Page 89 of Big Island Sunrise
Lani shrank back, though a part of her wanted to shout right back. Ten years ago, she would have gone toe to toe with anyone. She was never tall, but she was fierce.
She hated this new fear that lived in her bones. She hated what those years with Zeke had done to her. She had shrunk smaller and smaller, and she didn’t know how else to react to anger anymore.
She had a visceral knowledge of how quickly a man’s anger could turn to violence, and some cowering survival mechanism had been triggered in her that she didn’t know how to undo.
Tenn stepped between her and the stranger, and she felt a new jolt of fear. Zeke’s response would have been to fight fire with fire, to spit back with his own rage, his own threats. But when Tenn spoke, his voice was calm, even friendly.
“You’re right about the stray dogs. My little girl is six, and I don’t let her out our front gate alone. A friend of hers was walking with her big sister not too long ago and got bit. She needed ten stitches. It’s a shame some people let their dogs run loose.
“Thing is, that storm last night brought a tree down on my friend’s fence. This dog belongs to my little cousin. That little boy lost his dad this year, and it would break his heart to lose this dog. We’ll get that fence fixed up, and I give you my word that this dog won’t get out again.”
The man on the porch grunted, grumpy but placated.
“Hurry up then. Get your dog out of my yard.”
He walked back inside, and Tenn turned to Lani with a grin.
She wanted so badly to kiss him in that moment, and that terrified her. That fear snuffed her desire out as quickly as it had flared.
She turned back to the trap and pulled at the front, trying to figure out how to open it.
“Let me see,” Tenn said gently. He knelt beside her and had the door open a moment later.
Dio sprung out and slammed into her, knocking her backwards and covering her face with slobbery kisses.
“Okay, okay!” She pushed him off, laughing. “It’s good to see you too.”
“Do you have a leash?” Tenn asked.
“Yeah.” She reached beneath her oversized t-shirt and unclipped the leash that she had wound around her hips like a belt. They got Dio leashed and off of the property - much to the other puppy’s dismay - and headed for home.
A quick message to theFinding Diotext thread the neighbor kid had started had the whole crew waiting at the Kealoha place when they got back. Kai greeted his dog with happy tears that were immediately replaced with slobber, and the whole mood was celebratory.
“Will you stay for lunch?” Emma asked Tenn and the neighbor kids. “I made a bunch of food for our family, but they ran off to help clear a road before I had the chance to offer them any.”
The kids were quick to say yes to food, but Tenn gave Lani a questioning look.
A soft smile pulled at her lips as she gave him a bare hint of a nod. Far be it from her to keep chasing this man away. If he wanted to stick around knowing full well what she was going through, that was his business.
“I’ll help,” she said, turning back to Emma.
“No.” Her eyes flicked from Lani to Tenn and back again, and her smile turned sly. “You’ve done enough today, rescuing Dio. Rest for a minute before you have to leave for work. The food’s made, I just need to serve it up. Cody, would you set up that folding table?”
“Sure.” The lanky teenager picked up one of the long tables they had used for Rory’s birthday party.
“Thanks. Piper and Paige, why don’t you run next door and see if your mom can join us for lunch?”
Lani wandered off around the side of the house, conscious of Tenn’s presence as he walked nearby, to her left and just a step behind. Mostly she felt ill at ease when a man walked behind her. When Tenn did it, she felt like a queen with her own personal bodyguard.
She stopped in front of the ‘ohana. A hugelanaisurrounded the sweet little one-bedroom place where Adam and Emma used to stay every summer. No wonder Emma had spent the past few months pretending it didn’t exist. Living in Uncle John’s house must be hard enough without revisiting what was basically their honeymoon spot.
The house was half eaten up by weedy vines and the mosquito screens had mostly rotted away, but the place wasn’t in terrible shape.
“I’m going to live here,” she said, speaking the words aloud even before she had made a conscious decision. “I’m going to fix this place up for me and Rory.”
“Can I help?” Tenn stepped up to stand beside her, leaving a scant inch of space between his arm and her shoulder. Lani could feel the heat coming off of him, a pleasant contrast to the cool shade and ocean breeze moving through. She turned and looked into his eyes.
“Why?”
