Page 29 of Big Island Weddings
His thick black eyebrows pulled together again. “I come with you?”
“No,” she said, too loudly. She softened her tone and said, “No, thank you. Only family.”
Lorenzo frowned at that but didn’t press.
“Arrivederci, principessa.” He crouched down and kissed Rory on both cheeks.
“I don’t want to go to the hospital,” she whined. “It smells funny. I want to stay here with you.”
“You go with your mama,” he told her. “You see me again soon. Maybe you show me the tigers at the zoo.”
Rory gasped and looked up at Lani. “Can we, Mama?”
“Sure.” The free zoo was as good a meetup spot as any.
“I will text you,” he said to Lani. He kissed Rory once more on top of her head. “Ciao, figlia mia.”
Lani took Rory’s hand firmly in her own and walked her up to the parking lot.
Her truck – a relic inherited from her Uncle John – coughed and complained a few times before it finally started up.
As Lani navigated through the crowded parking lot, Rory chattered on and on about her Babbo. Lani clenched her teeth in frustration, then felt doubly irritated with herself for resenting anything – or anyone – that made her daughter happy.
She made a quick pit stop for dinner, coaxed her truck to start again, and drove another couple of miles to the hospital. With the bag of food in one hand and Rory’s little hand in the other, she gritted her teeth and marched through the glaring white halls.
After all the stress and heartache of Tenn’s injury, revisiting the same hospital wasn’t easy. But there was nothing she wouldn’t do for her family, and she knew from experience how awful the hospital food was.
Three smiles greeted them when they walked into Uncle Mano’s room, and her mood brightened. His color was much better than it had been the last time she visited, and he was sitting all the way up in his hospital bed.
“Where’s Kiki and Lulu?” Rory asked.
“They’re with their dad,” ‘Olena told her. Grief and fear for her father had carved a hollowness into her face that hadn’t quite disappeared with his recovery. Lani stepped closer and gave her a one-armed hug as she brought the bag of poke up onto a table.
“Where’s Rory?” Mano gasped. “Who’s this tall lady with Leilani?”
Rory giggled and scrambled up onto the hospital bed. “It’s me, Uncle!”
“No way! When did you grow so big?”
“Thank you for bringing dinner,” Mahina said. She looked tired from her days and nights in the hospital, but otherwise she seemed fine. Mano had given them an awful scare, but he was recovering well.
“No problem.” Lani pulled out the plastic bowls of poke and passed them around.
“What, no mac salad?” Mano teased.
“Your mac salad days are over,” Mahina said.
“You hear that, Lani?” He placed a hand over his broad stomach and gave her an exaggerated, mournful look. “Your Auntie here is trying to starve me.”
“You won’t starve, Uncle!” Rory chirped. “We brought poke!”
He laughed and popped the lid off of his bowl. Seated cross-legged at the end of his bed, Rory dug into hers too. The women perched wherever they could and chatted as they ate.
Watching Mano and Mahina together, Lani’s thoughts went back to Lorenzo. Was she depriving her daughter by refusing to even consider partnering with her birth father?
Losing her parents was a devastating one-two blow that had left Lani brokenhearted and adrift.
Meanwhile, ‘Olena had raised two girls and created a successful business. She was the strongest, steadiest person that Lani knew… and all of that was built on the foundation that her parents had provided for her.
