"And because I love you," I said, clearing my throat, "I need you to do this for me."
"Do what?"
I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "We've been playing house here. We've been living in limbo, not talking about the future or moving forward. My mother stayed for my dad and -"
She rubbed her eyes in exasperation. "Kai, I'm not her."
But her face told me she had thought about it, too.
"I know. But you haven't figured out who you are yet. You have a family, another one, in Texas. I've spoken to Joan. She always knew, Tess. She wanted to tell you for years but Garrett wouldn't let her. She’s invited you to stay with them so you can get to know each other."
"You want me to leave?" Her eyes widened as the color drained from her face. "I thought this is what you wanted. What is it? Is it me? You don't want me here anymore?"
"No," I said, stepping toward her. I kept my hands at my sides, knowing that if I touched her, I’d never be able to go through with it. "I want you here more than anything."
"Then why?"
"Because I know you're staying here for me. You have so much more to do, Tess. There's nothing for you here except for taking care of three grown men. Don't you want more than that?"
"I don't know," she said, "I've never really made any plans."
"Now you can. You have money, you have people waiting for you in Texas, and Tess, I think I can get you a job if you want it. I sent some of your songs to a friend of mine in Austin. He's a singer in a small folk band and their violinist just broke her hand. They need someone for some local gigs and if it works out you can tour with them. They're not a huge band and the money won't be much, but it will give you some experience playing live."
She crossed her arms. "How long have you been thinking about this?"
I laced my fingers together at the back of my neck. "I didn't know I was thinking about it until Dad pointed out how stuck we both are."
She met my eyes. "This is what you want?"
I closed my eyes and swallowed, hard, before opening them again and finding her face. "Sometimes what you want isn't what you need."
We stared at each other, not speaking for a minute, and then she sniffed back her tears and pushed back her shoulders.
That's it, Tess. Remember, you're brave.
"So the job's in Austin?"
"It's only a short drive to Joan's house. She's dying to see you. The girls, too."
She wiped at her eyes and I finally put my arms around her waist. She leaned in. "Will I see you again?"
"You won't be able to keep me away. We'll find each other again when the time is right."
"Wait." She glanced up and smiled through her tears. "I knew it. You're leaving too, aren't you?"
"Yes,” I said, as the news sunk in. "I'm finally going to make my record."
We walked hand in hand through the trees, the light changing from dusky gray to gold as the sun came up. The earth was cool on our bare feet. We didn't talk and I didn't rush her, deliberately slowing my steps to match her shorter strides. She glanced up often, and I knew she was taking note of which trees were blossoming and which would be fruiting next, committing it all to memory for those long, lonely nights when she’d come back here in her mind. When we emerged from the last row of trees and stepped into the clearing, she looked out across the green expanse of grass to the cliffs. We usually walked that way together before breakfast, but I tugged her hand, pulling her in the opposite direction. She glanced up at me, the question in her eyes, but stayed silent as we climbed the hill that would lead us to the macadamia nut grove.
"Remember the first time I brought you here?" I said when we were under our tree.
"You told me about the night your mother took Akamu away."
"And you said you wished we could spend the whole day here."
"Is that why we're here?"
I bent to kiss her smile. "Dad sent everyone away today. We have all day here alone."
Her smile faded and she wrapped her fingers around my hand, squeezing it tightly. "I still can't believe we're going to do this."
"I know."
"I don't know if I -"
I put my fingers over her lips. "Sssh. You're going to be amazing."
She kissed my fingers and I wrapped an arm around her back, pulling her against my chest. "Remember that game we played on Lana'i? If you could go anywhere, do anything?"
"Yes."
"I would choose this," I said, bending to kiss her hair. "Even though it hurts."
Our last day together was much like the first. I'd packed a picnic with enough food to last us until dinner. There were sandwiches and cookies like the ones we ate at the Hidden Place. A cooler bag held containers of sushi that made her cry when she opened them. And down the bottom was a terrible attempt at a lemon meringue pie that Akamu had helped me make the night before. We lay on a blanket with our legs intertwined and our hands clasped and we talked about everything we'd been through and everything we wished for each other.
"So now it's your turn," she said, sometime in the late afternoon. "I want you to go and live your life. For the first time, you can think about what you want. Go to that big city. Maybe I'll find you there."
I propped myself up on my elbow. She was bright eyed and pink mouthed and impossibly pretty. "And one day," I said, my voice breaking. "I want you to meet me under the mango tree. I'll play you a song as you walk down through the trees with my Pa on your arm. And then I'll marry you."
"And I'll marry you."
"And we'll live at Onakea together and make babies."
"And Akamu and your dad will be there, too."
"We'll be happy."
"Making love, making music.."
"Making love again." I bent down to kiss her slowly, her tears blending with my tears. "I like that dream."
She wrapped a hand around my neck and pulled me down on top of her. "I like it, too."
We waited until the sun fell in the sky before we packed up our things and began the walk back to the house. When we reached the garden gate, I plucked a red hibiscus flower from a bush and tucked it behind her ear.
"I don't want to go in," I said, leaning on the fence. "If we go in, eventually it'll be bedtime and then it will be morning and we'll have to go."
She held out her hand. "I have something to show you first."
We walked past the papaya and banana trees and down the track that curved until we were standing at the foot of my mango tree. Tess dropped my hand and bent down, feeling around the roots until she found a rock that I knew didn't belong there. She pushed it aside and stood up unsteadily, passing me a thick, white envelope.
"This is for you. But before you open it, I need you to promise me something."
"Okay."
"Don't tell your dad about it until I leave."
I tore open the envelope, pulling out a stack of papers stapled together. The light was fading fast so I stepped away from the tree and angled it so that a beam of light from the setting sun hit the words on the page. "Hawaii Bank is pleased to advise that the mortgage for..."
I didn't read any more. I lifted the papers, pressing them to my chest. "You can't do this. This is too much."
She took a step toward me gripped my arm, her eyes full of tears. "No. No, Kai. It's not enough."
I dropped the papers then, cupping her cheeks with both hands as my thumbs wiped away her tears. "I didn't do anything for you that you didn't do for me. You saved me, too."
She kissed the heel of my hand before stepping back and pulling something out of the back pocket of her jeans. "I have this, too. I set up a trust, for Akamu. Anything he needs, Kai, anything, I want you to use this money."
I took the paper from her and folded it up, putting it in my pocket. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"That money was your future. Are you going to be okay?"
She wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I never wanted the money. I'm going to be fine."
"God, I'm going to miss you," I said, shaking my head. "I can't believe this is nearly it."
A slow smile spread across her face. "There's one more thing."
She pointed up and my eyes followed, widening and flooding with hot tears. There, on a high branch, half-hidden by leaves, was a single, smooth, mango, the skin of it as bright as a sunset.
I'd left Akamu and Dad at Onakea so that Tess and I could make the journey to the airport alone. She'd sobbed as she'd said goodbye to them both but now that we were on the road she was calm. I drove in a daze, not wanting to get there, my heart pounding as it fought against what it knew I was about to do. Because how could I possibly be saying goodbye to Tessa? We pulled into a parking space and I cut the engine. Neither of us wanted to get out.
"Is it too late to change my mind?" she said sadly, touching my face.
I put my hand on top of hers and brought her palm to my lips. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
We walked to the departures building hand in hand, stopping when we reached the doors. I opened my mouth to say something but she shook her head frantically, putting her fingers to my lips. "Wait. I need to say something."
I put her bag down on the concrete and touched her hair. "It's okay."
"No, Kai," she said, her voice desperate. "Listen. You saved my life."
I looked into her eyes as they slowly filled with tears. They were soft and blue, the color of the lightest sea glass. "And you," I swallowed, my vision blurring as my own eyes grew wet, "saved mine."
"Thank you, for everything," she said, wiping tears from her face with the heel of her hand. "I wish I had a way to let you know what you've done for me."
"You did it, Tess." I bent my lips to hers one last time. It was a soft, tender kiss. The kind of kiss that made my heart thump painfully in my chest and desperate thoughts tumble around my brain. If she didn't leave soon, I knew I was going to beg her to stay.
"Is this it?" she gasped, saving me. She clutched the fabric of my t-shirt in her hand. "Do we say goodbye now?"
The automatic doors of the terminal behind her slid open and shut.
"I always figured leaving would be easy," she whispered, shaking her head. She ran her hands over my chest, across the front my shoulders and down my arms, committing the shape of my body to memory. I had done the same to hers earlier. "As it turns out," she said, looking up at me with eyes red and brimming, "it was staying that was the easy part."
I picked up her hands in each of mine and brought them to my lips. "I'm going to miss you so much. You're the bravest, smartest person I know."
"And you're wonderful."
We stared at each other, both knowing it was time and I dropped her hands, picking up her bag and giving it to her. She pulled it over her shoulder, wiping her face with her sleeve.
"You're going to do great, Tess," I said as the doors slid open and she stepped through.
She blew me a kiss. "Goodbye, Kai. A hui hou."
And then she was instantly swallowed by the crowds of people pushing trolleys and pulling children behind them.
"A hui hou," I said to myself as I walked toward the car park.
Until we meet again.
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to say thanks to you, reader, for choosing a book by an Indie author. Your support is so appreciated, and I hope you fell in love with Tessa and Kai just as much as I did. I have some exciting things planned for these two, and you will be able to read all about them in the next installment in the 'Ohana series, due for release late 2016. For release dates and other book news, see my links at the end. I would like to say thank you to my editor Neville Wakem, for your support and helpful advice, and to Lea-anne for your proofreading skills. To my beta reading team – Kylie, Lauren, Mel, Anita, Talia, Lea-anne, and Kerryn; your encouragement kept me from giving up more than once. You’re all champions and I am so thankful to have you as the very first readers of my books. My thanks to Mitchell Dwyer, my cultural advisor on this project, for your helpful comments relating to all of the Hawaiian elements of the novel. And lastly, the biggest thank you of all to my family for putting up with having me locked away with my laptop for hours on end. I love you.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads and on your retailer website. Thank you!
Author’s Note
While most of the details and settings in this book have been based on actual locations and published sources, some elements have been changed to fit the story. Kai’s island was inspired by the island of Maui. However, particular settings such as the Onakea plantation were created by me. I have taken great care to ensure that the language and cultural elements of the novel are as accurate as possible within a work of fiction, and here again, I would like to offer Mitchell Dwyer my thanks in overseeing the Hawaiian aspects of the book. Mahalo.
Still Waters
By Rebecca Addison
Prologue
The secure door to the lab opens, and I run to the elevator, pressing the up button over and over when I reach it.
“Come on, come on,” I mumble to myself as I watch the numbers light up, indicating that the elevator is slowly coming down. When the doors finally open I fly inside and press the button that will take me to the top floor. Sappy elevator music plays as we travel up and up, and I mentally check off the floors as I pass them. Lobby: Security and reception; Floors 17 to 20: Administration, sales and marketing; Floors 21 and 22: Legal. Finally, we reach the top floor, the Holy Grail for most junior employees at Preston Industries: Senior management. Personally, I like the basement better. Down there my research and development team is hidden from the office politics and backstabbing that’s rife on the upper floors.
When the doors open, I rush out past Linda, the senior assistant to the CEO. She opens her mouth to say something, but I don’t stop. The boardroom at the end of the corridor is full this morning. Senior executives from every department are in the middle of their weekly meeting. I swing the door open, and search along the line of surprised faces turned in my direction.
“Hartley,” a familiar voice says from the front of the room. “Can this wait? We’re in the middle of a meeting.”
He takes one look at my face and stands up, dismissing everyone with a wave of his hand. “We’ll finish this off this afternoon.”
He doesn’t need to say anything more. In a sudden burst of activity, old timers and young executives alike quickly gather their papers and laptops and file out of the room without a word. I wait until the door is shut behind me before I open my mouth to speak, but he beats me to it.
“Hartley, my little mad scientist,” he laughs as he takes in the white lab coat I’d forgotten to take off in my panic. I know he’s only teasing me, but I can’t help but bristle at his joke. I love being a scientist and I’m proud of my work, but it isn’t easy leading a research team of six at twenty-three years old, especially when the rest of your team are men twice your age and you’re the boss’s daughter.
“What’s the emergency?” he says lightly. “Something go bang in the lab?”
My dad is always making light of the work I do, but what he and the other guys on this floor don’t realize is that there wouldn’t be a Preston Industries without the scientists who work in the basement.
“No, Dad,” I say, brushing his comments aside for now. “I found something. Something important.”
The smile on his face fades and he sits up taller with his hands clasped in front of him. I place my hand over the pocket of my lab coat to make sure the small cylinder is still inside. It is.
“I’ve been looking at these findings, for the water over at Bridal Falls? And something doesn’t add up.”
He looks at me seriously and nods for me to continue.
“See, the samples are all wrong for that catchment. The water at Bridal Falls is alive and constantly changing depending on different weather patterns and pollution levels. These samples are dead.�
��
“Maybe the samples were labeled incorrectly,” he says quietly, picking up a pen and tapping it on the top of the table.
“That’s what I thought.” I reach into my pocket to touch a small vial of water. “But they’re all like that, Dad. I went through all of the records back to 2011, and they’re all exactly the same.”
“Isn’t Howard meant to be in charge of testing?” he cuts in. “That’s a little below the level of my genius daughter isn’t it?”
He says it playfully, but there’s an edge to his voice, and I know from experience that he’s losing patience with me.
“That’s what I need to talk to you about,” I say in a rush. “I caught him, Dad. This morning I came in early, and I caught him swapping out the latest samples for clean water. I’ve sent him home until we decide what to do.”
I wait for him to exclaim in surprise, or explode in anger or something, but he just sits there and stares into my eyes. Out of all of the reactions I expected him to have, I wasn’t expecting this. And then suddenly I get it.
“Dad,” I say slowly, wanting so desperately to be wrong. “Did you know about this?”
He sighs deeply and spins his chair so that he’s looking out the floor to ceiling windows at the small buildings and houses that make up the town. My town.
“Do you have any idea what would happen if this got out?” he says quietly. “Preston Industries has been employing the people of Jefferson for the last fifty years. Those people out there rely on us, Hartley. Without this company, there would be no jobs, no money, no food on the table.” He spins his chair back around and looks at me. “Is that what you want?”
“But Dad,” I say, holding onto the back of the chair in front of me for support. “Are you saying we should just let this carry on and do nothing about it?”
Unbelievably, he manages a smile.
“I’m happy we understand each other.”
“I can’t do that,” I whisper. “You don’t understand what the levels could do to the water system. I have a real sample here Dad, and it’s really bad.”
The 'Ohana Tree Page 26