Chapter 2
SADIE
Ishould’ve refused when Emery asked me to help her serve the food at the wedding tonight. But I’m a people pleaser and find it difficult to say no, which is why I’m in this predicament now.
Kai Spade is striding towards me with a look on his face I dare not decipher.
I’ve seen that look before, the night he kissed me on my seventeenth birthday, the night I said no to more.
And regretted it ever since.
If I’m bad at saying no, I’m good at avoidance. For the three months he returns to Ceto Island every year, I hide, and he never seeks me out. It’s like that night ten years ago never happened, or we’ve entered an unspoken pact to forget.
With him working behind the bar tonight, I thought I’d be safe.
I thought wrong.
“Don’t look now, but my bozo brother is making a beeline for us,” Walker says. “Do you mind if I make a break for it, Sadie? He’ll probably coerce me into serving champagne to the guests, and I’ve got a bridesmaid waiting.”
Of course he has. The Spade brothers have charm in spades, pardon the pun.
“No worries,” I say, the words barely out of my mouth before Walker is striding away, leaving me to deal with the gorgeous guy who still has the power to make my pulse pound.
I’ve had a crush on Kai for as long as I can remember.
We grew up together, considering my dad Bob has been the resort’s handyman since I was born.
We played hide and seek as kids, paddled in rock pools, fished and swam.
In our teens, Kai teased me about my penchant for romantasy novels, and delighted in dunking me underwater at the end of a long day being homeschooled.
When his father and grandfather died in a boating tragedy, he changed, his plans to stay on the island gone.
The cyclone that claimed their lives happened the week before my seventeenth birthday, and I knew my life would never be the same, because the boy I’d secretly loved for years intended to leave and I couldn’t.
One woman had already abandoned my dad.
Kai reaches me, and I take a quick breath, willing my erratic heart to subside.
“Have you had enough of vows and speeches and revolting love crap yet?” He points to the beach behind me. “Want to escape?”
It’s almost midnight, and taking a walk with Kai on a moonlit beach away from the crowd is a bad idea.
“Sure,” I say with a shrug, as if I’m unaware I’m playing with fire.
I know what’s likely to happen. I’m lonely, and Kai’s Kai. He’ll kiss me, I’ll let him. Then he’ll leave, and I’ll be left pining again for a guy I can’t have.
I’m pathetic.
But after seeing him intermittently over the last decade, and avoiding him more often than not, I’m done.
I’m twenty-seven, haven’t had sex in three years let alone kissed a guy, and I’m floundering.
Dad is retiring, so maybe my life will change too, and not knowing what the future holds is making me rash for the first time in my sheltered life.
If Kai Spade wants to kiss me at midnight, it’s game on.