Читать книгу The Big Break - Cara Lockwood - Страница 12

CHAPTER FOUR

KAI OFFERED TO take Jun’s bag, but it was clear by her expression that she wasn’t going to let it go. She stood there looking uncertain, clutching her boy’s hand, and he wondered for a minute if she was actually not glad to see him. He wasn’t used to cool welcomes. Po, however, didn’t disappoint.

“Kai!” the little boy cried, his voice pure joy as he whipped his tiny hand free of his mother’s grasp and ran to him. Surprised that the boy even remembered him after all these months, he grinned. The boy charged straight to Kai, arms wide. Po’s enthusiasm was infectious as Kai instinctively picked him up and swung him in the air, causing him to squeal in delight.

“Good to see you, Po!” Kai said, and meant it. Seeing him happy and healthy meant something. It reminded him how precious life was. In this moment of pure joy, Kai didn’t think surfing even mattered. He wondered why he had stayed away from Po for so long. The elation on his innocent face warmed Kai’s heart. He felt better than he had in months.

Kai caught the disapproving look on Jun’s face and put Po down, suddenly noticing how much the boy had grown in a year. He’d lost some of the baby fat he’d carried then. His dark hair was shorter, but the devious smile on his lips as his mother whispered something in his ear was exactly the same. In his hand, he clutched a plastic Spider-Man figure, and he was dressed nearly head to toe in clothes depicting the web slinger.

Thinking back to the tsunami, Kai remembered Elmo tennis shoes as the boy scrambled up the stairs to the second floor of the day-care building just seconds before the first wave hit. Kai could hear the loud chest-thumping roar of the wave even now, could feel it reverberating in his bones.

“I have a poster of you in my room!” Po exclaimed, breathless. “You’re like this!” Po mimicked a surfing pose.

“A poster, huh?” Kai glanced over at Jun.

“He saw it at the store and wouldn’t let us leave until I promised to get it for his birthday,” Jun admitted as she juggled the beach bag, a bottle of water and a clipboard.

“Can I take that?” Kai again offered to take the bag, but she resisted, moving her shoulder away from him.

“I’m fine,” she said, tightly, like a woman who didn’t want help. She probably didn’t like men who opened doors, either. Stubborn and independent, he could tell. Yet the obstinate set of her chin just made her look even prettier, a fact she’d probably hate to know. “Can I...uh, we...help you? I’ve got a class here...” She nodded anxiously down at the modest crowd milling about in the shade of palm trees on the beach.

“That’s why I’m here.”

Jun looked at Kai as if he’d grown horns. He wanted to check to make sure his hair wasn’t doing something strange. She cocked her head to one side, her dark ponytail flowing down one pale shoulder as her brown eyes studied him, confused.

“Your free class?” He held up her business card between two fingers and then her face lit up in recognition.

It had been on a whim he’d even come, but after Gretchen had quit, he’d been at loose ends. The card she’d given him had felt like serendipity.

Gretchen’s words still ricocheted around his head. It’s not me who’s quitting. It’s you.

He knew she was right, and yet he didn’t know how to snap out of it, or he would. He glanced at the beach, at the people there in loose-fitting shorts, waiting on class to start. Part of him hoped Tai Chi would help him. But deep down, he knew Tai Chi wouldn’t replace Gretchen’s grueling training sessions. Tai Chi wasn’t the answer, but it was a way to spend the afternoon that didn’t involve heading to a tourist bar and seducing another hotel guest, which he thought had to be an improvement.

Unless it involved seducing a beautiful Tai Chi instructor instead.

He glanced at her fitted leggings and her bare toned calves. Yes, he wouldn’t mind that at all.

“Oh...yes, of course.” Her demeanor changed. “I didn’t expect you today, but you’re welcome to stay. Although today might not be the best class. Po, uh...is usually at day care, but...”

“I bit my teacher!” Po exclaimed, in the blunt honesty of a four-year-old.

“You bit your teacher!” Kai echoed, surprised. “Why?”

Kai saw Jun wince.

“She wanted to throw me in the pool!”

“But I thought you liked to swim,” Kai said, remembering how amazed he had been at the then-three-year-old’s advanced dog-paddling skills in the flood after the tsunami. They’d saved him. The boy’s eyes grew wide and he shook his head slowly side to side. Kai got a feeling then that there was more going on with Po than his mother had let on when she’d dropped by his house. The look on his face when he’d mentioned swimming was plain old fear, and Kai recognized it clearly enough. It was the same way he felt about surfing.

“Po, come along now. We’ve got to start class. If you’d like to join, you’re welcome, Mr. Brady.” Jun infused a formalness into her speech and Kai could almost hear a wall coming up, a protective mom’s instincts. The day-care discussion or one about swimming was not one she wanted to have.

“Call me Kai,” he said, flashing his best smile.

“Yeah, Mom. Call him Kai!” Po exclaimed, jumping up and down and clapping.

“All right,” Jun acquiesced, but Kai noticed she didn’t actually say his name. She looked away from him, a blush creeping up her cheek. “Come on, Po. Let’s set you up so you can build sand castles while Mommy does her class. I need a good helper.”

Po nodded solemnly in a way that showed he was taking this as seriously as a little kid could. He trailed after his mom as the three of them joined the rest of the class on the beach under the shade of some large palm trees. Jun waved to some of the people waiting as she bustled Po over to an outcropping of lava rocks at the edge of the shade, plopping him down on a towel with a bucket and shovel about thirty feet from the ocean. Kai tried to imagine this sweet boy as a wild child who would bite his teacher at day care. He just couldn’t see it.

A man waiting for the lesson to begin sighed loudly near him.

“She brought her kid?” the fiftysomething man groaned, disapproving. “I didn’t pay for a toddler class.” Kai eyed the man with the silver hair in the black T-shirt and frowned. The judgment rolling off him was palpable, and Kai wanted to tell him to give Jun a break. What was she supposed to do? Leave Po in the car to die of heatstroke?

Kai felt defensive of single moms. After all, he’d been raised by one, and then, after she died, he’d been raised by his aunt, who’d done it all by herself. He knew how hard a job it was, and he also knew that this man had no idea at all the sacrifices Jun likely made.

Jun was too far away to hear and Kai was grateful. He hoped the guy kept the rest of his complaints to himself. Jun and Po didn’t need his grousing. Kai took up a position beside him on the far side of the class as the dozen or so people fell into a loose grid in front of Jun. Kai had always thought that Tai Chi was only for older people, but the class included a wide variety of ages, and surprisingly, most of them were men. Jun unzipped her Windbreaker and was now in a sleeveless coral-colored tank and yoga pants. Kai couldn’t help but notice the tight fit of black Lycra down her muscled legs, and instantly, his thoughts went to what it might feel like to run his hand up them. He realized he wasn’t the only man who was thinking that way, either, as most of them stared openly at Jun, some eyes lingering on the hint of cleavage in her scoop-neck tank. Then he understood why there were so many men taking a Tai Chi class. He had no doubt she was good at what she did, but he also knew some of the men in this class probably didn’t care about Tai Chi as much as ogling a hot teacher for forty-five minutes.

If Jun knew that was why she had so many men in her class, she didn’t let on. Her smile was warm but not flirty as she, and everyone else in class, kicked off flip-flops. He did the same and sank his toes into the cool sand.

“I am so sorry we’re getting a little bit of a late start,” Jun said. “I had...uh...babysitting trouble today, so I really appreciate your patience.”

Most of the class seemed fine, but the grumpy man in the black T-shirt let out a disgruntled sigh. Kai glared at him. “Kids,” the man said to Kai with an eye roll as if Kai were in on the complaint.

Kai was about to say something, but Jun started the class and he didn’t want to be caught talking. Jun led them in a warm-up. She was delicate and graceful. Kai noticed that the disgruntled man kept staring at Jun’s body. That observation made Kai like him even less. After completing a series of stretches, she began the Tai Chi.

“We’ll start with the motion called Hands on the Table,” she said, putting her hands palm-down in the air in front of her. “And then we’ll Calm the Water.” She stepped out on her front foot, shifting her weight and pushing her hands, still palm-down, outward. Kai and the other students did the same. They went through the same motion on the other side. None of the moves were strenuous, and yet, doing them, Kai did feel a bit of a calm seep into the slow rhythm. Kai tried to keep his eye on Jun as they went through several more movements, including Moving the Water and Over the Drum. About fifteen minutes into the class, he saw that Po had abandoned his bucket and shovel and was mimicking every move his mother made, almost as if he wanted to do the class himself. The end result was an adorable, awkward preschooler’s version of Tai Chi. In his little Spider-Man shirt, he was pretty darn cute.

A snicker or two went up from the class. The three women in the class, in particular, smiled warmly at the boy. Jun glanced anxiously over at Po, but seeing that he was really doing no harm trying the moves, she let it go. The grumbling man next to Kai, however, didn’t like it.

“Can’t concentrate with that kid interrupting,” he groused. Kai was pretty sure what he meant was he couldn’t concentrate on her ass with the kid nearby. He was willing to guess that the idea of her as a mom didn’t factor into whatever perverted fantasy the jerk liked to concoct during class.

Kai shushed him, annoyed.

The man frowned in return but fell silent.

“We’ll now move on to Ball in the Mountain. Move those arms,” Jun said. “Feel it building your Chi. This is a great exercise for making a stronger mind.”

Po mimicked the same move, stretching his hands in a circular motion forward, but he overexaggerated it and toppled over, like a puppy with oversize paws. Po, fine, bounced back up grinning, ready to start again.

“Honestly, if you can’t control your kid...” the grumpy man said, very loudly this time as he shook his head in disapproval. He seemed to miss the fact that no one else in the class appeared to agree with him. A few shot him dirty looks. “I can’t focus on these moves with him bouncing around like an idiot. Someone needs to teach that kid to be still!”

Kai wanted to teach the man how to be still and quiet. Jun heard his remarks, and her face turned beet red. She sent a worried glance at Po, but honestly, the boy wasn’t doing any harm. The man was overreacting.

Jun transitioned the class into another pose, and this time Po decided to do his own headstand and rolled over in the sand.

Next to Kai, the irritated man bellowed, “If nobody is going to tell that kid to sit down, I’ll do it.”

Jun’s head popped up in alarm. She was already on the move to intercept the angry man from getting to Po, but Kai was there first. He put a hand on the man’s chest.

“Hey, the kid’s not hurting anybody,” Kai said, stopping the man’s progress cold. Jun, who’d hurried to Po’s side, stood still, a protective arm around her son.

“He’s a distraction,” the man growled, dark eyes flashing.

“You’re a distraction,” Kai corrected. “Why don’t you quiet down?”

Murmurs and agreeing nods swept the class.

They were the focus of attention now, and Kai could feel everyone’s gaze on them, even as some tried to continue the motions. Jun just stared, speechless.

The man, clearly not used to being called on his grumbling, glared at Kai. “I’m not going to be quiet. I’m going to get the goddamn class I paid for, a class without kids.”

A few gasps went up from the class at the language.

Jun rushed, too late, to cover Po’s little ears.

“Either quiet down or leave.” Kai wasn’t going to back down. He wasn’t the kind of man who went looking for a fight, but he’d been pushed into plenty of corners by surfers defending turf on various beaches all over the world. Bullies were the same, no matter their age or nationality: you either stood up to them, or you let them walk over you. And Kai had never backed down from a bully, not once in his life.

“I’m not going to have my afternoon ruined by some stupid fuckin’ kid!” he roared, pointing at the little boy, whose bottom lip quivered as his eyes filled with tears threatening to spill.

“Hey!” Jun’s voice was like steel, her eyes glinting fiercely. “You do not talk about my son that way.” Despite her small frame, she’d stalked right up to the angry man, fearless. She was an angry mama bear, protecting her cub. “And watch your language!”

Instantly, the man seemed cowed. There was something in her voice that said she wasn’t messing around. Kai admired her in that moment. What a little firecracker. Here he’d thought she’d needed rescuing, but he had a sneaking suspicion she could’ve handled this man all on her own.

“You have two choices, Mr. Hiram. You can stay in this class and behave. Or you can leave.”

“I—I...” Mr. Hiram sputtered, temporarily taken aback by Jun. “But that stupid kid!”

“You’ve made your choice. Time for you to go,” Jun said, and Kai tightened his grip on the man.

“You can’t kick me out. I paid for this class!” the man sputtered.

Kai dug his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a hundred-dollar bill. He tucked the money in the man’s shirt pocket.

“Consider it refunded.”

“But...” If he was hoping for a reprieve from Jun, he wouldn’t get one.

Jun just pointed her finger to the parking lot and gave Mr. Hiram a look that would melt a weaker man. “Let’s go.” Kai swept his hands forward.

Mr. Hiram looked as though he was going to dig in his heels.

“Stupid bitch,” he muttered under his breath.

“What did you say?” Jun was livid now. So was Kai. She stepped over, as if she planned to do something about it, but Kai wasn’t going to let that happen. He was filled with a protective kind of fury. “That’s it.” Kai grabbed the man’s arm and with one quick move twisted it up behind his back.

“Ow,” he cried. Kai steadily marched the man, arm still behind his back, up the beach and to the parking lot.

Once near the asphalt, Kai stopped. “You can go home either with or without a broken arm.” He twisted the man’s arm harder and Hiram squealed. “Which one is it going to be?”

“Without,” he ground out.

Kai released him with a shove, and the man stumbled into the parking lot, holding his arm. Eyes full of fear, he glanced back at Kai. He scampered to his car, a rental, and got in. Kai watched while he backed up and drove away.

The class broke out in spontaneous applause as Kai made his way back to them. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who felt that the man needed to be shown out. Jun, her arm around a now-grinning Po, nodded once at him. Kai just shrugged—no big deal. And anyway, she’d had it covered even without his help. He had to admire her grit, especially for a woman so...seemingly delicate. But, he realized, there wasn’t anything delicate about her.

“Thank you,” she whispered to him as she squeezed his arm.

“It’s nothing,” he said. Po threw his tiny arms around Kai’s legs, his silent hug saying more than Jun ever could.

“Come on, now, sweetie,” she said, pulling Po back. “Time we finish the class.” Po went back to his bucket and shovel, happily digging in the sand, and Jun moved to the front of the class.

“Well, I’m sorry for that, everyone,” she said, addressing the others. “I guess Mr. Hiram kind of missed the point of using Tai Chi to calm his Chi.”

A murmur of laughter rippled through the class.

“Okay, let’s start again with Moving the Water,” Jun said as she swept her arms forward as if pushing air.

* * *

FORTY MINUTES LATER, after a cooldown session, as the class dispersed, gathering their towels and bags and heading back to their cars, Jun saw that Kai had stuck around. He was kneeling next to Po, helping him add another turret to his sand castle. They had their heads together. Kai talked softly to the boy, the conversation not carrying over the wind. For a second, she just stood by, watching them. Kai showed him the trick to getting the wet sand out of the bucket without crumbling the top: three hard taps to the flat side of the bucket before gently lifting. Po listened and watched carefully and then repeated everything he’d just learned. Jun marveled at her son’s attention. He rarely sat still long enough to learn tips from her, and yet here he was, soaking up Kai’s every word.

Maybe Po could use another adult in his life, someone else to help him learn about the world. Someone other than his mother or aunt. Yet as soon as the thought entered her mind, defensively, she pushed it out.

No, they were just fine on their own. Her and Po against the world. Always had been. Always would be.

Kai wasn’t someone you could depend on, she reasoned. Jun remembered the two tourists at his house and the empty beer bottles on his floor. He might have done us a favor today, but he’s not the fathering type.

“Hey, Po, time to pack up, buddy,” she said, interrupting the scene.

“Aw, Mom.” Po looked up, disappointed. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, young man. You know the rule.” She prayed he wouldn’t test her on it. Not today. Not in front of Kai.

“When you say it’s time to go, it’s time to go.” Po hung his head in defeat and shuffled his feet in the sand.

“Sandals on. Go on.” Po reluctantly went to fetch his sandals, which he’d flung off earlier near a palm tree.

“He’s a good kid,” Kai said as the two watched him sit in the sand and put his shoes on.

“Yeah, he is.” Jun knew that in her heart to be true. The biting just wasn’t him at all. He really was a sweet kid, and he minded her so well, most of the time. “Listen, thanks for what you did. With Mr. Hiram. I don’t know what made him go off like that...”

“Who knows? But it wasn’t anything. Bullies are the same wherever they are.” Kai smiled, and the air between them got suddenly heavy. Jun was aware of how close Kai was standing, his dark hair ruffled by the sea breeze, his deep eyes like a warm, familiar place that she’d visited before.

He flashed a dazzling smile and Jun felt her heart shift just a little bit. She liked it when he smiled. She liked it a little too much.

Kai cleared his throat. “Your class was...really good.” He sounded surprised, but Jun tried not to take that personally. A lot of people had misconceptions about Tai Chi, and few realized how relaxing it could be when you really put yourself into it. It could have the same centering effects of yoga, she thought, but without all the contortion.

“Listen, this may sound crazy, but I recently lost my personal trainer. I looked you up. You’ve got all kinds of classes at Island Fit. I know you know your way around weights and training, because I called the gym and checked up on you. How much would it take for you to come work for me...full-time?”