Page 72 of Big Island Summer
“Put up with me?”
“Get over myself. And get used to it. You make him happy, and Olivia adores you. That’s all that matters. The way I’ve treated you… you didn’t deserve it. Can we start over?”
“Yes,” Lani said without hesitation.
Sonya put a hand over her eyes, moved to tears – or just exhausted by the events of the day.
Lani squeezed her shoulder and said, “Let’s go back in.”
“You go ahead. I just need another minute.”
Tenn was standing at Olivia’s bedside, holding her hand. When Lani walked in, he looked up – his eyes were red from crying – and immediately held out his free arm. She stepped under it and wrapped both arms around his waist while he held tight to her shoulders.
“Hey Mom.” Olivia smiled up at her, still half asleep. “Can we go home now?”
“Soon,” Lani promised. “We’ll go home soon.”
22
Fern
“How much farther?” Ethan huffed, out of breath.
“You’re tired already?” She turned around with a grin, putting her hands on her hips.
“Honestly?” His answering grin was bashful and boyish. “Yeah.”
“How is that possible? You never stop moving!”
“I’m used to working all day, but I can’t remember the last time I went for a real hike.”
“Is this a real hike?” she teased, walking backwards now. “Pretty sure the elevation gain is, like, negative twenty feet.
“From start to finish, sure. But it’s up and down the whole way.”
“Do you want me to carry Theodore for a while?”
“No. Thank you.” He stood straighter and tightened the straps on the oversized baby carrier he’d found at the transfer station. It was basically a baby-sized tent, and Theo wassnoozing on his dad’s back beneath a zipped-up structure of mosquito netting.
“Are you sure? We’ve got another mile or two.”
“I’ve got him.”
“Onward, then.” Fern’s long legs ate up the narrow trail as she stepped over errant tree roots and leapt over muddy puddles. They had started out on the coast, walking along the black rock of the cliffs, and then cut into the jungle when the back of Ethan’s neck turned red.
When the trail widened enough for two, he moved up to walk by her side.
“It’s good to get out,” he said after a while. “I haven’t explored at all since I got here.”
“There’s so much to see.”
“I know. I’ve done the tourist thing a few times… a lifetime ago, now.”
“It’s easy to get complacent when you actually live here. No end date, no racing against the clock.”
“Island time.”
Fern laughed. “Exactly. I crossed some big things off my bucket list when I first got here. But then, once I settled in, I just sort of stopped exploring. Which is silly, really, when proximity to all those new adventures is the reason I moved here.”
