Page 71 of Big Island Summer
“Is she okay?” Lani asked Ken when the door swung shut.
“Why don’t you go ask her?” he asked kindly.
Lani looked at her stepdaughter, reluctant to leave her side, but Ken moved to sit on the other side of the bed.
“I’ll stay with Olivia.”
“Okay.” Reluctantly, she let go of Livie’s hand. “Thank you.”
She found Sonya standing just down the hall. She stood against a wall, head back against the concrete, arms crossed tight over her chest. Her eyes were closed, and her face was pale and drawn. Lani went to stand beside her.
“Sonya?” she said softly. “Are you alright?”
“Not a scratch on me,” she said bitterly.
“You were driving?”
Sonya opened her eyes. “It was just me and Olivia. We were driving home from the toy store. I don’t know what happened. I drove through a green light – it was green, Iknowit was green – and out of nowhere, this car plowed into us. Right into Olivia’s side of the car.” Her voice broke on her granddaughter’s name.
“That must have been terrifying.”
“Worst moment of my life. Right up there with getting the call about Tennyson.”
Lani glanced down the hall. She could see the door of the room where Tenn had recovered from his gunshot wound.
“It’s not easy being back here.”
“No,” Sonya agreed. “It’s not.”
“I never wanted him to take a bullet for me,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “I had no idea that would happen. I never thought that he would get hurt.”
“But he did.”
“Yeah.” Lani put her head back against the concrete wall with a faintthump. “He did.”
“It’s not your fault.” Sonya’s voice was flat. “I know that. But every time I looked at you, I saw him in that hospital bed… and I felt it all over again, how close we came to losing him.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” She turned and looked at Lani with intense focus. Her bright blue eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. “I’msorry. I’ve been awful. And you didn’t deserve it.”
“I forgive you,” Lani said quietly, and Sonya pulled her into a hug.
“You’re a family now, which means that you’remyfamily. You and Rory both. And I am so sorry for not treating you like it.”
Footsteps – a familiar stride – pulled her attention down the hall. She peered over her mother-in-law’s shoulder and caught sight of Tenn.
His eyes met hers for a moment and he offered her a tight, worried smile before going straight into Olivia’s room. He had to see for herself that she was okay.
“Olivia’s mother put him through hell,” Sonya said, releasing her. “But we made a good show of it, the three of us. We raised that baby ourselves.”
“And then I came along and messed everything up.”
“It was an adjustment. And it was fast. I’ll admit that I just about had a heart attack the first time I heard her call you ‘Mom’.”
Lani laughed. “Me too.”
“She adores you. My son adores you. So I’ll just have to–”
