Page 79 of Big Island Neighbors
“That’s it? You don’t even want to try?”
“I want to try and establish a healthy co-parenting relationship,” she said carefully.
“And that’s it?”
“That’s it,” she confirmed. “You’re welcome to spend as much time with the kids as you want, but I don’t want you back.”
“Neither do they.” His voice was heavy with self pity, and he put his forehead down on the counter.
The girls do. Even Cody…The words rose in her throat, but she didn’t speak them out loud.
She was sick of trying to micromanage his feelings and orchestrate a healthy relationship between him and the kids.
Maybe if she removed herself and stopped trying to be the middleman, he would finally take responsibility for his relationship with his children.
Or maybe not.
Either way, managing a grown man’s emotions wasn’t a job that she was willing to take on anymore.
She let herself out the back door, leaving Mitch to pull himself together before the girls got home.
24
Emma
“We’re going all the way down there?” Kai asked. They stood at the top of the Waipi?o Valley Lookout, looking down at the beach and river far below them.
“Yep!” Emma confirmed.
“It’s too far!”
“It’s not as far as it looks. I’ve done it before, with your dad.”
“You and Daddy?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t think I’m big enough.”
“I know you can do it.”
He shook his head, looking down the steep hillside.
“There are waterfalls down there,” she coaxed. “And wild horses.”
“Okay. I guess we can try.”
She led him down the road that slanted steeply down into the valley and he leaned backwards, windmilling his arms dramatically.
“It’s too steep!”
“People walk it every day. Look,” she said as a family of at least three generations passed them.
“I don’t know how.”
“One step at a time.” She reached out and took his little hand in hers. “Come on.”
After a couple minutes of edging their way forward, Kai got used to the forty-five degree slant and picked up the pace. Before long, they were on the level (well, comparatively level - the dips and hills were treacherous to trucks but easy enough for pedestrians) dirt road that led out to the beach.
