Page 91 of Big Island Summer
She let her hand drop, and her fingers brushed his arm in passing.
“I’m sorry if I pushed too hard before,” he told her. “We can be whatever you need us to be. I’ve missed you.”
There was a moment of tension, a moment when he seemed to be drawing closer, and then a shout from Kai startled her into taking a step back.
“Mom!” he came sprinting around the corner and down the trail, unfazed by the long hike that had drained everyone else. “I found you! Did you get lost?”
“You found me!” She put her arms around him when he barreled into her. Up the trail, Juniper gave her a shrug and an apologetic grimace.
“Everyone else is at the waterfall!” Kai said.
“Okay.” She met Keith’s eyes and smiled. “I’ll call you.”
“I’ll be around.” He walked backwards for a few steps, looking at her, then turned around and hiked down the trail.
“Comeon,” Kai groaned, pulling her hand. “We’re gonna go swimming.”
“Okay, okay, I’m coming.”
When they reached the pool at the base of the waterfall, everyone else was already in the water. Cody crossed the pool in long strokes and started up the cliff with Juniper right behind. Fern stood waist-deep in the calm shallows and lifted Teddy up and down, dipping his toes in and out of the icy water while Ethan watched them in adoration.
It was a shock, seeing her twin fall for anyone. They had each been paired off since they were teenagers. She had Adam, and Ethan had Laurel.
Until they didn’t.
Her brother had loved his wife every bit as much as Emma had loved Adam. If anything, his loyalty to his wife had surpassed anything that Emma was capable of.
If she had fallen in love with someone who then became an addict, she never could have stayed with them through relapse after relapse.
Ethan had. And he would have kept right on standing by his wife, for better or for worse.
To see him find someone again so quickly was as shocking as diving into the icy water that ran down from the mountain. She found it hard to understand… and hard to approve of, even though the logical part of her mind knew that she had no business judging her brother’s choices.
After the initial shock, though… she found herself quickly getting used to the idea.
She had liked Fern before Ethan had ever met her. Heck, she had introduced them. This wasn’t what she’d had in mind, but the joy she saw on all three faces as the budding family stood together in the shallows outshone any doubts she might have had.
Somehow, Ethan had found something real and true, even in the midst of his grief.
He had found a way to let someone in.
Maybe someday, she would be able to do the same.
“Are you coming or what?” Kai shouted.
He was shuffling slowly into the pond, cautious of slippery rocks. His arms went up at a comical angle as he got deeper, still trying to keep them up above the cold water.
Emma kicked off her shoes and walked up onto a sunwarmed rock above the deep end of the pool. She looked at Kai, took a deep breath, and dived right in.
The water was shockingly cold – but before she even surfaced, she started to get used to it. She swam across the pool and burst up from the water next to Kai, who laughed and shrieked and fell into the water. She scooped him into her arms and stood, heart soaring at the sound of his laughter. He clung to her as they watched Juniper and Cody jump hand in hand from the cliff.
“Can we do that?” he asked, awe-struck.
“If you want to.”
“Only if you hold my hand.”
“Deal. Let’s go.”
