Page 15 of Big Island Weddings
She nodded. “Okay.”
He kissed her hands and grinned. She steeled herself against another bid for a beach day and then wondered if she should just give in.
What he said next moved her more than any of his declarations of love.
“So. What needs doing today? Put me to work.”
“You want to do the dishes?” she asked, half joking.
He nodded once and stood. “On it.”
‘Olena stared after him as he walked inside. “For reals?”
“Shoots!” he shouted back over his shoulder. “If we can finish these chores quick enough, maybe you’ll jump in the ocean with me.”
She laughed and shook her head as she went back to weeding. But there was a new warmth in her chest, and something else too. A growing trust.
The roots were there. They always had been, even after the plant aboveground died back and ‘Olena hacked it away. Those memories – of their shared childhood, their youthful romance, the early years of their marriage – had always been there, biding their time.
And now all those old feelings were growing back up again, fast as a tropical plant.
Trust, desire… love.
6
Emma
The sun hovered just behind the tops of the trees as Emma stood at the sink washing breakfast dishes. A starburst of morning sunlight filtered through the distant branches of the ?ohi?a trees, dazzling her every time she looked up.
“I think two thousand will be enough to start.” Juniper sat at the kitchen table, poring over her notes and numbers. “That should cover a tent, tables, drink dispensers, and market fees. I can paint my own sign, and most of the ingredients I’ll use for tea and lemonade are growing here in the yard.”
Emma dried her hands and sat down across from her niece. “Are you going to take Toni up on her offer of a loan?”
Juniper shook her head. “That was really sweet of her, but she doesn’t have that kind of money. She’s still working on expanding her own gardens after having to move. Whatever money she has to invest should go back intoherbusiness.”
“I could loan you the money,” she offered.
“Thank you, but you’re doing enough for me already.”
“I would love to invest in your business,” she pressed, but Juniper shook her head. “It’s no big thing.”
“It is to me,” Juniper said firmly. She met her gaze with hazel green eyes that were just like Emma’s… but with a ferocity that was all Jun. “I want to do this myself.”
She nodded solemnly. “So what’s the plan?”
“I’ve got some money saved already. Picking lychee and selling it, I can probably earn the rest by the end of the month. I’ll buy supplies as I go so that I’m ready to hit the ground running once I have everything. I’ll start with cold drinks this summer while it’s hot and expand from there.”
“Sounds brilliant.”
Juniper grinned, a quick flash of teeth as fierce as it was bright. Then she sobered. “What I really need is a driver’s license. Luckily I can ride with Cody to pick lychee, but I don’t want you carting me to every farmer’s market.”
“I don’t mind,” Emma said quickly. It wasn’t as if she had a job of her own to go to. The amount of work that the Kealoha place required was heavy, but it was also flexible. Aside from morning and evening milkings, she didn’t have a strict schedule.
“But I do, though,” Juniper said softly. “I want to do this myself.”
Emma’s heart twisted as she wondered how much of this independence was a healthy part of growing up and how much of it was born of how deeply Juniper’s parents had failed her. With an unstable mother and a father who was more concerned with his wife than his daughter, Juniper was desperate to stand on her own two feet.
Emma was happy to support her, as was Toni… but she supposed it was healthy that Juniper didn’t want to live off of her aunts. She was remarkably driven for seventeen, not unlikethe boy next door. Emma was grateful that her niece had found a friend her own age; with no school and no interest in sports or clubs with other teenagers, she didn’t know how else Juniper would have found one.
