Page 9 of Big Island Weddings
Olivia had spent the night with her grandparents (an invitation that Rory had never been included in, despite Tenn’s gentle suggestions that she would like to have her friend along) and Tenn had left before dawn, so there was no one there when they left the house and drove the short distance to the playground in Pualena where she had agreed to meet Lorenzo.
She hadn’t breathed a word of this to anyone, not even Rory.
Maybe she was still hoping that he would just disappear into thin air, much in the same way he had dropped out of the clear blue sky, and she would be able to go back to her life.
But there he was when she pulled into the parking lot, sitting on the park bench. His knee bounced nervously, and he held a bouquet of flowers in one hand.
Why did he have to be sosweet?
“I have a surprise for you,” Lani said as she parked the car. Her voice came out flat, but Rory perked up at the word ‘surprise’.
“What is it?”
Lani chewed her tongue, second guessing herself. Maybe she should have just let Rory out to play? But what if he came right up to her with a bunch of flowers? How would she explain that?
Shewanted to be the one to tell her, and she didn’t know what to expect from Lorenzo.
“What’s the surprise?” Rory demanded.
Lani turned in her seat to look at her. “Remember how I met your father a long time ago, but then I couldn’t find him again?”
She stilled, and her eyes went wide. “You mean my real dad?”
“Right, your biological father.”
“Not the one who shot Daddy?”
Lani winced. “Right. Not Zeke.”
They had done their best to keep the source of his injury secret from the girls, but the incident had been big news in their small town. The girls had heard it from other kids on the playground, but they had taken it in stride. After all, he was fine.
You could never predict how kids would react to potentially life-shattering news.
And then there was the fact that Rory had just started to call Tenn ‘Daddy’. That was the same day that Olivia asked Lani if she could call her ‘Mom’, though she was more shy about it.
How would Lorenzo react when he found out that Rory had another father figure in her life so soon after Lani’s divorce?
He seemed nice enough now, but she had seen how drastically men could change. She had lived through thenightmare of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for years with her ex, and she wasn’t prepared to go down that road again.
But what choice did she have?
“Mama?” Rory prompted. Lani refocused on her daughter.
“His name is Lorenzo. I only met him one time, but he’s your biological father. I never knew his last name, or where he lived, so I couldn’t find him again when I realized that I was going to have a baby. So he never knew about you. But he does now, and he wants to meet you.”
Her luminous brown eyes went even wider. “Is hehere?”
“Yes.” She glanced back out the front windshield and saw the man in question staring at her, frozen. He had spotted them.
“Where?” Rory dove between the seats and popped up again in the passenger seat, pressing her nose to the glass. “Is he the one with the flowers?!”
It was early still, and he was the only man nearby. There was only one other man in the entire park, a grandfather pushing a baby over at the swings.
“That’s him,” Lani admitted.
Before she could stop her, Rory was out of the car and sprinting towards Lorenzo. Lani jumped out and ran after her, practically tripping over her own feet in her rush to follow.
When Rory reached the bench, a sudden shyness seized her. She took one look at Lorenzo, then turned and hid her face in Lani’s skirt.
