Page 30 of Big Island Weddings
Lani’s youthful mistakes had already robbed Rory of five years with her father, and they had spent most of those years in a hell of Lani’s creation, a nightmarish marriage that she had been too cowardly to leave until it was nearly too late.
Choosing Tenn over her ex husband had been a no brainer. Better to have no father figure at all than to live with a man like Zeke.
But now Tenn seemed to be pulling away. What would it mean for Rory if the second father figure in her life up and vanished? What would it do to her if Tenn and Lani broke up years down the road and her second “Daddy” wanted nothing to do with her after the breakup?
Lorenzo loved Rory already. She could see it. And she had done both of them a disservice by keeping them apart, even if it had just been through her own mistakes and incompetence.
He was Rory’s father. Her real father. And that was forever.
One way or another, Lani had to let him into their life.
11
‘Olena
Nate’s voice was tense with worry when he answered the phone. “Hello?”
“They’re letting him go home today. We’re gonna leave in a few minutes.”
“So it went well?”
“Yeah. All good.”
Nate’s relief filled the line in a huff of breath. He had lost his own father to a heart attack when Luana was just a baby, and he had been just as shaken as ‘Olena when they got the news that Mano was in the hospital.
The first time the doctor said the wordspercutaneous coronary intervention, ‘Olena had been terrified. But with patient explanations from the staff and some research of her own, she had learned that it was a minimally invasive procedure.
“Your father will be back on his feet in no time,” the doctor had assured them. His island accent, as warm and thick asMano’s, had comforted her and her mother just as much as his words.
The thought of a stent in his heart still made ‘Olena’s chest constrict with anxiety, but she had endured it and tried her best not to crush Mahina’s hand as they sat waiting.
Her father had always been a mountain of a man. He’d seemed invulnerable. Arriving at the hospital to see him pale and weak and attached to machines had nearly given ‘Olena a heart attack of her own. At the very least, her heart felt cracked and bruised.
It had been hard to reconcile the father she had always known with the ashen-faced man in the hospital bed. He looked better today, more like himself, but he was still tired and moving slow.
Mahina was quiet the whole way home. She’d insisted on driving, even though she managed the truck one-handed while keeping her right hand clasped with her husband’s.
‘Olena sat in the back seat, feeling oddly like a child again. She had hardly seen her girls in days, and she hadn’t gone to work. She had been with her parents day and night, doing everything she could to make her dad comfortable and ease her mom’s stress.
Now, sitting in the back of the truck cab as they sped down the green highway she had known all her life, she experienced a strange sense of timelessness. For a long moment, everything seemed suspended and still.
Nate was waiting at the gate when they arrived. He opened it, waited for the truck to pull through, and then closed it behind them.
Watching him, ‘Olena felt a rush of gratitude. Her big brother hadn’t even bothered to come home from the mainland. Her little brother was busy covering for Mano at work on top of raising a kid and running Haumona Shave Ice.
Nate had been the one to keep things going smoothly. He had held her hand in the waiting room, taken care of the girls, helped Kekoa when he couldn’t be two places and once, and just generally acted as the family’s rock while Mano was in the hospital. All on top of working long hours in the orchard.
Mahina tried to put her husband to bed, but he waved her off and planted himself on the lanai.
“I’m not dying, and I’ve spent enough time in bed to last a month. I just want some fresh air.”
“Some aunties stopped by about an hour ago,” Nate said. “I finally convinced them to go home just before you got here, but the refrigerator is packed.”
Mahina squeezed her husband’s shoulder on the way inside. “I’ll make you a plate.”
“I’ll go pick up the girls,” Nate said.
‘Olena’s stomach lurched, and she checked her watch. The school day was almost over, and she hadn’t even noticed. She was usually in the thick of it, not off someplace else trying to keep track of pickup times.
