He ran to a spot where the water was about two inches deep, squealing and laughing and splashing until he fell back on his butt. Then he got up and did the whole thing again.
Akemi called Lorenzo and flipped the camera so that he could see Kaleo splash and play.
“Ma che meraviglia!” he exclaimed. “What a beautiful life he has there!”
“You should come,” she blurted without forethought. “We miss you.”
“I miss you too,amore. I will come as soon as I can. Right now I’m sorry I must go, I have a tour beginning in just a minute.”
“At night?” she asked skeptically.
“Yes, we have added a food and wine tour of Firenze. It’s very popular.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“I will call you in the morning, before Kaleo falls asleep tonight.”
“Okay,” she said again, feeling suddenly down.
“Ciao, amore.Give ourleoncinomany kisses from hisbabbo.”
“Sure.” Akemi hit the red button and put her phone in her pocket.
Lorenzo was all sweet words and promises. But he was onthe other side of the world. What could he do for them, really?
Did Kaleo even remember him? Did he have any sense of who his father was?
It was her fault, she supposed. She and Kaleo had an open invitation to move to Tuscany. But secretly, she wondered if it was an empty offer.
How would Lorenzo really feel if they arrived to stay?
It was a pointless question to dwell on, because she didn’twantto move to Italy. Not permanently. It felt too much like trying to shoehorn herself into Lorenzo’s life.
There was nothing wrong with life in a Tuscan villa; for any number of other women, it would be a dream come true. But it wasn’therdream. And she refused to live a life that didn’t feel authentically her.
For as long as she could remember, travel called her name.
But ever since Kaleo, she had felt torn between travel and the island.
She would never stop traveling altogether, but she felt a new and growing longing for a steady home base. And if she was going to build a life anywhere, it would be here with her family, surrounded by the gorgeous and varied paradise of Hawaii.
While she chased her dreams, though, Lorenzo was missing out on so many milestones. Didn’t he care?
Was it selfish of her to raise her son so far from his father?
But why shouldshebe the one to move?
Lorenzo had adaughterright here in Pualena. Rory was growing up without him – and now, so was Kaleo. Both of his children lived in the same town, and he still refused to move.
When she thought of it that way, it felt a lot less like her problem and more like his own failing.
Kaleo wandered into deeper water, and she scooped himup before he could go under. Back in the shallows, she built sandcastles for him to stomp on.
However she might try to resent Lorenzo for staying rooted in one place, she missed him terribly. No amount of inward grumbling succeeded in erasing her longing for him. Even beyond any romantic fantasies she might harbor, she longed for the three of them to be a family – a real family.
Sometimes she looked at her three divorced sisters and lost all hope. Broken families all, and they had each given marriage a real go.
Surely she and Lorenzo didn’t stand a chance.
