Page 2

Chapter two

Keala

H er cousin’s spacious apartment had every light imaginable on when Keala walked in later that evening, placing her keys on one of the wooden hooks she’d hung on the wall in his foyer. Ikaika, a Sentinels fullback, lived only a couple of minutes away from the Sentinels facilities, which Keala was grateful for after long days of work and practice.

“Hi!” she called. The apartment was one of two on the top floor, and from the foyer, she couldn’t see into the kitchen. To her right was a long wall with three large arches cut out of it leading to the living room. The TV was on and his gaming console was out of the TV stand, which told her he was home. Past the living room, the curtains on the three sets of massive doors leading to the balcony were shut.

Ikaika appeared a few feet in front of her in the doorway of the kitchen, a large sandwich in hand and his shoulder-length, curly black hair held out of his face with a thick headband. His golden skin was deeper than her own due to his being full Hawaiian to her half, though she was sure she would have caught up to him if she’d spent as much time in the sun as he did.

Chowder, his orange tabby, rubbed against his legs, glaring Keala’s way like she’d disturbed her dinnertime too.

“Hi,” Ikaika said over a bite of the sandwich, waving for her to follow him into the kitchen. They’d barely said hello to each other in the last couple of months that she’d been living in his apartment, let alone had conversations of substance, as much as they both would’ve liked to.

When Keala wasn’t at work or cheer practice, she was at Zoe’s practicing some more, and since they hadn’t been in season until last week, Ikaika had been out a lot when she’d gotten back from work or practice. Now, with camp ending and preseason in full swing, he’d been home the last couple of evenings.

Keala dropped her bags in the hallway to her left beside the staircase that led down to Ikaika’s suite, too tired to walk farther down the hall to her room. Joining her cousin in the kitchen, she marveled at the tall wooden cabinets and beautiful dark granite countertops on the island and the rest of the counterspace, like she always did.

One day, when she’d paid off all her student loans, she was going to find a little place with a kitchen just like this one. Not because she was a particularly good chef, but because it was stunning.

Ikaika pulled her in for a side hug, an arm around her shoulders as he led her to the dining table in the room beside the kitchen. “I brought back a turkey sandwich for you from the facility. There were a ton of extras, and I know you had a long day. Plus, I wanted you to have a reason to talk to me for the first time in what feels like months.”

She leaned into him. “You don’t have to give me food to convince me to hang out with you. I moved here to be closer to you. But you’re the best. Thank you.”

He truly was. Ikaika hadn’t been using the second bed or bathroom, but still, allowing her into his space was a testament to how sweet he was.

She and Ikaika had grown up together from the time they were eight and nine—though his teasing that she was his baby cousin sometimes made her feel younger. When her family had moved from San Jose to Dallas, his parents had sent him to live with them because of his love for football. They’d felt he would have a better chance at getting somewhere if he was being coached by the football-crazed people in Texas.

Despite her having a younger and older brother, Keala and Ikaika had become closer than siblings, and she considered him a best friend more than a cousin. She was so happy to be living with him again, especially after they’d gone their separate ways for college.

College without him had been a shock, and they’d both been so busy that their relationship had faded a bit into the background. They’d texted a couple of times a month, called once every couple of months—mainly when something important happened in their lives and they’d needed support or advice. It hadn’t improved much after college, when they’d both gotten busy with their careers. But now that they were living together, it was like no time had passed; their relationship was as strong as before.

“I think you’re ignoring the small but very relevant piece of information that your parents also moved here and convinced you to come back to be closer to them. But we can go with what you said.”

True enough. Keala had left her job and her final year with the Vipers because her parents had retired in San Jose and wanted her there. It had always been her dream to be a Siren, but with her schooling in Virginia and the fact that San Jose was the hardest team to make it onto, she hadn’t thought it had been in the cards. When she’d tried out for the team in May and made it, she’d decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up and agreed to make the move. It had been a huge adjustment, and there were days lined with regret, but she appreciated not having to pay rent and being closer to everyone in her family.

She smiled at Ikaika and sat, unwrapping the sandwich. He was half done with his, Chowder in his lap, gazing lovingly up at him.

“How was practice?” he asked, feeding the cat a small piece of turkey.

Keala made a face. “The usual. Angelica was her typical bright self. And I was late again.”

“You have to switch your shifts, Keeks.” She’d told him in passing this morning about being late yesterday and needing to alter her work schedule.

“I know, but I didn’t think it would be an issue, even when I heard our practice days were shifting. Now that I clearly can’t do both I’ll talk to my boss, but it’ll probably still take a couple of weeks before it changes.”

Ikaika hummed. “At least the season opener isn’t until mid-September. So you’ve got almost a month.”

Keala rolled her eyes. “You know that doesn’t matter. Apparently, Angelica plans to treat the final two preseason games like they’re regular season.” The Sirens only danced at the ten home games each year, and according to her friends, Angelica took all of them very seriously, preseason or not.

“She needs to pull the stick out of her ass.”

Keala chewed thoughtfully. It was the most she’d eaten all day, and her stomach begged her to inhale it as quickly as her six-one, 250-pound cousin was.

“Agreed. But I only have to deal with it for one season.” It was standard for cheerleaders in the league to complete five years. While she’d hoped that they might allow her to stay on longer with the Sirens since it was a new team to her, Angelica had made it clear she would only be able to join the team for her final year.

“They might have a choreo spot open for you sometime next year, and then you can stop pretending you like healthcare.” Keala tensed and looked around, then remembered they were alone. He laughed. “Relax, your parents aren’t here. Though I suspect they’ll be expecting you to go over there tomorrow.”

Since her move, she’d been at her parents’ house a minimum of once a week, often helping her mom with silly things like house décor, most especially when she didn’t have the time to be there. “Yeah. Planning to eat breakfast with them. But if I did stay on as, like, an assistant choreographer, I’d still have to work at the hospital. There’s no way I’d make enough to stop.”

Ikaika balled up the paper that had held his sandwich, petting Chowder. “You could take a full-time coaching job at SJSU or something. You should look around.”

“Right. Like Mom and Dad would be okay with that. Especially with Akoni breathing down my neck constantly.” Her brother was five years younger and yet had always found a way to best her academically. If Keala had brought home a 98, he’d bring home a 100 in that same class years later, and once they’d gotten older, he’d only been four years below her because he’d skipped a grade. He had graduated from college at twenty-one, and now, at twenty-two, he’d started his second gap year working at a hospital while he applied to medical school.

“Yeah, but Akoni’s a genius.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“I just mean stop comparing yourself to him. He’s built different.”

It was probably true, but Keala lived in the middle of the road between her two brothers. And the last thing she wanted to do was slide any closer to her older brother, her parents’ greatest disappointment.

“I’ll think about it.”

Keala knew she wouldn’t. Ikaika probably did too.