Page 82 of Big Island Summer
“What?” Emma looked at her in surprise. “Why?”
“Em, she’sgorgeous. She looks like a fashion model and moves like a dancer. We should have seen this coming.”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“But what?”
“It’s just so soon.”
“Everyone grieves in their own way, and in their own time. And honestly? Some men just don’t know how to be alone. They jump straight from one woman to the next. No offence, Jun.”
Juniper just shrugged. “No worries. That about sums it up.”
Emma shook her head, still processing. “He’s never been with anyone but Laurel.”
“So he has some catching up to do,” Lani teased.
“Don’t tell him I told you,” Jun fretted. A half-second later, her eyes narrowed and she shrugged. “Or do. Whatever. I don’t care.”
“You aremoodytoday,” Lani said.
“I’m seventeen and my mom is dead. I’m allowed.”
“I’ll let that slide for today. Just don’t milk it too long, or ‘allowed’ turns into ‘entitled’.”
Juniper stuck her tongue out at her but followed it up with a genuine smile.
“How are you feeling about all that?” Emma asked.
“About my dad and the yoga teacher?”
“Yeah.”
She shrugged. “Whatever makes him happy, I guess.”
“Very mature,” Lani said.
“Very demure,” Juniper murmured. “Very mindful.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” Jun said with a laugh.
“It’s an internet thing,” Emma explained, and Lani rolled her eyes.
“Fern’s cool. I liked her before my dad moved in there, so it would be stupid to turn around and hate her now.” She ate another bite of the double chocolate. “I didn’t exactly take it well, to be honest. I definitely didn’t expect him to start dating right away… but it’s not like he did it on purpose. You never know when you’re going to meet somebody.”
“Like you and the boy next door?” Lani teased.
Juniper’s face turned red, and she focused on digging a hunk of chocolate out of her ice cream.
“Look at her blush!”
“Oh, leave her be,” Emma said, even though some childish corner of her heart wanted to tease Juniper about her boyfriend the same way that her niece had teasedherabout their permaculture instructor, Keith.
Jun and Cody, sitting in a tree…
On the other side of the house, Dio barked and the chain on the gate rattled.
