by Eden Butler
The doors behind her opened, and Gia looked over her shoulder, relief filling her when she spotted Pérez jogging into the room. “What happened?” he asked her, his skin pale as he looked down at his friend sobbing against Gia’s chest.
She nodded to the phone and the man grabbed it, jerking when he heard the caller’s voice. “Hello? Si…yes, this is Anthony… Pérez. I’m Kai’s friend…his teammate. What’s going…” He stopped, turning away from Gia, from the sight of the big linebacker weakened by whatever news had devastated him and Gia began to pray that it wasn’t the worst she could imagine. In that dark locker room, with that big man clinging to her like she was a buoy that would keep him from being toppled by the waves, Gia begged God to protect Keola. She prayed nothing had happened to that sweet, precious girl.
Pérez muttered replies, indistinct things Gia couldn’t make out and then he turned, dropping onto one of the benches situated in front of the lockers. He slouched, nodding to himself, face constricting the longer he listened before he leaned forward, moving his elbows to his knees. “Yes,” he told the caller. “I understand. I’ll tell him.” And then he ended the call, his gaze moving straight to Gia.
She tilted her head, eyebrows moving up as she watched him, her patience getting thin, her worry threatening to smother her and the man scrubbed his face before he finally answered.
Pérez cleared his throat, his gaze jumping from Kai, still leaning on Gia, to her face. “There was an accident. Drunk driver. Keeana… she was killed.”
Gia told herself not to cry, she had to be strong, but she couldn’t help the burn that surfaced in her eyes or the heavy moisture that collected in her lashes. “Is…was she…” She tightened her hold on Kai, fighting to keep the tears from her throat. “Where’s Keola?”
Pérez nodded, rubbing his neck. “Injured, but okay. In the hospital.” He motioned with the cell. “That was Kai’s sister, Nalani. She’s at the hospital now and says Kai needs to get back to Maui.”
“Okay,” Gia said, rubbing his back when another racking wave of tears overtook him. “I’ll…take care of it.” She brushed her nails through his hair, silently telling herself she would let go of him. Gia didn’t know Keeana well but had liked her immensely. Kai and Keola adored her. They both looked up to her. This would devastate them. It would break them. Gia remembered how badly this hurt, how deeply those wounds ran and when she did, her stomach dropped again. She’d never wish this sort of grief on anyone, especially someone as devoted as Kai and as innocent as Keola.
“I’ll…go get Wilson. He’ll want to go with us,” Pérez said, forehead wrinkling when Gia wiped the tears from her cheek. She didn’t care what he thought or what assumptions the man might make about her reaction.
“Go,” she told him, not bothering to look up at him. “I’ll call to book tickets. Meet me in my office in an hour.”
Pérez left, the doors behind him swinging shut with a thump and Kai stirred, pushing away from her to rub his palms in his eyes and make attempts at controlling his breathing. When he seemed calmer, when minutes had passed and the sobbing ebbed to silent tears, he looked up at Gia likely searching for answers to the million questions he had. But the only thing he could manage to say was, “What do I…do? How…”
“I’ll take care of it,” she told him, silencing Kai with a soft kiss before she pulled him back against her chest. He no longer cried, but still held onto Gia like she was the only thing keeping him tethered to the earth. She remembered this ache. It would not go away for a long time. “I promise,” she told him, moving her fingers back into his hair, wishing she could absorb this pain, settle it inside her where the dull ache of Luka’s loss still slept. Instead, she hung onto Kai. “I’ll take care of everything.”
15.
KAI
KAI DIDN’T HAVE A MOTHER. There’d been no one watching him when he was small and needed attention. There’d been no one who cared enough to look after him when he got the chicken pox at eight or the flu on his tenth birthday. Nalani had been there when she could, sneaking out from whatever foster home she was in to find a way and check up on Kai, but it wasn’t the same as having a mother.
Until Keeana, he’d never understood how important they were to a kid. He never thought past Keola and Keeana and the idea that they’d always be together.
But Kai buried Keeana with Keola at his side, her small hand shaking in his as a rain came through the graveyard and drizzled everyone gathered to tell her goodbye. He’d stood there at the open earth, eyes burning and swollen, his little girl clinging to him thinking about mothers and lovers and how Keeana had been both to him. He’d known none better. She’d been a bossy freshman when they met, breaking up a fight between Kai and Dexter Jillian when the asshole picked on Kai for living in a foster home. Keeana was loud enough, bold enough that Dexter went running when she threatened to knock him out. She was strong enough that Kai’s grumpy reply of “I can take care of myself,” got little more than a snort and eye roll from her before she said, “then do it next time, dork.”
She’d been his friend first. Then his love. She’d taught Kai that family came from the love you made with the people you cared the most about. It rarely had much to do with blood.
She’d given him a home and a child and let him go when he wouldn’t walk away on his own.
He owed her everything.
How the hell was he supposed to raise their daughter without her? How could he manage not to mess this up?
“She looked beautiful,” Nalani told her brother. Kai smelled her perfume before she walked out of the patio and moved to sit next to him on the wooden stairs that led away from the home Kai had bought for Keeana and onto the beach. “But, Kee was always nani, wasn’t she?”
He nodded, not sure if he’d be able to offer his big sister much more than gravelly noises he tried to pass off as words. Between his feet on the stairs, Kai hid an old, but only half full bottle of Four Rose’s Single Barrel Bourbon. He planned to spend the next few weeks blindingly drunk. Or, at least, that had been the initial game plan.
Until he remembered that he was all Keola had left.
“What the hell am I supposed to do?” he asked his sister, glancing at her when she sat next to him, grabbing the bottle from the steps. Kai held his face in his hands, trying hard to keep from letting the day, the circumstance overwhelm him. “She’s not even nine yet, and I don’t know if New Orleans is the right place for her.”
“You’re her makuakāne, little brah. The right place for her is where you are.”
He hated when she made sense. Normally, Nalani would be smug when that happened, but today wasn’t the day for her attitude. She seemed to know it.
Kai shook his head, taking his bottle back from his sister after he thought she’d stolen enough and poured the bourbon back, the warm liquor coating his raw throat. He’d done enough crying the past week that he thought he might never be able to breathe or swallow right again. But, he wouldn’t get drunk—his sister’s kindness over watching Keola would only stretch so far, he knew. Besides, his daughter had wanted him and no one else. Not Keeana’s parents or sisters, not her cousins on their side of the family, not Nalani or anyone else who offered to distract her. With one exception: Gia. Kai couldn’t blame his daughter. The woman was a powerhouse; a hurricane of confidence and conviction. She stepped off the plane with her earphones in and the funeral director already on the line.
“Come this way, Kai,” she told him, directing him away from the few locals who’d spotted him and begun to converge. Gia had been all soft edges and sweet tones when she dealt with him. To everyone else that seemed intent to do anything other but help or comfort, she became a fierce mama bear.
“Mr. Pukui is not giving out autographs,” she told the locals, then glared at the airport security guard for not keeping them back. That one terrifying look had the man hurrying his team to block Kai and his teammates from their attention.
“Damn, Miss J,” Wilson had commente
d, taking in the whole scene. “Remind me to never piss you off.”
“Fumble the damn ball like you did against the Panthers,” she told him, not bothering to look back at the man, “and you’ll see me really pissed.”
Kai had caught his friends watching her, staring at her ass like he’d done when she moved ahead of them to speak to the airport security.
“Ball buster,” Wilson muttered to Pérez, getting a grin from the tight end.
“Gotta be honest, I don’t think I’d complain about her busting my—” but Pérez didn’t finish explaining what he wouldn’t complain about. Kai shot him a glare, one that he hoped told his friends he didn’t appreciate their bullshit comments and both men pretended to be interested in their cells.
Gia had taken over quickly, being a hard ass when bullshit started—Kai wondered what she’d said to the florist to make the big guy cry like someone had smacked him—but when she was with Kai and Keola, when she needed to be soft with Keeana’s family and the people he thought mattered, there was no one better.
Like with his pēpē…when no one’s attention would make her happy. Gia had gone to her without anyone asking, taking off her three-inch heels and pulled down her fancy skirt to sit in the middle of Keeana’s back yard, lying next to Keola as the sun set and the stars began to dot across the cloudless sky.
Kai didn’t know what they said to each other. He didn’t know what questions among the dozens his daughter had that Gia managed to answer. But with his girl, Gia was gentle. She pointed out constellations to Keola, moving her fingers to write invisible words in the black sky with the little girl until she began to yawn. Then, Gia brought her to her bedroom and stayed there when Keola asked her. She read to her endlessly, hours sometimes while Kai was distracted by Wilson and Pérez.
But when everyone left and Gia had gone to sleep in the guest bedroom, his little girl would crawl on the sofa with Kai, not complaining that he’d refused to sleep in her mother’s bed. Not asking why everyone had left that room completely untouched. All Keola wanted was her father and he didn’t see that changing anytime soon.
“You’ll miss us if we stay on the mainland,” he told his sister, half teasing, half hoping she’d readily agree. “You know,” he said, offering her the bottle, “I could get a house, on lakeside. We could find something with a guest house.”
Nalani stared at him, the bottle hanging from her hands as though she’d almost forgotten she held it. “You want me to move to New Orleans?” When Kai shrugged, determined not to beg her, his sister relaxed, her shoulders dropping. “I have a job here.”
“In a tourist trap restaurant. It’s dead-end and you know it.” He turned toward the house when he heard Wilson calling his name and waved back.
“I’m the manager now,” Nalani said, but there was no conviction in her voice. Kai guessed she’d stayed in Maui because he’d gone and his sister thought one of them should be there to help Keeana look after Keola.
When Kai shook his head, moving his mouth down in a frown, his sister jabbed him in the gut. “Don’t give me that look. It’s an honest living.”
“And it’s not necessary. You can work for me. I’ve been telling you that for years. I want to start that foundation. And now…more than ever…” He’d had the thought on the flight over, grateful that he’d taken Gia’s advice and rethought the people who managed him. Wilson’s agent, Rene Dubois had signed Kai and had inked a better, lengthier contract with a cushier bonus. He wasn’t going to struggle anymore. The foundation could get started, only now, it would be in Keeana’s name. Thinking about it, planning it, made dealing with her death less painful. Or at least, it gave him something to think of so he wouldn’t have to face the reality of her being gone.
“I think she’d like it if we did something for kids who need help with college. Kids like she was. Kids who maybe didn’t make the best decisions but still want to get an education.”
“Kai…that’s a lot to ask me.”
“Please, Na.” He lowered his head, not wanting her to see the tears if they came. “You and my pēpē, you’re all I have left now.”
When Wilson whistled, bringing Kai and his sister’s attention back to the house, the pair turned and Kai waved at his teammate again, signaling that they’d be right with them.
His teammates would leave early in the morning and Nalani would take Keola to her place so that he and Gia could pack up Keeana’s things with her family. Wilson waved a plate of burgers and nodded toward the inside of the house and Kai spotted Gia on her cell, directing Pérez with her free hand to grab the condiments Wilson had used on the burgers before she turned away, continuing with her call.
This place was nice, Kai thought, and secluded. Keeana had left it to Kai. He had half a mind to give it to her family, let them have the money selling it would make. Keola wouldn’t be with them or in this place anymore. She’d be with Kai, always. That thought thrilled him. It also terrified him. Gia walked toward the back of the house, making her way through the glass doors that led inside but stopped, sending Kai a smile and a twist of her head to hurry him. He hadn’t eaten anything all day and he suspected Gia knew it. She seemed to know everything about him—what he needed, what he wanted, what would make him upset. Gia had kept her promise. She’d taken care of everything: Kai, Keola, the funeral arrangements, Keeana’s family, the flowers, the program, even the music, security to keep everyone he didn’t want around him away and, the press release when the media began to circle the island looking for a picture of Kai and his daughter at the funeral.
He smiled back at Gia and the tension in his body eased, if only for a second as he watched her walk into the house.
“I don’t know, brah…I’d say there’s still some ohana waiting for you.”
Kai glanced at his sister, spotting where her attention had gone and for the first time, he laughed. “I wish,” he told her, offering her a hand when he stood up. “Just think about it, yeah?”
“I will,” Nalani told her brother, linking her arm through his as they walked back inside. “But I get the feeling you might not have to wish too hard.”
KAI HAD SPENT the rest of the night watching his daughter interact with Gia. They were different together. Gia wasn’t the ball busting GM with his kid that she was around the team. She braided his pēpē’s hair as Wilson and Pérez pushed tequila shots in front of him in some pathetic attempt to keep him from breaking down in front of his daughter.
“Makuakāne...” Keola asked, sitting in front of Gia as the woman combed her fingers through her thick hair, twisting the strands into sections. “Do you think you’ll stay in that building you live in for a while?”
The question came out of nowhere and Kai wondered what had made his little girl ask it. There were other things he was sure occupied her thoughts. Other questions she’d have about where her mother went. But he wouldn’t push her into asking anything until she was ready.
“I don’t know, keiki. That’s my friend’s apartment. Not mine. I’ll have to get a bigger place for you and your auntie if she comes with us.”
She frowned, leaning back against Gia, interrupting 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.
