Page 63 of Big Island Summer
“I’d love to.”
“Okay. I’ll carry him up.”
She stepped aside and let him in.
“He’s really conked out.” He stood for a moment just looking down at his son. The expression on his face was the softest she had ever seen.
He picked up the portable cradle and carried it carefully out the door and up the steps, his work boots steady on each of the non-slip strips that he’d installed.
Upstairs, she was astonished to see beautiful gray tile on the kitchen floor.
“I thought that you were going to get something inexpensive,” she said.
“I got a great deal on these. Some rich lady in Kona changed her mind after the tile had already been shipped from the mainland, and her contractor sold me these for next to nothing.”
“You drove all the way to Kona for this?”
“I don’t have much else to do,” he said with a shrug. “Teddy sleeps well in his car seat. As long as the car’s moving, that is.”
Another bashful, unexpected smile made her heart skip a beat.
“Hello?” An uncertain voice cracked mid-word. Fern turned to see a teenage boy standing outside on the landing. Ethanstrode across the living room, and the kid handed him two big bags of food through the open door.
“Thanks.” Ethan handed him cash. “Keep the change.”
“Mahalo!” The kid took the wood steps down two at a time.
Ethan turned back to her, grinning like a little boy who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He held up the two takeout bags, and the smell of coconut milk and lemongrass drifted across the room.
“I always order enough for an army,” he said. “Will you stay and eat with me?”
It should have felt strange, being a guest in the apartment that had been hers just a few weeks before… but it didn’t. She closed the front door and then checked on Theo, who was still sound asleep. Ethan set the table as she sat down and looked out the window.
The view from this side of the house was solid green, her garden backed by an overgrown lot and albizia trees in the distance. She liked her cozy little home downstairs, but she missed this view.
“Do you like tom kha gai?” Ethan asked as he pulled out the chair that stood at a ninety-degree angle from hers.
“It’s my favorite.”
“Mine too.” He ladled a full serving into her bowl before serving himself.
The sharp smells of citrus and galangal filled the air, carried by a warm undercurrent of coconut milk and chicken broth. Fern leaned forward and inhaled the steam before picking up her spoon.
“It’s a good thing that the few restaurants that Pualena does have are good, because I’ve pretty much been living off of them.”
“Yeah, we’re lucky in that way.” She sipped the off-white broth from her spoon and reflected on all of the ways in whichthe small town that had accepted her was extraordinary. “In every way, really.”
“It’s a special place,” he agreed. “I can see why Emma stayed. And why Jun doesn’t want to leave.”
“Where were you before?”
“Jun grew up in Santa Cruz.”
“California?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s beautiful there.” Fern had passed through the beach town – beach city, really – a dozen times during the year that she lived in a converted van, traveling up and down the West Coast.
