Page 27 of Big Island Summer
Okay if Kai hangs with you guys for a couple hours while I go to a yoga class?
Of course,Tara responded a minute later.
And then,Stop by after class if you want to taste test my new lilikoi tarts. They’re not quite ready for meal delivery, but I can’t figure out what they need.
Sounds like a plan, Emma said.Thanks!
Teddy was crying again when Emma walked through the living room and out to the car. She wondered if his little belly was having trouble adjusting to the formula – it seemed that he cried after feedings more often than not. Poor guy.
A big part of her wanted to go back inside, but she forced herself to keep walking.
There was helping, and then there was being an overbearing nuisance.
Her family’s help had kept her afloat after Adam died, but eventually their overbearing concern had sent her fleeing across the ocean in search of some peace. There was a balance to be found there, and her family – her mother in particular – had leaned in a bit too far.
She was still figuring out the balance when it came to Ethan and his infant son. She wanted to help her brother, but she also didn’t want to overwhelm him or take over Teddy’s care so completely that Ethan was left without anything to anchor him.
Anxiety moved through Emma’s body in tremors as she drove the few minutes over to Fern’s yoga class. It was more than confusion over how best to help her family through this, though that was a big part of it.
It was incredibly difficult trying to support Ethan through his grief when her own was still so raw. She had only just found some stability in her life and in her heart; it hadn’t even been a full year since she’d lost Adam. There was a bitterness beneath her sympathy that frightened her.
Yes, Ethan had loved his wife. But the woman had been in and out of rehab for over a decade; the sweet girl he’d married had disappeared a long time ago.
Adam was Emma’s whole life. They had done everything together, been everything to each other, and their relationship had only grown stronger and deeper over the years.
She hated herself for comparing the two, for thinking that her brother felt his loss any less deeply than she did. But that bitterness was still there, simmering away beneath all of her soft words, no matter how much she tried to quash it.
When the two-story building came into view, she remembered the yoga teacher’s plea from the week before in a sudden flash of inspiration.
The yoga teacher was outside already, graceful and statuesque as she set out props for class. Somehow she looked even taller without her dreads.
“Good morning, Fern.”
“Hi!” Her smile was warm. “Emma, right? It’s good to see you again.”
“You too. Hey, is that apartment still available?”
“Yeah! Two bedrooms on the second floor. Why, are you looking?”
“Not for me, but I think I know the perfect tenant…”
9
Fern
Fern was still scrubbing baseboards when she heard a knock on the door.
There was everyday clean, and then there wasHawaii prices for an unspectacular rentalclean, and she wasn’t used to the latter.
The worst of it was the mold and mildew, bane of Pualena. When she moved all of her dishes out of the cupboards, she was horrified to find a thin fuzz of green mold growing on the back wall. Once that had been scrubbed, she moved on to the stubborn black stains that seemed to pop up everywhere.
After two solid days of cleaning, the place was… well, not perfect, but about as good as it was likely to get. She tossed her rag in the sink, rinsed her hands, and went to open the door.
“Hi,” she said as it swung open.
And that one syllable was all she got out, because on the landing were a pair of faces that took her breath away.
She stood eye to eye with one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. He was probably an inch or two taller than she was, but slightly stooped under the weight of his baby and the backpack he carried – and his grief.
