Page 7 of Big Island Summer
“Yes. Right. Of course.” Fern hurried to step back, giving Tiffany room to enter.
As the girl walked inside and surveyed the boxed-up kitchen, Fern took a long look at her. She wassoyoung. Twenty, maybe? Young enough to be Fern’s daughter, if she’d started at nineteen the way her own mother had.
“It’s so empty in here.” Tiffany turned to her, wide eyed. “Was everything his?”
Fern sighed and gestured to the boxes that she had stacked by the door. “This is all of his stuff here.”
“Gotcha.” Tiffany grabbed the nearest box and grunted with surprise when she felt its weight.
“That one has the espresso machine.” Fern hurried to take it from her, then nudged another box with her bare foot. It was the same size, but all it had inside were clothes. “Grab that one, would you?”
The younger woman looked nervously at the box that Fern held. “You don’t have to do that.”
“It’s fine.” Fern shifted the weight in her arms, hardly straining.
The last thing that she needed was for the tiny blonde to hurt herself hauling heavy boxes – or worse, tumble down the steep outdoor steps. They could be slick when the weather was gray.
“You know what? I can just carry it all down.”
“You really don’t have to.”
“It’s fine.”
The door was still open a few inches. Fern opened it the rest of the way with her foot and stepped out onto the landing. Tiffany grabbed the lighter box and followed.
“The car’s right around the front.” Tiffany had an odd energy to her, bright and friendly and anxious to please. Fern wasn’tsurprised that Chad had gravitated towards her. She had a harder time understanding what Tiffany saw in a staid, almost grim, man in his mid forties.
Heck, at this point Fern didn’t understand what she had seen in the man herself. She almost pitied the younger woman for tying herself to him permanently with a baby. She was bound to regret that… if she didn’t already.
But what could anyone do but make the best of things?
At the bottom of the stairs, Fern turned onto the wet green lawn and rounded the corner until she found Tiffany’s car. Chad’s car, actually. Seeing the familiar white Lexus gave her a strange sense of vertigo.
Tiffany opened the back with the click of a button, and Fern set the box inside.
“We’ll never get everything in without putting the seats down.”
“How do you get the seats down?”
Fern sighed and went around to the side door. It only took her a minute to fold the seats down and triple the available space.
She and Chad had slept back there for a while, when they were new to the island and searching for a place to live. Her battered old CRV had been packed with all of their stuff, and the Lexus was their bedroom. She’d wanted to keep using it as one even after they had found this place, wanted to explore their new home and stay overnight at beaches on the other side of the island, but Chad had no desire to sleep in a car if he didn’t have to.
His daily life in Hawaii hadn’t looked much different than winters in Seattle. She had thought before the move that his sedentary habits were a result of inclement weather, but even in the tropics he lived his life inside.
He’d actually spent more time at home than ever, complaining that there was nothing to do in Pualena or even up in Hilo. Small-town life didn’t suit him. Was that why he had gone for the excitement of a fling with a twenty year old? Where would Tiffany be when that wore off?
“Not my problem,” Fern muttered under her breath. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her head, and reached for the box containing the heavy espresso maker.
“What did you say?” Tiffany asked, so close behind her that Fern jumped.
“Nothing.” She dragged the box to the front and settled it just behind the passenger seat, then backed out of the car and straightened. “I’ll get the rest of the boxes.”
“I can help.”
She glanced at Tiffany’s platform sandals. “I really don’t want you going up and down the stairs.”
The girl twisted her hands together anxiously. “I can’t let you do it all on your own.”
