Heat Wave

I swear I can hear him grumble as I hurry back to my room.

Five minutes later I’ve changed into running shoes (which have already turned red from Kauai’s famous dirt), shorts and a tee shirt, have slathered on sunscreen, stuck on a baseball cap that says Java Kai, and crammed a few organic quinoa bars and some dried mango into my backpack along with bottles of water.

I stop by reception and tell Kate, “I’m doing the Kalalau Trail with Logan, Nikki, and Daniel. If we’re not back in, well, however long it takes to get to that beach and back, send help.”

“You’re going with Logan?” she asks, brows raised. “Girl, you crazy.”

I shrug, slipping my fingers underneath by backpack straps and biting back a smile. “You have no idea.”

The four of us are riding in Logan’s black Jeep, the first time I’ve been in his car. Like I expect, it smells like him, something like mint and coconut, and the seats are covered in sand. Daniel and Nikki are already in the back so I have no choice but to sit in the passenger seat. I don’t look over at him as we take a right onto the road, heading toward the Na Pali Coast, though I can occasionally feel his eyes on me. Sometimes I think he’s staring at my legs. Sometimes I think I’m losing the plot a little.

The start of the Kalalau Trail is located at Ke’e Beach and the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park, which is only a ten-minute drive down the road to where the highway literally ends. You can almost drive all the way around the island, but the jagged and iconic Na Pali Coast prevents it. The only way you can keep going is to get out of your car and hike in, which is what we’re about to do. We’re not doing the crazy version though. Daniel tells me that this one should only take three hours round trip—any further and we would have to pack in a tent and bring a permit. Apparently that hike gets pretty gnarly, and for someone like me who is sensitive to heights, it’s not the best idea.

I’ve been to Ke’e Beach at the end of the road and gone snorkeling once with Charlie, so I’m not surprised to see the parking lot is absolutely packed. We have to park the Jeep on the side of the road a mile away and walk from there.

But in Kauai, even walking along the side of a road is a near magical experience. Yes, we’re passing countless cars and more tourists and locals prepared for the hike, but we’re also crossing fresh streams that spill across the road, thick, fragrant jungle peppering the sides with the occasional chicken scratching around in the bushes.

There’s even a wet cave underneath a sheer overhanging wall. The water in the cave doesn’t look too inviting—it’s dark and disappears into blackness the more it goes under the rock—but I have to stand back and stare up at the vines as they tangle down the guano-stained walls, the lush vegetation that creeps over the side. Beyond that, the soaring peaks of the mountains reach up into the clouds. It nearly gives me vertigo.

“You and Juliet swam in here, didn’t you?” Nikki asks Logan.

He nods. “Not much to see. Cold as hell.”

“Wait,” I say, “Juliet swam in there?” I point to the dark water. The Juliet I knew never would have done something so…well, creepy-looking. Swimming in a dark, claustrophobic cave with a low ceiling? No thank you.

He nods. “She did. I may have coerced her into it, but she did it. To prove a point. She was bloody stubborn most days. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” he mumbles that last bit under his breath.

I’m hit with the strangest feeling: jealousy. Juliet may have been stubborn, but even so I never knew her to do something as fun and adventurous as going swimming in a cave. And yet Logan, he got to witness that. To know her. Something I’d never have.

As if all my feelings so far weren’t confusing enough.





CHAPTER NINE




We continue walking along the road until we get to the trailhead. A bunch of walking sticks are stacked up against a rock as a steady stream of hikers head up and down the path that leads straight into the thick jungle. Even though it hasn’t rained for a few days—least not at the hotel—the trail is slick and slippery in sections as we pass caution signs warning of hazardous cliffs, rock slides, and flash floods. I have to wonder how dangerous the hike really is.