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“We were meeting with the final few clients just before he
died. He was going to tell his employees that they’d be under Kainoa
Construction by the start of the new quarter.”

“Did you lose anyone?”

“Just a handful. Some were looking for a way to start their
own firms, and Collins and Frederickson were fucked off— Shit, sorry, Kendall.”

She shrugged and swallowed. “I hang out with fishermen and
hunters. You couldn’t insult me if you tried.”

Shane picked at his sandwich. He couldn’t quite rectify the
idea of Kendall in hip waders and fishing poles.

“They didn’t like the idea of change. I have a feeling
they’ll be in contact with me soon. Especially now that your father is…”

“It’s okay. He’s gone.” The grief sat inside his chest like
an organ without a purpose. He didn’t know how to push it out or make it feel
less. He’d lost his mother so long ago that she was just a vague memory of
laughter and the sweet scent of vanilla.

Kendall’s attention was on her food and the slice of tomato
that had slid from the roll she could barely hold with both hands.

“Your dad wanted to retire. I offered him a job, but he said
he wanted to have his freedom,” Kain said quietly.

A freedom he’d never gotten. Larry Justice was always taking
care of someone. Whether it was an army of employees, contracts, or friends. He
rarely spent a moment alone.

“And he knew you’d be fine. You were almost self-sufficient
with Avery Furniture.”

“Avery Furniture?” Kendall’s dark eyes met his.

Shane didn’t like to talk about the wood he was compelled to
work with. Being a foreman for the job site was his life as far as his father
was concerned. But he liked to build. He needed to feel the smooth wood under his
hands and decide what would be created out of it.

Kain sighed. “Shane is a master carpenter.”

Shane slanted a look at him. “I’m a carpenter.”

Kain held his hand out to Kendall. “Let me show you
something.”

Shane cracked his knuckles as she took his friend’s hand and
followed him. If Kain was looking for a fight, he was going to get one if he
didn’t stop manhandling her. Shane tossed back another inch of whiskey and
followed them out into the entertaining area. He knew what Kain was going to
show off. It was one of his personal favorite pieces. And the reason he’d
started Avery Furniture.

Kendall had squatted down, and he bit back an oath. The soft
pants hugged every inch of her perfect ass. He forced his attention back on the
task at hand. The bench was made from koa wood. The striations reminded him of
marble and had taken hours to sand and plank to find just the right thickness.
He’d left some of the natural edges and varnished them until the surface was
smooth as glass. He’d taken it a step further and planked boards up the wall
and added a water feature with a bed of river rocks Kain had flown in from
Honolulu. The entire piece had cost thousands, but it suited the space and Kain
down to the ground.

She stood and turned. “You did this?”

He tucked his hands under his arms. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Her face was incredulous. “All you have to say is
yeah
?” She swiveled to Kain. “Does he
always downplay his work?”

“Yep.”

Kendall’s face softened. “This is what you want to do?”

His jaw hardened. “This is why I have no money in the bank.
Building a company doesn’t come cheap.”

“If you let me back you—”

“No.” Shane rocked back on his heels. “We’ve been over this,
Kain. I’m doing it on my own. I don’t want to owe you anything, let alone
twenty percent of my profits.”

“It doesn’t make you weak to ask for help. I had to ask your
father for help.”

Shane’s breath stalled in his chest. “Yeah, and you had to
dig him out of a hole because I didn’t pay attention.”

Kain sliced a hand through the air. “It wasn’t like that. He
was just too proud to show that he couldn’t take care of everyone.”

Shane turned and went to the sideboard. All he knew was that
his father hadn’t trusted him. And nothing was the same. He took the first
bottle he saw. “I’m taking my usual room.”

“Son of a bitch.” Kain stalked back into the kitchen.

She followed him, rubbing her arms against the tiny hairs
that had risen. Shane’s emotions were volatile and made her want to go to him.
To fix it and soothe him. It wasn’t her job, dammit. She should be home taking
care of the Heron and her mother, not dealing with this minefield of emotions.

The room felt empty without his prowling, angry presence.
Not that it should, especially with a man like Kain in the room with her.
Confidence and the indefinable male charisma infused the space around him. She
wasn’t sure she’d want to be one of his enemies, but she’d spent her life
trusting her instincts about people. Strangers were her livelihood, and Kain
was a nice guy under all the wealth and power.

If she weren’t in the middle of this insane situation, she’d
have jumped at the chance to flirt and see where things went with him.
Normally, an easygoing attitude and offhand way of flirting were two of her
draws. But the only thing she felt was comfort. Kain didn’t stir her up or make
her skin feel too tight.

Shane was too intense, too volatile, and filled with far too
much anger.

All she should want was a bed and six straight hours on her
face. If she was dumb enough to be interested in anything, Kain was the better
choice. He was the wild weekend of laughter and sun-baked sex. Kain had
fun fling
written all over him.

So why did she want to go upstairs and check on Shane? Why
did she want to grab on to the man who was more like a lightning rod? And why
did she want more of that contact burn that left her shaky and tingling?

“You sure you know what you’re doing?”

She looked up. Kain’s weighty stare had lost the easygoing
edge, and his voice was serious instead of playful. “What?”

“I can spot a woman hatching a plan. And you are wading into
dangerous territory, Kendall.”

Could Kain read her damn mind? She lifted her hand to her
cheek. Was she as flushed as she felt on the inside? “How do you mean?”

“He’s angry, and his pride has taken a helluva hit. Now’s
probably not the right time to start something.”

“Are you warning me off?”

“I’ve known him for ten years. And I can tell you right now
that he’s not the same guy he was two weeks ago. He just lost everything and a
father he loved so much that he would rather keep his own happiness buried in a
workshop than disappoint his old man.”

Kendall looked down at the perfect hardwood floor. The quick
prick of tears came with a lump in the center of her chest. “That’s a Lawrence
Justice I just don’t know.”

“Shit. I’m sorry. You’d think I would stop making that
mistake. You’re like the minifairy hot version of Larry.”

She snorted. “Thanks.”

He laughed. “No, I mean the coloring and the hair—definitely
the hair but not the eyes.”

“My mom’s Italian.”

“That explains that one. Boy, you got everything else from
Larry, though.”

“DNA doesn’t lie,” she said with a shrug.

“That’s the thing. I can’t wrap my brain around the fact
that he had a daughter and never told anyone. Shane is—was—the center of his world.”

Kendall rubbed the heel of her hand along her breastbone.
The lump felt larger and heavier. She’d made her peace with the fact that her
father hadn’t wanted her a long time ago. Why did that man have to drag her
into this? What gave her father the right to take the only thing he’d ever
given her and make her share it with Shane?

Kain stepped closer, his large hands gentle on her
shoulders. His light touch was comforting as he rubbed up and down her arm.
“And I’m not helping at all.”

“It’s okay. I’m not one of those broken girls who misses her
daddy. My mom was enough. She loved my father, and he walked away from us. He
got in his car and drove away one day without saying good-bye. At least to me.
He broke her heart into a million pieces. I don’t mourn for that man.” She
looked up at Kain. “I’m sorry, I don’t. But I do know that Shane does. And I
can see that you do too.”

His brows were snapped together in confusion. “It’s just not
the Larry I know.”

“Maybe he changed. Maybe Shane became the perfect family
he’d always wanted.”

Kain shook his head. “I don’t know. I do know that Shane
lost his mom when he was sixteen. It’s only been him and Larry for a long
time.”

“You love him a lot.” That she could understand. Her best
friend was just as important. Bells was like a sister to her. Blood definitely
wasn’t the qualifier for love.

“I loved both of them. My father wasn’t an easy man. His
empire in Hawaii was all that mattered. The N’ai name and the power behind it
were his sole focus. Larry was a great guy who cooked burgers on the grill and
took Shane camping. He welcomed me into the family like a…well, like a son.”

“Sometimes family isn’t about blood,” Kendall said quietly.

“No, it’s not. And that’s why it’s hard to see Shane like
this. He’s always the serious one but never like this.”

She’d had a feeling Shane wasn’t exactly the angry type.
There were far too many laugh lines that didn’t match the somber-faced Shane
she’d met today. It didn’t make sense for her to want to go upstairs and check
in on him. If he wasn’t talking to his best friend, why would he talk to her—a
complete stranger?

She sighed. “I suppose you’re the charming one?”

He grinned. “I’ve been known to be charming.” He dropped his
hand to her lower back, turning her toward the island.

She climbed onto the stool in front of her. Everything in
the kitchen was outfitted for a giant. “I bet.”

“Not interested?”

She laughed. “If I were a smart woman, I would be.”

He arched a brow. “You’re not?”

Yeah, he was a pussycat. A Bengal tiger-sized pussycat but
harmless. She leaned on her propped hand and couldn’t fight a giggle.

“Good thing I have a healthy—”

“Ego?”

His face melted into a devastating smile. “I was going to go
with sense of self-preservation. No matter how attractive you are.”

Her heart thudded. “Thanks. I think.”

“If Shane wasn’t in the picture, my interest would be
crystal clear.” He leaned in. “Crystal.”

“Shane and I…” What? They’d had sex. Spectacular sex, but in
the end, it was just a reaction to a crazy situation. When death was involved,
some people got drunk, and some people got laid.

Shane was currently on the get-drunk portion of the night.
And her formerly dormant hormones were still sizzling. That was all. “My
interest is purely physical.”

“Oh.” He blinked and crossed his arms over his chest. “Can’t
say I was expecting that answer.”

“I might be from a small town, Kain, but not the small-town
sensibility. We’re both adults, and things happen.”

His eyes went from friendly to cool. “That wouldn’t include charming
my best friend out of his inheritance, would it?”

Her eyebrows shot up, and her spine went rigid. “Of course
not.” Shit. She wasn’t some femme fatale.

“The terms of the will don’t do you any favors.”

“No, they don’t. The will has been nothing but a nightmare,
but I can’t change things.” Not when it was her own mother who had put them in
this position. If her mother had just changed the deed into her name when her
father gave them the house, they wouldn’t be in this mess. Her father was and
would always be an opportunist. Her mother had her head in the sand, but
Kendall had been just as guilty. She hadn’t protected herself or her home
either. Kendall clenched her fingers.

“Do you know what you two are going to do?”

“No. We had to spend the last five hours figuring out the
finer points of the will thanks to Jonas’s handy legalese.” Her father’s
secrets and lies. Why should she expect anything else? She tried to stuff down
the anger, but it didn’t want to go back into its box.

“Now I have to share my business with a man who didn’t do
any of the work, didn’t worry over it, slave over it, and give his life up to
it to support the one person who gave a crap about me. No, I have to share it
with a stranger. And that’s the best possible outcome. The worst? We have to
sell it and split the money.” She hopped off her seat. “So don’t talk to me
about charming anyone out of their inheritance.”

“Kendall, wait.”

“No, you wait. I got this summons to come here—from my home
in New York where I wasn’t bothering anyone—to get in the middle of this drama
pot? I don’t need it, Kain. I don’t need any of this.”

“Shane lost everything too.”

She tried to rein in her temper. “And I’m sorry for that,
but at least Lawrence wanted him. He sure as hell didn’t care about me.”

Shit.

Kain walked around the island, and she backed up. “No. I
don’t need you to feel sorry for me. I didn’t mean to say that.”

“No, you mean you didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

She shut her eyes against the tears. She didn’t pine for her
father. Her mother had made sure she was loved, and Kendall rarely even thought
of him. But this will was a blatant reminder she didn’t need. That Lawrence
didn’t care enough to reach out to her except to take. Except to give another
piece of her away, this time to the boy who meant more to him than she ever
did. “I just need to figure all this out.”

“Take the time and do that.”

“We don’t really have that much time. That will locked
everything up for Shane, and I need to get back to Bradley.”

Kain plowed his fingers through his hair. “We didn’t have
time to get the money straight. I didn’t even know Larry had a new will written
up. I would have had everything taken care of by the end of the year. No one
would have known how bad it was.”