Page 12 of Big Island Sunset
“My pleasure! You’ve got to get up early to catch the light. It’s easier than driving to Kona for sunset photoshoots, though I do plenty of that too. Golden hour comes but twice a day.”
“This is my husband, Tenn,” she introduced him. “This is Alohi.”
The other woman shook his hand, suddenly shy and quiet.
“And these are our daughters, Rory and Olivia.”
“Hello,” Alohi said. “You look so pretty today!” she told Olivia. And then, to Rory, “And you are so cute!” She looked at Tenn and added, “She looks just like you!”
“She looks like her beautiful mother,” he deflected gracefully.
“We should go if we’re going to catch the sunrise,” Lani said.
“Right!” Alohi turned and charged down the lava-rock path through grass and greenery. Lani took Rory’s hand and followed.
“ButI’myour daughter,” she heard Olivia say behind them.
“You both are now,” Tenn said gently.
“I know, but she already has a dad. She has three dads!”
“The first one doesn’t count,” Rory said over her shoulder, her tone matter of fact. “He’s in jail.”
Lani sighed and pulled her along, trying to give Tenn and Olivia a bit of space.
“She doesn’t even look like you!” Olivia whined.
“I do!” Rory insisted, pulling against Lani’s hand and turning to look at Olivia. “We have the same hair and dark eyes and golden arms! We’re the same!”
Olivia’s eyes filled with tears. Rory looked up at Lani in confusion, and Lani gave Tenn an apologetic glance.
“Rory,” she said, “let’s run and catch up with Alohi.”
She gave her big sister one last bewildered look, clearly aware that something was wrong but not understanding what it was or how to fix it. Then she turned and ran up the path.
Lani looked back to Tenn, who smiled and nodded for her to go ahead. As she strode after Rory, she could hear her husband and stepdaughter talking.
“I do look like you!” Olivia said, crying in earnest now. “You’remydad!”
“I know you do, sweetheart. But your hair is golden and your eyes are blue, and sometimes that’s as far as people see. They don’t take the time to look closer.”
Olivia’s reply was lost in the distance as Lani followed a bend in the path. Rory sprinted ahead, her shiny black hair flowing behind her. It wasn’t true black anymore, not after so much Hawaiian sunshine, but the auburn undertones were only visible in direct sunlight.
Shedidn’tlook like Tenn, not really. Lani caught glimpses of herself sometimes, and of her parents, but mostly Rory resembled Lorenzo. She could see it in the angle of her eyes and the shape of her chin. Even their smiles were the same.
Rory loved her babbo, and Lani was grateful for her daughter’s sake that she wouldn’t be estranged from that side of her family, but Tenn was herdad. He had stepped fully into that role, treating Rory just the same as he treated his own daughter. He showered them with love in the form of bedtime stories and game nights and their favorite foods.
It left Lani wondering if she had failed to do the same with Olivia.
Lani tried. She really did.
She took both girls to the beach, did art projects together, and tucked them both in at night. But as much as she loved Olivia, she didn’t know if she would ever feel the same way about her as she did the little girl she had grown in her belly and fed at her breast.
Lani and Rory had escaped domestic violence together and started a new life; it had always been them against the world.
She loved Olivia, but she loved her the way she loved her little cousins.
And suddenly she worried that wasn’t enough.
