed him again, and this time in front of Jun. He was a lost cause and he knew it. But he wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. Not yet. Not when Jun could help him.
“But...tell me, which way are you leaning?”
Jun studied him a second, and Kai felt for sure she’d tell him a flat no. Her face told him that was exactly where she was leaning. He couldn’t let that happen. He felt suddenly seized with panic. If she didn’t help him, who would?
Kai had an idea in that moment, one that he might regret, but she was going to turn him down, so what did it matter anyway?
“Wait,” he interrupted, hoping his Hail Mary would work. “Before you turn me down, come to dinner.”
Her eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed in suspicion. “Excuse me?” Clearly, she thought he was asking her out on a date.
“Not just with me. With my sister, my aunt. My friends Dallas and Allie. You remember them?”
Jun slowly nodded. Dallas and Allie had pulled Po and Kai out of the floodwaters and to safety on their kayak. Without them, Kai knew he could’ve died out there. They were also the ones who’d found Jun and reunited her with Po.
“They’re having a dinner tonight at the Kona Estate. Why don’t you come? Bring Po.”
“I wasn’t invited,” Jun began, unsure. Kai noticed she was still a little distrustful, as if she suspected it was some kind of trap. And, really, it was. Kai knew she might be able to tell him no, but Aunt Kaimana would be another story. She loved kids, and he knew that once she saw Po, it would be love at first sight. She’d practically insist on taking on the babysitting.
“They always cook more than we can eat. Dallas is barbecuing, which means he can’t stop unless he’s seared the whole cow. I’m serious. Besides, Aunt Kaimana knows me better than anyone. If after you talk to her, you still want to tell me no, then I’ll leave you alone.”
“One dinner tonight with them and then if I say no, you won’t show up at my work? Stalk me?”
“I wasn’t stalking you,” Kai said.
Jun stared at him, dubious.
“Okay, so I was. I admit it. But come tonight and if you don’t want the job after that, then I’ll leave you alone. I promise.”
Jun mulled this over. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll come.”
“I
