Page 57 of Big Island Horizons
“In the ten years since I lost my wife, I’ve never felt this way about anyone but you.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way,” Tara admitted. She had loved Mitch, but never like this. There had been an intoxicating excitement in the early days, an infatuation that had distracted her from the grief she felt after losing her mother… but it had never settled into this, the deep friendship and sense of safety that she felt in Liam’s arms.
“A connection like this doesn’t come around often,” he said.
“I suppose it doesn’t. But the kids…”
He ran a hand up and down her back, massaging the muscles on either side of her spine. “We’ll figure it out.”
19
Lani
Two weeks had passed since Kekoa had served Zeke with the restraining order, and there had been no sign of him since. Hope was growing in Lani’s chest, fragile as a seedling. Maybe he had given up and gone home to Alaska.
Slowly, fretfully, she began to venture out again.
First only in groups, like her days with the Pualena Playschool.
Then to her favorite hidden beach with Tenn and the girls.
Finally she picked up a shift at Haumona, and it passed without incident. When her shift ended, she stayed late and used the last of the light to start work on the mural that she had promised her cousin.
Rory was at ‘Olena’s house and Cody had promised to take Dio for a run, so she worked until sunset. Then a bright light came on in the parking lot, and she kept working.
“That looks great,” Tenn said.
Lani lowered her brush and turned to look at him. She saw concern in his eyes, and she knew that he didn’t like her working out here alone. But she knew that he wouldn’t say anything or try to stop her; he would just find an excuse to hang around until she was ready to leave.
“Need a hand?” he asked.
“Do you want to help me fill in these rainbow wedges? I want to finish painting the background before I go.”
“Sure.”
She had started with purple and worked her way over to orange, so Tenn found the red paint and started work on the first wedge. He painted with extreme care, trying not to smudge the outlines of the fruit that she had painted.
“Don’t worry too much about painting inside the lines,” she told him. “Or… I guess it would be outside the lines. They’re just sketches, really. I’ll paint over them tomorrow. It’s fine if you go over them a bit at the edges. We want to make sure the whole background is painted.”
“Copy that.”
“How are things at the cafe?” she asked as they painted.
“Slow but steady. People are really loving the ramen we added to the dinner menu. That will have to be a staple, I think.”
“Are you saying that you need new menus?”
He shot her a grin. “Do you know anyone?”
When she had walked into the cafe, newly returned to the island and unaware of the change of ownership, she had covered one of the flimsy paper menus with sketches – a nervous habit. Tenn had asked her to design their permanent menus. That first one, with the sketches and her email scrawled on the bottom, he had framed to hang at home.
“I can edit the menus whenever,” she said.
“I know. I just don’t want to pay to print new ones too often. I think I’ll wait for a few more things to come into season before I make some final changes.”
“Sounds good.”
Once they’d cleaned up the paint and stashed their supplies, he walked with her to ‘Olena’s house to pick Rory up. Then, to her delight, he carried the five year old on his shoulders back to Lani’s truck.
