Page 14 of Big Island Sunset
Some days, she wasn’t sure that she deserved either one of them. But there they were.
“Hey Mom!” Rory ran across the forest floor, the deep pine needle bedding absorbing the sound of her footsteps. Olivia hopped down from a tree and ran to catch up. “Can we go get malasadas now?”
“Do we have to?” Lani asked, teasing her.
“You promised!” Rory shouted with a soundless stomp of her foot.
“I suppose I did.”
“Livie!” Rory turned around, then shrieked with laughter when she discovered that Olivia was standing right behind her. “It’s time for malasadas!”
“Let’s go!” The girls were off down the path before Lani was even on her feet.
Tenn stood and offered her his hand. They walked down the path to where their daughters stood waiting.
Rory was bouncing with excitement when they got to the bakery, and she hadn’t even eaten her sugar-bomb pastry yet.
“Hello!” she sang out as she opened the front door. “Aloha! Buongiorno!”
The auntie behind the counter beamed. “Hello Rory!”
Lani blinked, wondering how her daughter had come to be on a first-name basis with the malasada lady.
“Where’s your dad?” the woman asked.
Oh. Right.
“That’s my babbo,” Rory said casually. “This is my other dad.”
“Oh. Hello.” The woman faltered a bit, then regained her smile as she looked back at Rory. “We have pineapple today. Sound good?”
“Yes please!”
“And what can I get for your friend?” she asked, looking at Olivia. Lani watched her face fall.
Rory noticed too and declared, “She’s my sister!”
Tenn smiled at Rory and gave Lani a bright-eyed glance, but Olivia still looked crestfallen.
“What flavor would you like?”
Olivia mumbled something that Lani couldn’t make out.
“What was that?”
“She said she wants custard, please!” Rory said, half yelling.
“Anything for the grownups?” she asked, looking at Lani and Tenn.
“I’ll try the lilikoi,” he said, looking at Lani.
She nodded. “Me too.”
“Coming right up!” the woman said brightly.
They got their pastries and filed into a booth by the window. The malasadas were divine, crisp outside giving way to a soft center with the sweet tang of lilikoi. Olivia perked up again as they ate and chatted, but the unease in Lani’s heart didn’t fully let up.
She wanted Olivia to feel at ease in their little family of four. She wanted her to know that she belonged. Maybe Tenn was right, and it would just take time… but she promised herself to make a point of showing Olivia how much she cared.
