Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ashton
We finally landed in Hilo. It had been a massive undertaking to get here–Nashville to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Honolulu, Honolulu to Hilo. Now to rent a car. It was mid-morning in Hawai’i.
“Are you sure that this is a good idea?” I asked as we walked to the rental car, anxious. “I don’t even know what Kai’s doing right now. What if we embarrass them? What if we came out here and they don’t have the same feelings?” The idea made me want to throw up.
I was second guessing myself.
“Stop. It’ll be fine.” Steven was on his phone.
“Kai’s off to class, which means we have time to stop and buy some flowers.” He looked over at me.
I stared at him. “We’re buying Kai flowers? Why?”
“Well, yeah. We can’t show up empty-handed. Can we?” Steven paused. “I’m not actually sure what the protocol is on this.”
“Me neither.” I looked over at him. “Where do we go?”
“We’re actually not that far from the college, so we’ll just go to a grocery store and get some flowers? Or maybe a flower shop?” He looked at his phone. “Okay, I found a flower shop. Let’s head there first. Then we’ll get something to eat while we wait for Kai to get out of class.”
“Should we get a hotel?” While I couldn’t wait to see Kai, what were we even doing?
“I already booked one. I figured we’d stay the weekend. Kai doesn’t have classes on Friday, just research,” he explained.
Getting our car, we left the airport following the navigation.
“Did your parents ever text?” I hoped that they got their heads out of their asses long enough to realize what their son had accomplished. I never did understand why they pretty much ignored him once he got signed.
Sure, the Scorpions weren’t the top team they imagined him being on. He wasn’t a hockey superstar. But he was a professional hockey player, which was a huge accomplishment.
“Them? No. They haven’t posted in a couple of days either. I think they’re someplace without a reception. I absolutely vote for putting fish in their electrical outlets,” he replied.
I chuckled. “Me, too.”
Yeah, we could absolutely stop and play a prank on his parents’ house on the way to Washington. He had keys and the passwords to the cameras, since he’s the one who set it up for them.
“I’ve heard from a bunch of other people, though. Including my grandma, friends, and other relatives,” he added.
“Me, too.” I nodded.
There was also a text from Rhett asking if we were there. I replied with a photo.
We went to the flower shop and got a big bouquet of purple gerbera daisies. Then we set off for Kai’s college. Parking in the visitor parking lot, we grabbed the flowers, then went to find the building their class was in.
A chicken strolled about, as if there was absolutely nothing strange about a chicken walking across a college campus.
“Wow, Kai wasn’t kidding about the chickens,” Steven muttered as we saw more.
No, they weren’t.
We found the building and sat outside. I wasn’t even sure what class Kai had this morning.
Steven was texting and he frowned. “Kai’s not feeling good.”
My heart dropped at the thought of Kai being ill. “Well, we’re here. We’ll take care of them.”
I was guessing that whatever Steven had booked us probably didn’t have a kitchen, but I’m sure there was someplace that we could order some soup from. We’d get some cold medicine, too, and we’d take care of Kai at the hotel.
Kai might want to be home in their bed. Considering they were living at their auntie’s, it might be a little awkward. But we’d figure it out.
Steven stood. “Kai’s really not feeling good. She’s leaving class early.”
“Oh no. Let’s get them.” I stood as we watched the doors of the building.
A moment later, Kai came out, shoulders hunched, wearing Steven’s hoodie, the little penguin dangling from their backpack.
“What’s wrong, Starshine?” I came over, holding the flowers.
“Ash!” Kai’s voice broke as they threw themself into my arms.
I wrapped my arms around them. “I’ve got you. We’re right here.”
That reaction made me feel better–they were happy to see me.
“We brought you flowers,” Steven said, wrapping his arms around the both of us.
There was something really off about their scent. I wasn’t sure if it was sickness, but something wasn’t right.
“Thank you. What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be recovering from the biggest hangover of your life?” Kai asked, voice muffled from being between the two of us.
“We thought we’d wait and have that hangover here–something about whiskey pong?” Steven laughed.
“But really, what are you doing here?” Kai looked up at me, hazel eyes wide.
My heart dropped. What if Kai didn’t want us?
“Just tell her,” Steven urged.
“Tell me what?” Kai asked.
“Last night we won the playoffs. Everyone’s families and partners were coming onto the ice–and all we could think about was being with you,” I confessed.
“So, we came to you. I love you, Kai. Steven loves you, too. We know you’re just recovering from a breakup.
We know you have your PhD program ahead of you.
We’re willing to do whatever we can to make this work.
If you are, too, I think we could do this.
” My heart lodged in my throat. Did Kai feel the same?
“You love me?” Kai’s voice wavered.
“I love you, Kai,” I reassured. “I love you so much. I know you’ve only been gone for a couple of days, but there’s a big Kai-shaped hole in our hearts. We know that your career is important and our careers are important, too. But you and Steven are most important to me,” I confessed.
“I love you, too. I also think you and Ash might be scent matches,” Steven added.
Kai looked at the two of us and blinked, clutching the flowers. “Scent matches?”
“It’s just a theory, but the connection between you two is something,” Steven said.
“What I feel for both of you is something,” Kai admitted. “It’s fast and a little scary, but I think I love the both of you, too. No, I know that I love the both of you, too. I just wasn’t sure if you felt the same way about me, or if I was just a spring break hookup–”
Before Kai could finish, I pressed my lips to theirs and kissed them.
“You're not a spring break hook up. You’re not the wrong omega. You’re ours if you want to be.” I smoothed their hair.
“The last thing we’d ever do is ask you to give up everything you’ve worked for, but we’re willing to do everything we can to make it work, and that includes spending our off-season wherever it is you need us,” Steven said.
“We don’t need an answer now. All we really needed to know is that you love us,” I said, feeling so much better at the fact that they did.
“I know you probably need time to get over your ex and graduation is important. So as long as you want us to wait for you, we will,” Steven added.
“We’ll come out and visit you as much as you want and you can come visit us, we’ll just have a really great summer together, and we can make big choices when you’re ready. ”
“What if I want to make a big choice now?” Kai peered up at us. “I don’t know if I want to wait.”
“You have us,” I told them. “We’re here.
In fact, Steven’s got a hotel for us for the whole weekend, so we’re all yours.
We’ll have to go back to Nashville and have some meetings, wrap up the season.
But we can come back when we finish and rent a little place and stay here with you until graduation, if you’d like that.
Then the two of us can go back to Washington and you can join us when you’re done with your trip with your brother.
Or whatever you’d like. Whatever you need, Kai.
It’s not like we can’t afford to fly you–or us–wherever,” I added, wanting, no, needing to make this work.
People were watching us curiously, but I didn’t care.
“Yeah, we can even look into getting something and then you’d have a place to stay during the school year and then we can come visit you whenever we can.
I can’t make promises that would be very often, but it wouldn’t be weird, like if we wanted to stay overnight at your room at Auntie’s or the dorms. There are probably visitor rules,” Steven said.
Kai seemed a little overwhelmed and I stroked their hair. They were a little warm. “One step at a time. We have options and we have time.”
“I like that. I want to make this work.” Kai’s voice broke. “I missed you so much and I wasn’t sure if I should miss you this much, but I do.” Their eyes teared.
“You’ve got us. We’ll spend the whole weekend with you and then we can start figuring things out if that’s what you want,” I reassured.
“I can’t believe you just showed up–like you won the finals and then you flew to Hawai’i? I’m happy you’re here, but what? The flowers are so pretty, thank you.” Kai gave us a cute little look.
“We're here because we love you and we want to share this huge moment with you,” I said.
“Exactly. We love you and want you to know it. We’ll take care of you. It might be a little early to check into the hotel, but we’ll see what we can do. You’re really warm. Do you think you’ve got a cold? Maybe you ate something bad?” Steven asked.
“I think I have a fever and I hurt.” Kai looked up at us. “This is going to sound really silly, but I feel so much better simply being here with you.”
“No, it’s not silly,” I replied. “I feel so much better being here with you, too.”
Maybe we were scent matches after all.
I held her close, breathing in her lemony scent, trying to see if I could determine what wasn’t right about it.
Kai made a needy little whimper.
“Yes, let’s go see if we can check into the hotel and we’ll get you some medicine, maybe some soup. We’ll pile all the blankets on you, cuddle you, and watch TV,” Steven suggested.
I took another sniff. It was very sweet. They whimpered again.
“Let’s get in the rental car,” I said softly, the urge to get Kai someplace safe growing inside of me.
Yeah, hopefully the hotel would have a room for us. I didn’t think Kai had a cold. No, I was pretty sure Kai was going into heat.