It's All Relative

by S. C. Stephens

  Millie glanced between the two of them. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m a grown woman. I don’t need the two of you fretting over me, like I’m some invalid. I slipped. Happens every day. Probably happens to the two of you on occasion.” She watched them both grin and roll their eyes, locking gazes with each other before twisting back to look at her. With a slight twist of her thin lips, she added, “I don’t mind you both coming to visit me, but I can take care of myself.”

  Kai smiled and shook his head, then leaned forward and kissed her head. “Alright, Gran.”

  Jessica sighed as she watched him, then patted Millie’s arm. “Okay, Grams.” Shrugging her shoulders, she asked, “What can we do for you then?”

  Millie watched the two cast secret glances at the other, when the other wasn’t looking. Not liking the odd feeling she could sense between them, she decided to use their mutual guilt over her accident to her advantage. Hiding her inner smile, she quite seriously said, “Jessica Marie, my dear, why don’t you and Kai go through my place and get rid of that old furniture for me. I was thinking about having the church come take it, but as Kai probably needs some stuff, maybe he could take it for me?”

  Kai immediately started shaking his head. “Oh, Gran, no, you don’t have to-”

  She cut him off. “Nonsense. You must need something. Do you even have a bed yet?”

  Kai’s tan face lost a little color as his eyes locked onto Jessica’s. Millie noticed that odd tension again, but had no idea why they seemed to have it. She hoped that forcing them to spend a little time together would ease the feeling between them. Right now, all Kai had here in Denver was her and Jessica Marie, and he didn’t know it yet, but if Nathan’s plans for Kai came to pass, he was going to need the support of his family. And regardless of what their blood said, Kai was family and she would never treat him any differently.

  As the two of them had gone deathly quiet, Millie took the silence as an admission that he did need help. Turning her attention to Jessica, she matter-of-factly said, “Clean out the spare bedroom. I have no need for anything in there right now.”

  Jessica, looking even paler than Kai, nodded. “Okay, Grandma.”

  Kai looked down and then over at Jessica on the chair. Giving her an odd smile, he shrugged and laughed. “I guess I could use your help after all.”

  Chapter 4

  So Wrong, Yet So Right

  Kai followed behind Jessie on his bike. Back at the hospital, she’d looked over at his motorcycle parked a few spaces from her vehicle and had shaken her head at him, like she’d been wondering how he was going to get anything moved on that thing. He’d shrugged lamely and given her a half-smile, explaining that he really hadn’t imagined himself moving furniture anytime soon.

  She’d laughed and asked if he’d been planning to live out of boxes permanently. He’d nearly sighed at hearing her laugh; it was a beautiful one. She was leading them back to his place, so they could drop off his bike and ride together in her truck. Luckily for him she drove one. It made it pretty convenient for them to haul some furniture back to his place today. He felt a little guilty for taking Gran’s stuff, but he knew her well enough to know that if he didn’t take it, she’d show up on his doorstep with some burly men she’d hired to haul it for her. At least this way, he was saving her the expense of hiring movers.

  Pulling into the garage, Kai shut his bike off and hooked his helmet over the handlebars. He supposed it wasn’t the best idea to leave the helmet with the bike, but he hated lugging it back and forth. It was just a plain, black, visored helmet anyway, and he could always buy another one if someone swiped it. Jessie pulled up next to him in her little Ford Ranger. He would have expected her to go for a girly color, turquoise or purple or something, but it wasn’t. It was a solid black.

  She was biting her lip as she watched him swing his leg over the seat. Kai wondered what she was thinking about. If she still felt ill about the whole thing. He sort of did. He was trying to let that nauseous feeling go, it wasn’t their fault. But when he thought about the intimate moment they’d shared, it did gross him out a little. It also turned him on a little. It had been the most amazing sex he’d ever had. A small part of him wanted to have it again. But that couldn’t happen. Not anymore.

  With a quick sigh, he walked around to the passenger’s side and got in. She drove away and he rubbed his hands together, warming them on the heater she had going. Cocking an eyebrow as she watched him, she asked, “Is it cold here to you?”

  He grinned as he looked back at her. “Well, I’m wearing two shirts under this jacket and wool socks.” He grinned wider and laughed a little. “I even considered doubling up the underwear.”

  Jessie flushed when he said that and he bit his lip, thinking that maybe he shouldn’t say anything that could be perceived as suggestive. That may hamper their conversations quite a bit, since almost anything can be made suggestive. Like his clueless Grandma asking if he had a bed yet.

  Looking back at him, Jessie’s dark eyes flashed to his ankles. They were still wet from the water on the road splashing up onto them as he’d driven around town. “So…you buy a bike?” she asked, a tight smile on her lips.

  He laughed and shook his head lightly, liking her sober, playful personality as much as her drunken aggressiveness. “I know, kind of dumb, but, I heard it only rains 300 days out of the year here, so I thought my odds were pretty good. So far, it’s dumped on me every day.” Kai laughed and looked out the windshield. “But really, that doesn’t matter. I’m just a bike guy.” Shrugging and laughing at his own comment, he wondered what he’d do when the roads got slick. He’d never driven on snow before, since snow wasn’t really an issue in Hawaii. He’d have to invest in some studded tires…and a snowsuit.

  Jessie laughed and shook her head, her eyes drifting back to the town flying by them. “Well, at least you look hot on it.” She immediately stopped laughing and looked over at him. He looked into his lap, shaking his head a little. Looks like they’d both have to work on not saying suggestive things.

  “Um…thanks.” He smiled and then sighed. They made the rest of the drive in silence.

  Pulling up to Gran’s house, Jessie backed into her drive. Getting out of the truck, Kai noticed the nosey, but neighborly, old lady next door take a peek through her window. He thought that there probably wasn’t a whole lot that the woman didn’t notice.

  Following Jessie into the house, Kai smiled as he took in his grandmother’s home. It was warm and welcoming, painted in a cheery yellow with pictures and mementoes of family taking up almost every available space on the wall. Kai noticed a couple pictures of himself, when he was much younger and Gran had visited. He remembered a lot of those pictures, remembered the bright woman behind the lens, snapping away at everything, like she could store her memories away in each click. Seeing the green foliage of home in the background of those photos, he thought maybe his grandma was on to something.

  As Jessie turned to walk down a short hallway, obviously knowing this house very well, he noticed more pictures of her in the home. She’d been around Gran a lot more, having lived here her whole life with her, and that was evident in the sheer volume of photographs. Kai saw bits of Jessie’s entire life splashed along bookcases, mantels, and end tables. Proms, birthdays, skiing trips, what looked like a stay in a hospital – it was all around the room for him to see.

  Closing his eyes to block out the sudden rush of sadness, he twisted to follow Jessie down the hall. When he came to the room where he could hear her shifting things around, he walked through the open door. A stale odor hit Kai’s nose as he stepped in. Gran was right, she rarely used this room. Jessie had grabbed a box from somewhere and was placing even more photos inside of it.

  She glanced up at him and pointed across the hall. “There are some boxes in Gram’s room. Let’s pack up her stuff so we can move the furniture.”

  Kai nodded, looking around at all the mementoes, knickknacks, and tchotchkes around the room.
It was sort of a shrine to collectibles, each with their own small doily. Smiling, he headed to Gran’s room to get a box. Finding one in the corner, he smiled at the handmade quilt on her perfectly made bed, and then rejoined Jessie. She was carefully placing several horse figurines into the box, on top of a couple of large photos in there. Noticing that one of the photos was of his dad, Kai knelt down beside Jessie and shook his head. “This is so weird. You’re placing ponies on top of my dad’s head. That is something I would not have pictured happening yesterday.”

  Jessie paused in her packing and glanced up at him. He couldn’t quite read the emotion in her face and he wondered if maybe he should stop referencing their night together. Maybe if he could stop thinking about it, she would too. Finally, she glanced down at the box she was packing. “Uncle Nate is your dad.” She was saying it like she was finally connecting the dots.

  He tilted his head at her. As far as he knew, they were the only family members in Hawaii. She looked up at him, immediately flushed, and looked back down. “Yeah, Nate is my dad. I thought you’d already made that connection.”

  She sighed and resumed her packing. “I had. But…seeing him, hearing you talk about him, it just makes it seem…realer.” She glanced up at him as he started packing objects into his box. “I used to beg my dad to go visit his brother Nathan.”

  Kai watched her face twist into sort of disgust, and sighed again. “Right…yeah…realer.” Yes, it was all getting horrifyingly real.

  Jessie cleared her throat as they worked in the surprisingly packed tiny room. “So, what part of Hawaii are you from?” She glanced over at him. “I don’t remember.”

  He frowned slightly as he placed a photo of a blonde relative that he didn’t know into the box. One of the downsides of being so far away, he hadn’t met very many members of his family. He’d never imagined that that would be a problem, until last night. Not letting his again reoccurring sadness come into his voice, he told her the name of his home town.

  “Kukuihaele.” He bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from smiling as she processed the odd sounding name. Well, odd for someone who wasn’t used to Hawaiian names. There were several odder sounding ones.

  She scrunched her brow as she stared at him, her dark eyes looking curious and confused. It was pretty adorable on her and his smile broke free. “Kuk… u…huh?”

  A laugh escaped with his smile and he shook his head, stuffing an antique looking doll into the box. “It’s on the big island. It’s pretty remote, not quite as touristy as some places in Hawaii.” He glanced over at her to see her nodding and resuming packing. Feeling a need to let her know more about him, he softly continued. “My mom’s home is near the beach. I used to play in the surf all day and fall asleep every night to the sounds of waves crashing. My dad’s place is further inland, and when I stayed with him, we used to go horseback riding every night. We’d stay out until we could barely make out the trails, but the horses knew them so well, I was never afraid.”

  Smiling at his memory, he glanced over at Jessie. She was sitting back on her heels, watching him with a soft smile on her lips. He had the overwhelming urge to lean over and feel those soft lips again. Remembering them wrapped around him, the smile instantly fell off his face. He needed to let last night go. It was wrong to think about it.

  Clearing his throat, he started to harshly shove objects in the box. He heard Jessie sigh beside him, and continue her own packing. “Anyway, there’s an estuarine research reserve nearby that my parents both work at. It’s what got me into studying the environment.”

  Standing up to put her full box in a corner, Jessie sounded genuinely surprised. “Oh, I didn’t know that’s what you did.”

  Kai shrugged and looked back at her, closing up his own full box. “Yeah, I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself an environmentalist, but I do have a certain respect for where we live, and would like to find a way where we could all be on the earth,” he grinned crookedly, “without choking the life out of it.” He laughed at the end of that and Jessie laughed with him.

  Standing, he handed her the box and she placed it on top of hers. He couldn’t help but note that they lined up perfectly. She grinned back at him, her hands on her curved hips. “So, instead of staying to study a tropical island, you chose to study…Colorado?”

  He grinned at her never-ending disbelief that he would leave what she obviously considered paradise. Shaking his head, he said, “The earth is the earth, no matter where you go.” Kai grinned wider as she rolled her eyes. Shrugging, he added, “My parents focus more on protecting the coastal areas, but I wanted a broader approach. My father understood that and got me a job here, with a friend of his that used to work with him.” Kai pointed over to where the mountain ranges were. “He runs a small research team near the base of the Rockies.”

  Jessie grinned ear to ear. “In the mountains?” Kai nodded, confused by her smile. She laughed and he relished the sound. “You better get to work on those skiing lessons, water boy.”

  Kai laughed and shook his head as they both went to get more boxes. Not too much later, they had all of Gran’s treasures neatly boxed in a corner. With only her bare furniture left, they began hauling things out to Jessie’s truck. Kai couldn’t stop himself from becoming fond of his cousin. They had a similar sense of humor and easygoing personalities. It gave Kai a wistful pang as he considered that if things were different, she’d be such an easy girl to date. She didn’t complain. She didn’t gab on and on about herself. She didn’t make fun of the fact that he obviously didn’t have much in the way of possessions. And she laughed at all his stupid jokes. Yeah, if that one little pesky fact that they were related wasn’t in place, he’d ask her out on a proper date.

  He kept his head down as he warmed his hands with her heater on the ride home. Wishful thinking wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He needed to stop thinking about her.

  “You okay?” she asked quietly.

  He glanced over at her and saw her worrying her lip. She eyed him, and again he wondered how she felt about all this. Smiling for her benefit, he whispered, “I’m great, Jessie. Thank you for helping me today.”

  She smiled, her face relaxing, and placed a hand over his. The contact instantly sent a shock through him, and not just because her hand was so much warmer than his. She apparently felt the same, as she immediately pulled her hand away. Keeping her eyes intently focused on the road, she said, “No problem, Kai. It’s the least I could do…for family.”

  When they got back to his place, Kai watched Jessie let out a long exhale as her eyes swept the room. He supposed she was remembering the last time she was here. It seemed a little shocking to him that it was only several hours ago; it seemed a lifetime. Throwing his keys to the counter, he ran a hand through his hair. “I suppose we should move my crap out of the way.”

  Jessie gave him a nervous laugh and followed him into the main room. He heard her swallow noisily when she saw the bed, and Kai lifted it up and shoved it against the wall, not wanting the reminder himself either. Kind of unbelievable that just this morning he’d been pleasantly reminiscing over his recent activities on that bed.

  Clearing his throat, he turned back to her and apologized. He wasn’t sure why he was apologizing, but he felt the need to do it. Jessie nodded, her beautiful face still pale. They started moving his boxes in front of his mattress, both hiding the area they’d explored each other’s bodies on, and making room for his new furniture. Halfway through the process, he heard Jessie gasp. He quickly looked back at her, wondering what of his stuff she may have found, and noticed that she looked close to passing out; her lips were nearly white.

  Concerned, he squatted beside her. “Jessie?” His hands came up to cup her cheeks and he tried to ignore how nice touching her felt. Her eyes started to water but she didn’t look at him. He tucked a loose curl behind her ear. “Jessie?” he tried again.

  “I’m gonna be sick,” she muttered. Kai worried that she really would be sick by th
e look on her face. Confused, he tried to pull her gaze from whatever she was staring at. When that didn’t work, he twisted to look at it too. That’s when he felt the nausea rise in him. There was a condom packet on the floor, right in front of the TV. It was unopened. A perfectly sealed, purple and silver wrapped reminder of everything that had happened between them. The memories flooded his head and he again remembered the sensation of driving into her, remembered himself telling her he was coming, and then doing it. His stomach tilted just as surely as desire swept through him.

  “Throw it out,” Jessie whispered.

  Nodding, he released her face and grabbed the obtrusive thing. Knowing that he hadn’t had any with him, Kai vaguely remembered something falling out of Jessie’s purse earlier. She must have had some with her. Maybe she’d just been planning on a screw last night, and he’d fit all of her requirements. He felt a little odd that what had happened between them was possibly not just an unbelievable attraction that had led to something bigger. Maybe what had happened, she’d planned from that first glance.