When she threw me a half smile over her shoulder, I took it as an invitation and didn’t waste a second. I stood behind her, placing my hands on the balcony to the outside of hers and leaned down, pressing my lips to her neck. “How does it feel?”
I felt her sigh like a heavy load had been lifted from her heart. “It’s like I can feel him out here.” I glanced up to see her watery eyes locked on the horizon. “Like he’s still sailing the Pacific.”
I kissed her sunlit shoulder while removing a hand from the rail and wrapping it around her middle. “Maybe he’s been here the whole time. You said he considered it home.”
She nodded with a wistful smile. “It was his universe. He had this whole philosophy about sailing, saying that humans spend so much time fighting against the very nature of things that we lose sight of them altogether. Sailing was his way to stay close to what truly mattered. He didn’t believe in the value of expensive homes or cars or jewelry. Those were all things that any human could survive without, while true value could be found in the elements: earth, air, fire, water.”
“What about you? Do you believe that too?”
She shrugged. “I believe in simplicity, for sure. But I’ve been away from the water for so long, I’d kind of lost sight of why he loved it out here so much.”
I swallowed. I couldn’t believe how my heart was batting away at my insides. Suddenly, I was hyper aware of Kai’s presence. The way her dress picked up wind at the bottom. The way her hair scented the air in a way that had me craving watermelon. The way her grip on the rail hadn’t loosened at all, yet with each passing second, she leaned into me more and more.
She continued to stare out at the ocean as she told me about her home life on the water. About the harbor in Hawaii that she and her father would spend their nights at while she was in school. About how, in the summer, they’d take off for a different adventure, their last one being to Los Angeles to stay for a week while her father picked up some parts for the boat. Then finally about the rocky night at sea that resulted in her father going above deck to check on things.
“And he just disappeared?”
She nodded while wiping a tear from her eye. “Vanished. Well, until his body was found two weeks later.” She wiped another tear and took a shaky breath. “But I already knew he was gone. I could feel it, you know?” She shook her head. “I don’t know if I can explain it—there was just this hollowness that formed inside me when I realized he was gone. I still feel it.”
“I’m sorry,” I said because I really had no other words.
I hated her story as much as I admired her for it. I’d known since the day I met her that she was a force. But to know her story was to truly understand where she’d come from. I would have loved to meet eight-year-old Kai, the girl brave enough to put in a distress call while she anchored a boat alone.
“Remember when we were at the Shakespeare Bridge and you asked me if I believed in the supernatural?”
I nodded, remembering more about that night than I wanted to admit. The fact that she called me when she’d gotten locked out of her apartment. The way she didn’t resist when I stopped at the bridge. Her fearlessness as she swung her legs over the ledge. And the flirtation she’d returned so effortlessly. She was meant for the role of Grace, but beyond that, she was meant to be on this ship with me.
“I guess I always wanted to believe. With each year that goes by, I can’t help but feel like he’s slipping away from me, you know? There are only so many pictures of him, and I was so young… My memories seem so fragile.” She looked up, her eyes wide and glistening with unshed tears. “Anyway,” she said, her shoulders sagging. “I thought… I thought if I believed, that maybe my dad would appear somehow.”
I swallowed, aching for Kai’s loss. “That’s why you visit the bridge.”
She shrugged. “It’s silly. I know.”
“It’s not.” I leaned in, brushing my lips against her cheek.
When her eyes locked on me again, she smiled. “You’re starting to lose your grip on that persona you’ve got going for you. You wouldn’t want word to get out that the Bad Boy of Broadway has gone soft.”
I cocked an eyebrow and shook my head. “Maybe on the inside, but you can keep a secret, can’t you?”
She shrugged. “Depends.”
I narrowed my eyes. “On?”
She turned around and slid her palms up my chest. “I think you were about to kiss me.”
Chapter 29
Kai
His head moved in slowly, taking his time to reach me while his eyes steadied on my mouth. My heart leapt into my throat, as though I was about to experience his kiss for the first time. And then his pillowy lips met mine in a firm and all-consuming handshake. He kissed me like he was a gambler unafraid to go all in, moving slowly at first, as if not wanting to give away his confidence before blinding me with it.
Unlike the first time, I wasn’t paralyzed with fear. In fact, I was hyper aware of the way his lips felt against mine—soft, firm, growing in demand and need. I was aware of the way they tasted—warm, wet, with a hint of cucumber like he’d just guzzled the ship’s filtered water. I was aware of his crisp alpine and leather scent, which wrapped me up and held me closer although getting any closer physically was impossible.
I moved my hands from my grip on his jacket and slid them under the material, only one thin piece of fabric away from his skin. He had a solid body, a lean frame, but what I loved most was how responsive he was to every movement I made.
He bent into me, his palm sliding lower until he stopped himself right above the curve of my ass. He groaned like the willpower was killing him, and I felt the sound reverberate in my chest.
“Damn,” he whispered against my lips. “You might just be my type after all.”
I chuckled and turned back around. I felt a rush of adrenaline instead of fear as I looked back at the horizon. We must have been talking and kissing for hours, for the sun was already starting to set, and the boats were returning to the dock.
He locked his arm around me and leaned in so his cheek was pressed to mine. “I’m glad you’re not mad at me anymore.”
I pinched my smile so it wouldn’t explode on my face. “I’m still kind of mad at you. You still got rehearsals canceled today, and we only have two weeks left.”
He sighed and pressed his lips to my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I promise it won’t happen again.”
I glared at him over my shoulder, but I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “An apology and a promise?”
“I know. Miracles do exist, I guess.”
I chuckled just as he pressed his mouth to mine again. I grazed his lips with my next whisper. “Yeah, I guess they do.”
He grinned before turning his gaze back to the water and lifting his head in a nod. “Wow, check that out.”
My heart was already beating fast from our kiss, but when I looked back out at the water, I gasped.
The sun was resting on the horizon, its yellow-orange ball flaming out in the ocean’s reflection. Then I saw it. My throat tightened as I watched a small white sailboat move across the calm water, creeping toward the sun. I held my breath as its full silhouette appeared at the crossing of the sun and the horizon.