Kenna let out a sound of agreement. “I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to enjoy the life I’ve been given, everything about it, even when it’s messy and hard and painful.”

“Some of the most beautiful things don’t fit into a mold of perfection. Hell, I’d say perfection is pretty damn boring. Look around us. None of these islands are perfectly symmetrical, the ocean isn’t one color, that tree is growing sideways. It’s the imperfections that make them beautiful.”

Kenna squeezed my forearms. “Who knew you were such a poet?”

She was trying to make light of her realization, of our discussion, but I wasn’t going to let her off the hook so easily. “If you really want to live your life to the fullest, you have to let go of who you think you should be and let yourself become who you truly are.”

“What if I don’t like that person?”

The uncertainty in Kenna’s voice almost brought me to my knees. “Impossible.”

She turned in my arms, the fire I loved back in her voice. “How do you know?”

“Because you’re amazing. You let your true colors show when those walls come down a little. You’re strong and kind and fierce in your care of others. No one hurts the people you love and gets away with it.”

A slight tinge of pink hit Kenna’s cheeks. “There’s a lot of other stuff mixed in there, too. I’m stubborn. I don’t let people in. I’m judgmental as hell. Look how I treated you. I made assumptions about the man you were, and I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

I chuckled. “But it was so fun sparring with you when you thought I was a slacker asshole.”

Kenna shoved at my chest. “It’s not funny. If the roles had been reversed, I would’ve read you the riot act the first week we knew each other. I would’ve laid out a twelve-point argument about how wrong you were.”

I shrugged and pulled Kenna back into my arms. “I’m done proving myself to people. I’ve done it for most of my life. Tried to be the son my parents wanted, the fiancé Alicia needed, the most dedicated employee. But along the way, I lost touch with what I wanted. Trying to be so many things to so many different people meant I didn’t stay true to myself.”

“I’m sorry you went through that.”

“I’m not. It was a gift. It showed me how I never wanted to live again.” Life would now only be on my terms. I wouldn’t be someone I wasn’t to win the approval or the love of another person. “I have to be content with who I am. Never again will I mold myself into what someone else needs me to be.”