Page 20 of Big Island Sunset
Juniper thought for a moment. “Lychee.”
“Okay.” Emma sat down across from her. “We’ll get you some lychee.”
“But my dad’s going to be here any minute,” she said, turning green again.
“I’ll send out an SOS. Is Nate and ‘Olena’s orchard still producing?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. We’ll get you some.”
“Thanks, Auntie Em.” Juniper unwrapped another ginger candy and popped it into her mouth. After a moment of silence, she looked at her with fear in her hazel-green eyes. “Will you talk to my dad for me?”
Emma’s jaw dropped. “You wantmeto tell him?”
“Could you?” Juniper’s face was pale. She looked so young and vulnerable that Emma couldn’t bring herself to say no.
She dragged in a long breath. “I guess so.”
“I need to lie down.”
“You want me to tell him while you take a nap?” Emma said, incredulous.
Juniper looked at her with puppy-dog eyes, made all the more effective by her strange pallor and hollow cheeks. She had lost weight during the first few weeks of her pregnancy, which worried Emma to no end. They had made an appointment at the local clinic, but she wasn’t sure what they would be able to do. In her experience, the nausea just had to be endured.
“Okay,” she relented. “I’ll tell him.”
“I appreciate you,” Jun said earnestly.
“I love you,” Emma told her niece. “I’m here for you.”
“Thanks.” She blinked back tears. “I love you too.”
“Let me see about that lychee.” Emma pulled out her phone and sent a message out into the group chat that she had going with Lani, ‘Olena, Tara, and Nell. “I’m sure someone can bring us a bag. If not, I’ll pick one up after your dad leaves.”
Juniper put her forehead on the table with athunk.
“Everything is going to be okay, kiddo.”
“Nothing’s ever going to be the same between my dad and me,” she mumbled against the tabletop.
“I think you already passed the point of no return on that one.”
“But we’ve been kinda sorta okay lately.” She sat up and unwrapped another ginger candy. “And now it’s all gonna go up in flames again.”
“He might take it better than you think. If you just sit him down and tell him–”
Jun looked up with a start. “Don’t make me tell him.”
Emma sighed. “I can’t make you do anything.”
“Won’t you tell him for me?”
“I already said that I would.”
“Okay. I’m gonna go lie down.”
Emma couldn’t argue with her, not when the sight of the dark circles under Juniper’s eyes was gnawing holes in her stomach.
