Page 27 of Big Island Horizons
“That was delicious, but it was a snack. And it was ages ago. Didn’t you work up an appetite on the hike back?”
Tara grinned. “I guess I could go for somepoke.”
Liam parked near a small takeaway restaurant by the bay, easily the best place in town forpoke. They ordered two big bowls of white rice topped with fresh local‘ahi, then walked across the grass to sit near the water.
The sun had retreated to the other side of the island, leaving the Hilo side dim and cool. The sunsets on the eastern side of the island weren’t as dramatic as the ones over in Kona, but they were beautiful too. As Tara watched the sky turn umber and dusky violet, the colors shining across the moving surface of the water, Liam’s arm warm against her own, she felt deeply grateful for her life. Every unexpected bit of it.
“This is beautiful,” she sighed as she set down her empty bowl. “I should get out more often.”
“With me?” he asked, lips brushing against her temple.
She took his hand in hers and agreed, “With you.”
10
Lani
It was her day to help with the playschool, but she was having a hard time of it.
She tried to focus on the kids, and she smiled whenever Rory looked at her, but underneath it all she felt anxious and jumpy. The bright green lawn and shimmering pools of the beach park were visible from the street, and she kept glancing anxiously at the line of parked cars.
Was she just imagining it, or could she feel Zeke’s eyes on her?
“What is going on with you?” ‘Olena demanded when Lani looked at the street for the umpteenth time.
“Zeke’s been messaging me again.”
“So?” ‘Olena challenged. Then she frowned and asked, “Didn’t you change your number?”
“He got a hold of it somehow.”
“Can’t you block him?”
“He keeps getting new numbers.”
“The guy won’t quit.”
“He’s obsessed.” Lani wrapped her hands around her arms and looked back at Rory, who was splashing happily with Olivia in the clear water of the natural pools.
“You can’t let him get under your skin,” ‘Olena advised. “Look how beautiful it is here. Don’t let him ruin that all the way from Alaska.”
“I’m trying my best.”
A chill settled into her bones as she told her cousin about the unwelcome text messages she had been getting from Zeke, the picture of her at Haumona.
“If he actually shows up,” ‘Olena said, “me and Kekoa will feed him to the sharks. You know that, right?”
“That’s the last thing that I want.”
“What, getting rid of that piece of–”
“Dragging you and the rest of the family into this mess,” Lani interrupted. “I don’t want him anywhere near us.”
She took a shaky breath in and tried to refocus on the beauty of the world around her, the distant crash of waves and warm tropical sun on her shoulders.
Her skin had gotten several shades darker since moving home to Hawai’i. Sometimes she would just hold her arm out in the sun and marvel and the golden-bronze shade of it, nearly forgotten after those long years in Alaska. She felt more like herself than she had in a long time, and she wanted to hang on to that.
She wouldn’t let Zeke pull her back into the darkness. She couldn’t.
