Page 44 of Big Island Horizons
“Not to you.”
No, mine just left, ‘Olena thought.
“You know what?” she said out loud. “Everything will be fine. You take some time off work, Kekoa gets to serve thathaolewith a restraining order, and soon things will be back to normal.”
“Hegetsto, huh?”
“He’ll be stoked. But you know he’d rather toss the guy off a cliff. He would have, too, if it was fifty years ago. Heck, I bet he still would if you asked him to.”
“No cliffs,” she said flatly.
“He’ll leave soon, Leilani. You’ll see. Everything will work out fine.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“It will.”
When she pulled up in front of Lani’s house, she asked, “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay? We could all sleep in the big house.”
“I’m okay, really.”
“Okay.” ‘Olena pulled her into a bear hug. “You need anything, day or night, you call me. Yeah?”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
“We’re here for you.”
Lani’s smile was small, but it was something. “I know.”
15
Tara
“Mama!” Lucy called from her perch.
“I hear you, Lu,” Tara said.
“Hi Mom!” the macaw tried. “Hi Mom! Mama! Hi Mom!”
“Come on, Lucy. I’m trying to work.”
She screeched, igniting more sounds of protest from down the hall. The kids weren’t thrilled about having a half-feral macaw in the house.
Lucy hadn’t lived inside for a long time, and her anxiety over losing her home and mate in one fell swoop was turning her into a stress case. If she wasn’t screeching or pooping on the furniture, she was pulling out her own feathers. There was a small bald patch on her chest that was growing more concerning by the day.
It devastated Tara to see her in such distress, and she gave the macaw all the attention that she could in between searching for Ricky and keeping up with the rest of her tasks – but that wasn’t really enough time.
Usually the kids gave the parrots attention, but on the day after the storm Lucy bit Cody hard enough to draw blood. Since then, they had given her a wide berth. She was happiest on Tara’s shoulder, but even then she had a new habit of screaming inches from her ear.
“I hear you,” Tara said again, “but if my customers find out I cooked these meals with a giant bird on my shoulder, I’m going to lose all of my customers. Can you just chill?”
Lucy screeched in irritation and went back to tearing apart her newest toy.
“That’s great. Thank you.” Tara opened the oven to check on the trays of‘ulubrownies that were baking. As soon as they were done, she had trays of veggies ready to roast. As she was closing the oven, a knock sounded on the door.
“Liam,” she said when she opened it. “Hi.”
He stepped inside and hugged her. His shoulders were damp from the drizzling rain outside, but still warm beneath his t-shirt. She leaned into him, fully exhaling for the first time since the storm.
