Jun acquiesced, but Kai noticed she didn’t actually say his name. She looked away from him, a blush creeping up her cheek. “Come on, Po. Let’s set you up so you can build sand castles while Mommy does her class. I need a good helper.”
Po nodded solemnly in a way that showed he was taking this as seriously as a little kid could. He trailed after his mom as the three of them joined the rest of the class on the beach under the shade of some large palm trees. Jun waved to some of the people waiting as she bustled Po over to an outcropping of lava rocks at the edge of the shade, plopping him down on a towel with a bucket and shovel about thirty feet from the ocean. Kai tried to imagine this sweet boy as a wild child who would bite his teacher at day care. He just couldn’t see it.
A man waiting for the lesson to begin sighed loudly near him.
“She brought her kid?” the fiftysomething man groaned, disapproving. “I didn’t pay for a toddler class.” Kai eyed the man with the silver hair in the black T-shirt and frowned. The judgment rolling off him was palpable, and Kai wanted to tell him to give Jun a break. What was she supposed to do? Leave Po in the car to die of heatstroke?
Kai felt defensive of single moms. After all, he’d been raised by one, and then, after she died, he’d been raised by his aunt, who’d done it all by herself. He knew how hard a job it was, and he also knew that this man had no idea at all the sacrifices Jun likely made.
Jun was too far away to hear and Kai was grateful. He hoped the guy kept the rest of his complaints to himself. Jun and Po didn’t need his grousing. Kai took up a position beside him on the far side of the class as the dozen or so people fell into a loose grid in front of Jun. Kai had always thought that Tai Chi was only for older people, but the class included a wide variety of ages, and surprisingly, most of them were men. Jun unzipped her Windbreaker and was now in a sleeveless coral-colored tank and yoga pants. Kai couldn’t help but notice the tight fit of black Lycra down her muscled legs, and instantly, his thoughts went to what it might feel like to run his hand up them. He realized he wasn’t the only man who was thinking that way, either, as most of them stared openly at Jun, some eyes lingering on the hint of cleavage in her scoop-neck tank. Then he understood why there were so many men taking a Tai Chi class. He had no doubt she was good at what she did, but he also knew some of the men in this class probably didn’t care about Tai Chi as much as ogling a hot teacher for forty-five minutes.
If Jun knew that was why she had so many men in her class, she didn’t let on. Her smile was warm but not flirty as she, and everyone else in class, kicked off flip-flops. He did the same and sank his toes into the cool sand.
“I am so sorry we’re getting a little bit of a late start,” Jun said. “I had...uh...babysitting trouble today, so I really appreciate your patience.”
Most of the class seemed fine, but the grumpy man in the black T-shirt let out a disgruntled sigh. Kai glared at him. “Kids,” the man said to Kai with an eye roll as if Kai were in on the complaint.
Kai was about to say something, but Jun started the class and he didn’t want to be caught talking. Jun led them in a warm-up. She was delicate and graceful. Kai noticed that the disgruntled man kept staring at Jun’s body. That observation made Kai like him even less. After completing a series of stretches, she began the Tai Chi.
“We’ll start with the motion called Hands on the Table,” she said, putting her hands palm-down in the air in front of her. “And then we’ll Calm the Water.” She stepped out on her front foot, shifting her weight and pushing her hands, still palm-down, outward. Kai and the other students did the same. They went through the same motion on the other side. None of the moves were strenuous, and yet, doing them, Kai did feel a bit of a calm seep into the slow rhythm. Kai tried to keep his eye on Jun as they went through several more movements, including Moving the Water and Over the Drum. About fifteen minutes into the class, he saw that Po had abandoned his bucket and shovel and was mimicking every move his mother made, almost as if he wanted to do the class himself. The end result was an adorable, awkward preschooler’s version of Tai Chi. In his little Spider-Man shirt, he was pretty darn cute.
A snicker or two went up from the class. The three women in the class, in particular, smiled warmly at the boy. Jun glanced anxiously over at Po, but seeing that he was really doing no harm trying the moves, she let it go. The grumbling man next to Kai, however, didn’t like it.
“Can’t concentrate with that kid interrupting,” he groused. Kai was pretty sure what he meant was he couldn’t concentrate on her ass with the kid nearby. He was willing to guess that the idea of her as a mom didn’t factor into whatever perverted fantasy the jerk liked to concoct during class.
Kai shushed him, annoyed.
The man frowned in return but fell silent.
“We’ll now move on to Ball in the Mountain. Move those arms,” Jun said. “Feel it building your Chi. This is a great exercise for making a stronger mind.”
Po mimicked the same move, stretching his hands in a circular motion forward, but he overexaggerated it and toppled over, like a puppy with oversize paws. Po, fine, bounced back up grinning, ready to start again.
“Honestly, if you can’t control your kid...” the grumpy man said, very loudly this time as he shook his head in disapproval. He seemed to miss the fact that no one else in the class appeared to agree with him. A few shot him dirty looks. “I can’t focus on these moves with him bouncing around like an idiot. Someone needs to teach that kid to be still!”
Kai wanted to teach the man how to be still and quiet. Jun heard his remarks, and her face turned beet red. She sent a worried glance at Po, but honestly, the boy wasn’t doing any harm. The man was overreacting.
Jun transitioned the class into another pose, and this time Po decided to do his own headstand and rolled over in the sand.
Next to Kai, the irritated man bellowed, “If nobody is going to tell that kid to sit down, I’ll do it.”
Jun’s head popped up in alarm. She was already on the move to intercept the angry man from getting to Po, but Kai was there first. He put a hand on the man’s chest.
“Hey, the kid’s not hurting anybody,” Kai said, stopping the man’s progress cold. Jun, who’d hurried to Po’s side, stood still, a protective arm around her son.
“He’s a distraction,” the man growled, dark eyes flashing.
“You’re a distraction,” Kai corrected. “Why don’t you quiet down?”
Murmurs and agreeing nods swept the class.
They were the focus of attention now, and Kai could feel everyone’s gaze on them, even as some tried to continue the motions. Jun just stared, speechless.
The man, clearly not used to being called on his grumbling, glared at Kai. “I’m not going to be quiet. I’m going to get the goddamn class I paid for, a class without kids.”
A few gasps went up from the class at the language.
Jun rushed, too late, to cover Po’s little ears.
“Either quiet down or leave.” Kai wasn’t going to back down. He wasn’t the kind of man who went looking for a fight, but he’d been pushed into plenty of corners by surfers defending turf on various beaches all over the world. Bullies were the same, no matter their age or nationality: you either stood up to them, or you let them walk over you. And Kai had never backed down from a bully, not once in his life.
“I’m not going to have my afternoon ruined by some stupid fuckin’ kid!” he roared, pointing at the little boy, whose bottom lip quivered as his eyes filled with tears threatening to spill.
“Hey!” Jun’s voice was like steel, her eyes glinting fiercely. “You do not talk about my son that way.” Despite her small frame, she’d stalked right up to the angry man, fearless. She was an angry mama bear, protecting her cub. “And watch your language!”
Instantly, the man seemed cowed. There was something in her voice that said she wasn’t