Page 3 of Big Island Moonlight
“Okay.” Lani dragged the word out, not fully believing her.
Fair enough. Pure happiness was something that Emma didn’t ever expect to feel again. There was always grief mixed in. Maybe that was just a part of getting older; emotions were always mixed, never uncomplicated. If anything, though, her underlying grief made the happy moments all the more precious.
“Where’s the cake?” Rory demanded, sprinting up and skidding to a halt.
“There’s no cake,” Kai said with disgust. “It’s just fruit.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Weird.”
“Baby parties,” he grumbled. Then he shrugged. “Want to play tag?”
“Sure! Let’s find Livie. And more cousins!”
They ran off, and Emma watched them with a smile.
“Two peas in a pod,” Lani said.
“They really are.” Emma put an arm around her cousin’s shoulders. “We’ve missed you guys.”
“It’s been a couple of weeks, hasn’t it?” Lani leaned in and looped an arm around Emma’s waist. “The days just keep getting away from us. I never should have let the girls sign up for soccer.”
“But do they love it?”
Lani sighed. “Yeah, they love it.”
“Beach tomorrow?”
“Sounds good.”
They stood quietly for a while, just watching the kids play and enjoying the cool winter breeze.
A figure moved towards them through the crowd, and a jolt of awareness went through Emma’s body even before her brain registered who it was. His thick, sun-streaked hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, and a fitted Pualena Permaculture t-shirt highlighted the muscles he had earned working ten hours a day in the food forests he’d created.
Keith’s clear blue eyes brightened when he caught her gaze. When he reached them, he held out the gift bag he carried to Emma as if it were her party.
“For your nephew,” he said.
Lani tried to slip away, but Emma tightened her grip on her cousin’s shoulders, using her like a human shield. Then she realized what she was doing, and she let her go.
There was no reason to be nervous around Keith. Shewasn’tnervous. They saw each other at least once a week; Keith had helped her to redesign the community garden and bring it to life. They were good friends, these days. Even so, the electric current that buzzed through her arms when he singled her out in a crowd felt a lot like nerves.
“Thank you,” she said, accepting the gift. It was heavy.
“Where’s the birthday boy?”
She scanned the crowd, a chaotic maelstrom of overexcited toddlers and hovering parents. Finally she spotted Theo under a table, painting the chair in front of him with whipped cream. She laughed and pointed him out to Keith.
“I’ve gotta run,” he said. “I just had a few minutes between classes, so I thought I’d bring this over.”
“What is it?”
“Go ahead and peek.” He glanced at the birthday boy, who was now licking whipped cream off of a table leg. “I don’t think he’ll mind.”
She snorted a laugh and peeked beneath the tropical foliage that Keith had used in place of tissue paper. The gift bag contained a beautiful selection of wooden blocks, all of them sanded until the corners were round and then polished to a shine.
“These are beautiful,” she said.
“Thanks. I was glad to put the scrap wood to good use. And I just used beeswax on them, so they’re safe for babies.”
