Page 79 of Big Island Weddings
“I can’t take credit for that.”
“That’s funny, because you’re sure quick to beat yourself up over the little stuff.”
“I just wish she felt like she could talk to me.” Emma ate the last bite of cake and set her plate aside.
“You’ll get there. It takes time, that’s all. Teenagers are weird. Super open about some things, secretive about others. I try to let Cody tell me about stuff in his own time. Lord knows prying doesn’t help. They’re like opihi; one clumsy attempt and they’re stuck tight. No getting anything out of them after that, at least for a while.”
Emma nodded, still gazing down the beach at the fledgling couple.
Her phone buzzed, and a message popped up.
“Kai’s friend is here,” she told Tara. “I need to run up to the top of the stairs to get him.”
“Here, let me take your plate.”
“Thank you.” She stood and waved to Kai, who was building a driftwood fort with his cousins.
“Is Prince here?” he shouted.
“Yep! Want to walk up with me?”
“Coming!” Already running, he shouted back at his cousins, “I’ll be right back! Don’t steal any pieces from my wall!”
He stumbled and slowed when he reached Emma, and she took his hand in hers. They walked across the sand, speeding to a sprint when it started to burn their feet, and then slowed when they reached the cool, wet pavement by the showers.
“Hey mom?” Kai said as they started up the stairs. “You’re my favorite person.”
Emotion pricked at Emma’s eyes as she smiled down at him.
“Same to you, kiddo.”
30
Lani
Lani’s hair was still damp from her post-wedding surf session when she padded barefoot across the grass of the cemetery. Alae was just down the road from Honoli‘i, and it felt wrong to drive home without paying her family a visit.
“Hey Mom.” Tears filled her eyes as she knelt down between her parents’ graves. “Hi Dad.”
She tried to say more, but her throat was too tight for words. After a few false starts, she gave up and bowed her head. Tears flowed silently down her cheeks, releasing the undercurrent of grief that had been pulling at her all day.
“I wish you could have been there,” she said at last.
Tenn squeezed her shoulder and sat down beside her, sitting cross-legged at her mother’s feet. He handed her a handkerchief, and she used it to wipe her face and blow her nose.
He wore the silk shirt that he had worn for their wedding ceremony, and beneath it a pair of board shorts still damp fromthe river. After they got back from surfing, he spent an hour playing in the river with their girls.
He looked so handsome in that moment, and his dark eyes brimmed with such love and adoration that Lani’s grief for her parents was eclipsed again by joy and gratitude. It felt like too much for one heart to hold.
“Don’t cry, Mama.” Rory crawled into her lap and hugged her.
“It’s okay to cry sometimes,” Lani said.
“Is this where they put your parents?”
“Yeah, this is the place.” She turned towards Tenn so that they could look left and see the ocean. “Nice view, huh?”
“Yeah.” Rory gave the horizon a cursory glance and looked back to Lani, her luminous brown eyes full of concern. “Do you miss them a lot?”
