My Beloved: A Thin Love Novella(27)
Kona looked down at his shoes, his heart jumping to his throat at the thought of the four of them making a life out the disaster he’d left for Keira. “I appreciate everything…”
“I’m not done.” Kona nodded but kept his eyes down so Mark wouldn’t catch on to his irritation. “We did what we could, but don’t get things backward, Keira worked the hardest, she made us look like amateurs in the child raising department and believe me, she gave us something we didn’t have before. She gave us a family. She made a home for all of us.” He looked back out of the window and Kona watched him, saw the amazement, the respect he had for Keira etched in his features. Kona realized that Mark was as amazed as Kona at the astonishing things she’d accomplished. “We love them both. We all sort of came up together. Three clueless kids raising a baby. They’re my family, Kona. They’re part of me and I’d do anything for them.”
“I’d even let them go if it makes things easier for you.”
That heartbeat in Kona’s throat dropped and for a moment he actually considered asking Mark to go ahead, to back away and leave so he, Kona, could fit in better.
But that wasn’t what a father does.
They don’t trade their children’s happiness to satisfy their own. Mark being out of their lives would crush Ransom, would level Keira—and would devastate Mark. There was no way Kona would be responsible for any of that.
“No, Mark. That’s not gonna happen.” He’d been thinking about this for months, ever since Keira told him Mark had been responsible for her quick escape from New Orleans. He thought about thanking Mark and meaning it, but he hadn’t mustered the courage for that. Not then, not when being around his son, around Keira felt so strange and so right all at the same time. Now he could. Now Kona needed to. “I’m an *. I’m a jealous *.”
Mark laughed, grin wide. “This is not something I’m just figuring out.”
“I realize that. You don’t have to tell me what a punk I was in college.” Kona shook his head, remembering that little tussle that never quite happened when Mark had taken Keira to Kona’s friend’s party, back when Kona and Keira were just starting to feel the attraction that would bind them together, but before Kona realized just how special Keira really was. She’d looked beautiful. With Mark, she’d looked happy and kid-Kona couldn’t stand to see them together, had hated that it was Mark making Keira double over in laughter. That was the day he started hating Mark Burke. This was the day when he would stop.
“You got more time with them. That’s not on you and there is no way I could ever thank you for stepping in when I couldn’t. They love you, I see that.”
“Kona, they love me, but you’re their family. All of that shit, the wedding, the media, Keira doesn’t care about any of it. That’s not who she is. The money, the fame, the lavish resorts and snooty wedding planners, she doesn’t need any of it.”
It wasn’t the first time Kona had heard that. Ransom had warned him, had told Kona that he thought Keira felt uncomfortable with the lavish plans and stresses that their wedding had brought. Kona was just too stubborn to listen. “I just wanted to give her what I couldn’t all those years ago.”
“You are. You’re here. You’re back and I hope not going anywhere.”
“Definitely not.”
Mark nodded, smiling and this time Kona knew he meant it. “Then maybe listen when things are getting too crazy for her. You wanna keep her happy, then just be with her. Keira isn’t high maintenance. There’s no need for you show off to the world that you’ve got a beautiful woman and a great kid. They don’t care about that shit.”
“I know that.” Tired, frustrated by his own stupidity, Kona rubbed his face, wanted all the scattered thoughts in his head to sort themselves out. “I’m just so… she makes me so f*cking happy.”
“Then just be happy, man and let Keira be happy too.”
In all his life, Kona had never seen a more beautiful woman. And he had seen a lot of beautiful women. Movie stars, singers, models—his football career and SuperBowl wins had made beautiful women as commonplace in his life as designer clothes and luxury cars.
None of them could touch Keira.
Kona walked out of the cottage with the bright porch lights and light pole at the front of the house beaming dim light and large shadows across the beach. And in the middle of all that dance of light and dark, Keira sat on a large rock, her tattered wedding dress wet at the hem and her knees curled up for her to rest her chin on.
With each step Kona discovered one piece of silk or another, as though Keira in her anger, her rage, had literally torn apart that dress, leaving bits of fabric behind like breadcrumbs. He followed each one.
He heard her humming, with her cheek on her knees, staring away from him. Her voice was raspier than he’d ever heard it, as though the night air had brought on phlegm and congestion she hadn’t bothered to release. She’d start in on a tune, stop in the middle and then start up again.
When she stopped short and pulled her skirt closer around her legs, Kona walked faster, loving how the moonlight picked up the red streaks in her hair, how her pale, flawless skin glowed against the dark sky and how the elegant swirls of her hibiscus tattoo moved when she breathed, when she moved her strong arms. She’d gotten that tattoo for him, years ago, had it placed right in the center of her back where Kona had always loved to kiss her.