Immediately, she felt a wave of remorse. And yet, if she wasbeing honest with herself, there was a stubborn selfishness growing beneath her empathy.
His father had been sick foryears.
Filial duty was all well and good, but his children needed him too.
Rory might have a new dad who was there for her year-round, but Kaleo didn’t. Lani had found someone else, but Akemi had put her faith in Lorenzo. She felt like an idiot for taking him at his word, for believing him when he had told her that he would stay.
It took every ounce of self control for her to keep those bitter words bottled beneath her throat. She pressed her teeth together, terrified that she might say something awful – terrified of the sudden rage that was boiling in her chest.
There was nothing he could do for his father, no practical reason for him to be there. And yet he was leaving. She had already seen it in his eyes, heard it in his voice. He was leaving them. And for what?
Then she thought of her dad.
Kimo was just gone, one day to the next, decades before any of them had expected to lose him.
She would give anything for a few more hours with him.
Even in a hospital. Even if there was nothing she could do.
And with that admission, her rage turned to grief. Tears fell from her eyes, and Lorenzo reached to brush them away with the pad of his thumb.
“I’ll come back,” he promised, voice so low that it was almost a whisper. “As soon as I can.”
She steeled herself and turned to meet his eyes. They were filled with tears too.
Suddenly, she felt like a horrible person for resenting him.
She should be offering to go with him, offering to bring Kaleo to Italy.
But there was no part of her that wanted to board a series of planes with her toddler. She had zero intention of taking Kaleo into an Italian hospital.
And so she didn’t make any false offers. She just nodded her acknowledgement, held Kaleo a bit closer, and cleared her throat.
“When do you leave?”
“I am going to the airport now.”
She wanted to stagger backwards dramatically. Wanted to throw her arms around him and beg him to stay – or at least tell him how much she loved him. But in that moment, holding a squirming toddler and holding back more tears, she could only plant her feet and focus on staying upright.
“Okay. We’ll see you when you get back.”
He looked at her for a moment, and his eyes were full of pain. Then he kissed her briefly, kissed Kaleo’s head, and walked away.
Akemi felt unsteady. Moving slowly, she walked inside and stood Kaleo up on the counter.
“Would you watch him for a minute?” she asked her sister.
“Of course.” Oakley put both hands on Kaleo’s waist. He danced on the counter, delighted to be up so high.
Akemi went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She sank to the floor, heedless of the sawdust and loose nails.
She tried to talk herself down, did her best to batten her feelings down tight… and finally, when that didn’t work, she buried her face in her knees and cried.
Once that was done, she stood up and regarded herself in themirror, pink-eyed and miserable. With a sigh, she washed her face with cold water and then walked back out into the main room.
Oakley stood at the counter with Kekoa, looking through a pile of papers.
“Where’s my baby?” Akemi asked.
