Rule Breaker (Unbreakable Book 2) by Kat Bastion & Stone Bastion

Author:Kat Bastion & Stone Bastion [Bastion, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Kat Bastion and Stone Bastion
Published: 2016-11-06T22:00:00+00:00

Mase…

“They’ve gotten so big.” Leilani cupped a chirping silver chick in her hand.

“Right?” Only had them a week and they’d nearly doubled in size.

She surveyed the rest of the burgeoning flock that scurried over fresh pine shavings in a large plastic bin. “Who’s been watching them?”

“Neighbor. We struck a deal: They take care of the place while I’m gone, I keep ’em in fresh eggs.”

After she deposited the fluffball into the container, I handed her a beer and we sat in my borrowed beach chairs, staring up at the night sky.

Head still tilted back, she glanced at me. “Remember when we first laid on the beach?”

“You drunk off your ass?”

She elbowed my side. “I’m serious.”

“Yeah, I remember.” Every moment, in vivid detail. “Kinda miss that girl.”

“What girl? She’s sitting right beside you.”

“No. The girl who’d let herself go. The one who’d let in a surfer boy she’d just met.”

Picking at the corner of her beer label, she shrugged. “That was the tequila talkin’.”

“What would it take for it to be just the girl, not the tequila?”

She turned and stared at me, eyes dark, jawline hard, chest rising and falling more rapidly at my question, at the unhidden challenge there. Finally, her eyes softened. “What I meant was do you remember the stars?”

“Yeah, I remember. They were amazing.” I glanced upward. “These aren’t bad either.”

“Wanna see better?”

“Of course, I do.” I’d seen some amazing skies in my life, but hadn’t appreciated them with someone in a long time. And I suddenly wanted to. With her.

With her…I’d do anything.

Suddenly, she popped up from her chair and disappeared. Seconds later, I heard keys jangling behind me. “You comin’, or what?”

Thirty minutes later, dressed in several layers of the second-warmest shirts I owned, sitting next to a petite girl practically drowning in the extra-large of my warmest, I did my best not to break out into a grin as we ascended Haleakala.

“Slow down,” she ordered in a gruff tone, for the third time.

“Already going five under.”

“Slower.”

I lifted my foot off the gas as commanded. “This okay?”

“Yeah, sorry.” She leaned forward, gripping the edge of the dashboard as she peered over the hood. “It’s the nēnē. They’re endangered. And careless drivers hit them on this road.”

I frowned, slowing down to a near-crawl. “Lemme turn the high beams off.”

As soon as light flooded onto the road’s surface instead of farther ahead, her shoulders relaxed. Before a full minute ticked by, there stood a pair of the large birds, in the middle of the road.

“They look like Canadian geese.” When they waddled off the road, I continued on at a crawl.

“They’ve evolved from them. Almost no webbing between their toes. Don’t fly anymore. Mostly hang out in the higher elevations.”

“You into birds?”

She shrugged. “Learned about endangered species on the islands in school. I’m into helping them when I can. Volunteer out at the Nakula Natural Area Reserve sometimes.”

“What kind of help do they need?”

“Healthy forest planted, for one. The British and Australians planted tropical trees and bushes they liked, which crowded out all of the indigenous trees that our birds need for survival.

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