Page 13 of Blind Luck

Kai Kealoha was Erin’s brother? He looked for a sign that she was joking with him, but she seemed so serious. In fact, he hadn’t seen her smile once. He wrote down the name.

“Is your brother also your next of kin?”

“Yes, Kai Kealoha.”

A couple of the guys on the team enjoyed surfing in the offseason. Rusty had tried it once and gotten a mild concussion. Since none of them were supposed to be anywhere near surfboards—their contracts prohibited high-risk activities—he’d had to pretend he’d tripped downsome steps, and that had earned him the nickname Goofy for the next six months. He’d stick with hockey, thanks.

“Okay, date of birth.”

Erin opened her mouth to speak, but a blonde woman got in first, skidding to a halt in front of her.

“What the hell happened?”

Did they know each other?

“I was watching for the dude like you told me to when a bunch of BuzzHub influencers decided they wanted to sit at my table because it had good lighting.”

“And…?”

“When I said no, one of them threw a drink at me.”

“It splashed in her eyes,” Rusty added, processing Erin’s words. Watching for a dude? What dude?

“So this guy”—she jerked her thumb in his direction—“stuck my head under a faucet, then insisted I come to the hospital to get checked out, and a lady from the bar gave us a ride.”

“Ah.” The blonde didn’t look at all surprised, which was surprising in itself.

“How are you here?” Erin asked her. “Someone stole my phone off the table while my head was in the sink, so I couldn’t call anyone. I need to start learning people’s numbers by heart.”

“I went to the Galaxy, and a bunch of hookers said you’d been taken to the emergency room. Finding out which emergency room was the bigger challenge because the woman that drove you was busy with a ‘friend.’”

“So how did you work it out?”

“Alexa,” the blonde said and didn’t elaborate.

Alexa? Like Amazon’s Alexa? That didn’t make a whole lot of sense. A person named Alexa?

“Can she get my insurance details without calling Kai? I promised him I’d stay safe.”

“They treated you without asking for insurance information?”

Again, Erin pointed to Rusty.

“I covered it for now,” he said. “Credit card.”

The blonde sighed. “I’ll go and sort it out. Are your eyes okay?” she asked Erin.

“Still sore, but the doctor said there’s no lasting damage.”

“Okay, stay here.”

The blonde went over to the desk, and Erin sank onto one of the hard plastic seats in the waiting area. Six and a half thousand bucks, and they couldn’t even provide a padded chair. Rusty sat beside her and shifted to get comfortable, stifling a yawn. Midnight had come and gone, and he’d been up since six, waiting for Kelsey to show for breakfast in the Neptune’s dining room.

“What dude were you watching for?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“In the bar—you said you were watching for the dude like that lady told you to do.”

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