15. Kai

FIFTEEN

My family is my strength and my weakness.

~ Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

"Hey, big brother!" Kala's face fills my phone when I click the green button with the video camera icon on it.

"Hi. I'm at work."

I turn the screen to scan the watersports shack as if my sister doesn't know what my work looks like. My mistake becomes evident before I even finish panning the phone.

"Heeeeyyyyyy! Hi, Kapule Fam!" Ben's face smooshes toward the screen, he's literally five inches from my cell—okay, maybe eight—beaming at my family like a clown on laughing gas—which sounds incredibly creepy, and also describes Ben to a T right now.

My family waves at Ben. Their warm smiles fill my phone screen when I turn my cell so my face is now the one in the little picture-in-picture.

"How's Kai really doing?" Kala shouts as if Ben isn't so far into my personal space he could be my Siamese twin.

I shudder at the thought of me and Ben attached at the hip.

"You'd have thought he was a lost puppy when you first left," Ben chuckles, his voice booming next to my ear. "But I made him go out dancing … That was before …"

I shoot Ben a look. He makes his classic zipping motion, thankfully off camera so my family doesn't see him.

Kala asks, "Before what?"

Ben looks at me, wide-eyed. Then he answers Kala. "Before he adjusted and …" Ben looks around the shack. "... started bringing Shaka to work. Yeah. Shaka. He's bringing your dog to work."

I stifle a groan at Ben's attempt to cover how he nearly leaked everything to my entire family.

"What?!" Kala has the sweetest smile on her face. "Are you serious?"

Bodhi's next to her grinning with an I-told-you-so smile on his face.

"Kai, you're bringing Shaka to work," Kala nearly coos.

"I have to."

"You have to, huh?" Bodhi goads.

"The dog is relentless. I'm not leaving him home to destroy my place. I have no choice."

Ben rolls his eyes in sync with Bodhi.

"You softie!" Kala beams. "I knew you loved my dog. It was only a matter of time before you admitted it."

"Yeah. Yeah. So, tell me what's new with you two." I greet my parents. "Aloha, Makuahine and Makuakāne."

My mom and dad say hi and fill me in on things going on in their life in Hawaii. Kala and Bodhi remind me it's their last day on Oahu. Tomorrow they leave for Portugal. They bring me up to speed about their surfing, which is unnecessary because I've been watching their YouTube channel for updates religiously every night before I fall asleep. I don't confess that little detail to them, especially not in front of Ben.

"Only one more week, big brother. Then we'll be home."

My mom clucks her tongue slightly at my sister's use of the word home. Of course Oahu is home. I'm just glad Kalaine feels like my place is another home for her.

"I'm so happy for you," I tell Bodhi and Kala. "And proud."

"Oh!" Ben says, butting in as if he belongs in a conversation between me and my ohana. "Kai taught Noah to surf."

"Noah, Mila's Noah?" Kala asks.

I nod. And I can't help but smile at the memory of that morning—all the memories, including the walk Mila and I had to the shack after Noah ran ahead of us, and the way it felt to hold her when she hugged me.

"Yeah. You should have seen Noah," Ben goes on. "He was nearly coming unglued with excitement …"

I let Ben ramble as if he were the one in the water teaching Noah. It is exciting whenever someone local learns to surf. It's more special than teaching a guest at the resort because we'll have the privilege of watching an islander continue to mature as a surfer over time. And the people here matter.

While Ben raves about the video Noah showed him and Jamison, I run through options as to what to tell my family about Mila—or not tell them. If I keep our supposed dating life a secret, no one will go absurdly crazy over me finally dating. But Kala and Bodhi are bound to hear rumors when they come back. I don't want to be in the position Mila was with Chloe. It's better if I'm the one to leak everything. At least I can maintain some control over the narrative that way.

Ben's still rambling, while my family stares on patiently, warm smiles on all four of their faces. They don't have to work with this ball of charismatic energy day in and day out. Well, Bodhi does. But he's always been more chill than I am. He finds Ben amusing. Which he is, but in small doses. Besides, Bodhi gets a reprieve from life here whenever he and Kala leave for another surf trip.

"So," I cut in.

Ben looks at me with a half-smile on his face. "Bro, I wasn't finished."

"Okay."

"No. No. Go ahead. It's your fam. You talk."

Suddenly, I wonder if I'm thinking clearly. Should I tell them? My throat feels tight and my mouth a little dry.

"Well, it's nothing really. I just wanted to say I'm dating someone. Casually. Not that it's a big deal. I'm a grown man. I can date. I just … wanted you to know."

Bodhi wags his eyebrows and smiles at me. Kala starts jumping around and squealing, and my parents exchange a look with smiles that are so sweet I have to look away. I got their hopes up. It feels wrong to lead them on.

I remind myself why I'm carrying off this farce in the first place. Mila needs me. I can patch up the damage after we "break up," whenever that is. I'll just say it didn't work out, and we'll all move on.

"Who is it?" Kala asks, her giddiness bubbling straight through the phone and into my heart like an arrow.

Bodhi looks down at her. "Pretty obvious, isn't it?"

"Mila?" she asks him.

"That's my guess. I'd put money on it."

"Yeah, bro!" Ben shouts from right next to me. "You nailed it. It's so perfect, right? I saw it coming too."

"And you two went dancing?" Kala asks, clasping her hands together, her eyes crinkling at the edges with her big smile.

"Nah. I messed that up," Ben answers for me. "I asked him out not knowing he was into Mila. Well, I thought he was, but he denied it. Then he left early, ditching Gemma. After I heard about him and Mila, it all made sense."

I shake my head. What a mess.

"I love the idea of the two of you together." Kala smiles this particular smile of hers at me. It's familiar and warm, and it makes me want to book a flight to Hawaii, just to spend one hour in the middle of my ohana—the four most important people in my life.

Kala turns to my mom and says something I can't quite decipher. Then my mom looks into the camera and says, "She's a lucky woman, Kai. You are a strong man. A fierce protector and provider. A man of integrity. I hope she is worthy of you."

Man of integrity. Well, in some ways, what I'm doing is because of who I am. I can't let Mila face her ex alone. Integrity might be a stretch here, considering I just lied to my closest friend, my parents and my baby sister. And I allowed Ben to carry on in the charade, even though he has no idea he's complicit.

Why can't this be more simple? If only Mila and I could just act like we're dating when Brad is around. It seemed like a cut-and-dry solution when I opened my big mouth a few days ago. Now, I'm not so sure.

Add to that the way I'm more aware of her all the time ever since we started this pretend relationship, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a long vacation somewhere isolated and unreachable when we finally come clean—like the South Pole, or deep in the Amazon jungle where some cannibal tribe can put me out of my misery. They can place my dehydrated head on a pole as an example to all men who think they're being chivalrous and kind when they're actually lying to an entire community. Not that men in the deep Amazon fake date. I'm relatively sure they don't.

I snap myself out of thoughts of half-naked men chasing me through a jungle with poisoned spears just in time to hear my family saying their goodbyes.

"Love you!" Kala shouts last.

"Love you too. All of you. Aloha."

I click the camera icon on my phone screen and set my cell on the counter.

"Well. Well. Well. Telling the fam. That's big, bro."

"Not big. I just wanted Kalaine and Bodhi to hear it from me. It's still new."

Ben grins like the Cheshire Cat.

"Back to work. Stevens is coming in to do that tour. You need to … do whatever you do to get ready to go out with him."

"Exactly nothing. I do nothing to get ready. I just ride along and he does all the talking. I'm the muscle, he's the brains."

Oh, the things I could say right now.

Ben rests his arms on the counter and stares at me. I turn away from him and walk to my cubby of an office. And then I shut the door.

In one week, my sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law will be home and I'll have to pull off a burgeoning relationship with Mila in front of them. What have I done?