The Big Break

That was why she had to work for him.

It had nothing to do with the fact that she was 100 percent alluring: athletic and gorgeous yet delicate all at the same time. She was like a hormone cocktail that made his head buzz.

Even now he shifted in the front seat of his car, his groin growing taut as he watched her march across the gym in black spandex capris that hugged her fit curves, her gleaming black ponytail bouncing as she went. His body’s response surprised him. It wasn’t as if he lacked for sex, but to be so struck by a single mom? He believed in the power of family, of ’ohana, as his aunt called it. But when it came to having one of his own, he always thought he would someday, but that always seemed far away, years down the road, when his surfing career was long done. He’d never been one to seriously consider dating a single mom, and he’d never once found one as sexy as he found Jun.

But this is professional, not personal, he reminded himself. He needed a trainer. She needed to earn more than what this place could no doubt provide. Island Fit might be a nice gym, but it was small and probably relied heavily on tourists streaming in from the big hotel resort next door.

He swung open his Jeep door and stepped out into the temperate tropical breeze rolling in off the ocean, ready to go see why Jun hadn’t already accepted his offer, and he wasn’t going to leave until he got the answer he wanted. He flipped his expensive shades to the top of his head as he pulled open the glass door.

He saw Jun first, standing near the front desk, and then noticed she was being crowded by a stout, muscled man who seemed to be trying to find a reason to keep his hand on her lower back. Instantly, jealousy blazed up in his chest. Surprised by the possessiveness he felt, he pushed the territorial feelings down. He had no hold on her. Yet.

“Kai,” Jun blurted, surprise flickering across her face. The man next to her, he noticed, didn’t pull away but moved closer to her side, eyes narrowing as he looked warily in Kai’s direction. Jun tried to delicately untangle herself from the man’s iron grip on her as she made introductions. “Um, Tim, this is Kai Brady. Kai, this is my boss, Tim Reese.”

Tim released her, but not fast enough for Kai’s taste. This guy was her boss? He had sexual-harassment lawsuit written all over him.

“Kai, I’ve heard of you, man. You’ve got that baggy line of board shorts everyone’s wearing.” Tim sent him a guarded smile, showing that the compliment was intended to be anything but. He held out a hand and Kai shook it. He noticed Tim’s grip was harder than it should be, and Kai realized the man saw him as competition. If it was a pissing contest he wanted, Kai already knew he’d win.

“Yeah, we just hit the three-million mark for numbers sold but projections are to double that by next year. Even mainland kids are wearing them.” That figure shut up Tim in a hurry, and Kai had known it would. He hated talking money, but some guys wouldn’t back down until it was in their face.

“Kai, what are you doing here?” Jun looked stricken, almost panicky.

“You forgot already? You promised me a workout session.” The lie came easily.

“I did?” Jun’s face went blank.

“You did.” Kai nodded back to the half-empty gym.

Tim still stood a little too close to Jun, but Kai could see the wheels moving in his head. A three-time surf champion at Island Fit would bring in more customers. He could see Tim struggling with what he wanted more: Jun or the business. If Kai had had to make the same call, he wouldn’t have hesitated.

“I double booked, then. I’ve got another client in ten minutes.” Jun glanced down at the computer monitor in front of her.

“I’ll take it, Jun,” Tim said, and rubbed her arm for good measure. Kai wanted to slap the meathead’s hand away, especially when he saw Jun smile at him in relief.

“Thanks, Tim.”

“No problem. You go help Kai.” He rubbed her back again and it took all of Kai’s energy not to leap over the small counter and grab the dude by his muscle shirt. Jun moved away from him and Kai followed her to the far corner of the gym.

“You didn’t ask for a session,” Jun said when they were far enough away from Tim not to be overheard.

“I asked for all your sessions,” Kai corrected, and Jun nearly lost her footing on the rubber-matted floor near the weights. Kai’s arm shot out to steady her. “You okay?”

“Fine.” Jun held his arm for a second and then let it go as though it were a white-hot poker. Kai could feel Tim glaring at them from the desk.

“It’s been two days. I was expecting your call.”

“I...” Jun looked fully flustered now. “I was just taking the time to think about it.”

“What’s to think about?” Kai really wanted to know. He was offering her free child care and six figures. Did she want stock options in his clothing company?

“Let’s start out with some free weights and some squats,” Jun said, trying to direct his attention to the weight stand. “Good for building those surfing muscles.”

“I’m serious, Jun. What will it take to convince you to say yes? I want to make this happen.” He needed her confidence, her no-nonsense “you can fix that” attitude. Plus, he’d like to have Po around. The kid made him smile. Made him think about something other than his knee. That was a good thing. “Where’s Po?”

“My sister is watching him today.”

“Can your sister watch him every day?”

“No,” Jun admitted. Kai grabbed thirty-pound weights for each hand. “You can do more than that!” She made him switch for fifty-pound weights. “Now, we’re going to do lunges first. Like this.” She took one huge step forward, showing him the form. He’d done free-weight lunges often and knew what she wanted. He started in on the first rep, using his good knee to take the weight first.

“Come work for me.”

“But...Tim has been good to me,” Jun said. Kai flinched as he heard the affection in her voice. Did she have a thing for that guy? He certainly had one for her, based on the way he stared at them, as if he was prepared to run on over if Kai so much as breathed on her.

Sweat popped up on his forehead. It had been a while since he’d worked so hard.

“Tim has a thing for you, you know.” Kai watched Jun carefully to gauge her reaction. She winced a little, an uncomfortable squirm, much to his relief.

“Is it that obvious?” Jun glanced back at Tim.

“You see how he’s staring daggers at me right now? He’s pissed off I interrupted his back-rubbing session.”

“His what?” Jun looked bewildered.

“He touches you. A lot. Borderline sexual harassment if he’s your boss.” Not that I haven’t fantasized about doing the same thing. Of course, 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 can pick you both up at six.”

“No,” Jun said quickly. “I’ll meet you there.”

Kai decided not to press the issue. She’d agreed to come. He’d have to be satisfied with that.

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