Winter in Waianae (Love in Oahu Book 2)
Page 9
Warden let out a sigh of relief. “I thought it sounded funny, but my parents told me I should refer to you formally.” He looked at Terence and Lena. “Does that go for you, too? I don’t want to appear impertinent. This is my first job and I want to make a good impression.”
Terence pulled his plate a little closer and swallowed a bite of food. “Kid,” he began, “I probably wouldn’t answer if you added a mister in front of my name. You are free to call me Terence.”
Lena held out her hand. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Lena.”
Warden smiled happily and shook her hand.
Mr. Kaplinger followed. “And please call me Kap.” He gestured to the entire table. “All of you, please. Kaplinger is quite a mouthful.”
Brittany’s eyes sparkled with delight. “I think I’ll call you Mr. Caprice if that’s okay?”
Kap raised his water glass. “To new friends.” He singled Brittany out and clinked her glass with his. “You, my dear, may call me anything you like.”
• • •
An hour later, Brittany and Warden were back at it. The day was hot and muggy. Sweat trickled down their faces and dripped off their noses. The hard working duo pulled weeds, hacked down unwanted volunteers, and turned over dark soil in preparation for new plantings. When it came time to tackle the pruning, Brittany sent Warden back to the shed to retrieve the loppers.
He returned with a shiny, sturdy tool. The top of the line instrument of branch removal was something Brittany had only dreamed of being able to afford. “Where did this come from, Warden? What happened to the old cheapie pair?”
“I don’t know, Miss Britt. All of them are like that. I couldn’t find the old tools anywhere.”
Brittany’s brow furrowed. “First off, call me Britt.” She ran her finger down the lopper blades. Part of her hated to soil its fresh oily finish, another part couldn’t wait to feel it bite into a branch and have it slice effortlessly through. “Secondly, I have to see this for myself.”
She dropped the loppers by her side and marched off in the direction of the storage shed. Britt banged open the door and stepped inside. Warden told her what to expect, but what she saw was impossible. Two hours earlier, the shed was dusty, dirty, unorganized, and one-hundred percent neglected by its owner. Cleaning the shed was way down on the list of things which needed to be done at Lena’s B&B. Brittany estimated they wouldn’t get to the job for at least a couple of weeks. In front of her were new pegboards and hooks which housed an array of gardening tools. Shovels, trowels, weeders, different sized pruning shears, and a pair of scissors had its own special place on the wall. To the left hung a wide brimmed hat, three different sized hoses, a couple of rakes, and a saw. A cart to carry large shrubs to a planting destination was off to Britt’s right. Pads to kneel on and several sets of gloves were nestled inside.
Brittany’s mind raced. Even if Lena ordered all these items, not enough time had lapsed for them to be delivered, let alone for the shed to be cleaned and organized in such an expert manner. With both Warden and herself tackling the job, Britt thought it would take two or three days to complete the task. Less than three hours had passed since she was last inside the shed. The transformation baffled her.
Warden stepped up alongside her. “It’s beautiful.”
Brittany glanced at her young assistant. His eyes were bright with awe. “Do you know anything about this, Warden?”
He shook his head. “It’s pretty cool, though. Spiders kind of scare me and this place creeped me out. I hated it when you sent me in here.” Warden waved an arm out across the room. “How did this happen?”
Brittany blew out a breath. “Beats me.” A thought popped into her head and she looked at Warden mischievously out of the corner of her eye. “Are you sure you and Mr. Caprice didn’t rope the dolphins into sending this stuff our way?”
Warden took a shocked step backward. “No offense, boss, but you’re weird.”
Her assistant was only a couple of years younger than herself, but he seemed like a baby. Brittany clapped him on the back joyfully. “Come on, let’s get back to work. I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth. A wish has just been granted and our job became easier.” She leaned over and gave Warden a quick peck on the cheek before she grabbed the wide brimmed hat off its hook.
“What was that for?” Warden asked.
Brittany placed the hat on her head and handed Warden a mid-sized set of pruning shears. “In case you happened to have anything to do with this, I wanted to express my appreciation.”
“But I didn’t.”
Brittany winked at him knowingly. “If you say so.”
Warden followed her back out into the yard. “But I really didn’t,” he protested lamely.
She caught sight of Mr. Caprice heading down to the beach. “Thank you!” she called out to the man who seemed to be having the time of his life being associated with the lucky dolphins.
Mr. Caprice smiled and continued on his way.
Warden reared back. “I swear I never met that man before I started working here.”
Brittany’s eyes twinkled. Even if her mystical theory wasn’t correct, being able to tease Warden made it all worthwhile.
8
“I’ll have the Kona Special.”
Annie grabbed an extra-large, recyclable cup from the stack in front of her. “You got it, Mr. Lee.”
“What did I ever do without you, Annie?” Mr. Lee took the cup and handed her a five. “You’ve made my morning caffeine fix so much more convenient.”
Annie waved off the bill. “It’s on the house. That huge fishing tour you booked before dawn, cleaned me out. I had to call Grady to replenish my supply.”
Mr. Lee gestured to the little card table which held an almost empty display of Erika’s ornaments. “Looks like your daughter did well today.”
“They seem to be a popular item,” she agreed. A noisy screech from a baby bird interrupted Annie’s train of thought. The earsplitting squawk made her wince in pain. “I hope momma and daddy bird come back soon, that tiny chick is driving me nuts.”
Mr. Lee looked up into the branches in search of the distressed infant. When he saw it was a white tern, he sighed sadly. “I wouldn’t count on it. One of my guests thought target practice was part of our tour. Somehow he got a hold of our flair gun and cooked a couple of white birds before I was able to wrestle it away from him.” He held up his coffee cup. “From the smell of his breath, I’m pretty sure he added a little something extra to his brew before coming aboard.”
Knowing the little bird was destined for death turned Annie melancholy. “That poor creature. Tern’s don’t even have a nest to relax in.” Her hands balled up into tight fists. “Life started out tough enough for that little guy, now this. How will he survive?”
Mr. Lee’s face filled with sympathy. “I’ll slice up some scraps and place them under the tree, but unless he lets go...”
“Which he won’t until he’s too weak to hold on any longer,” Annie finished, knowing where Mr. Lee was headed.
“Sorry, Annie.”
Annie waved goodbye to her dear friend. “Thanks anyway, Mr. Lee.”
The thought of the baby bird dying all alone up in the tree wouldn’t leave Annie’s mind. His distressed chirps echoed in her ears. He had to be starving.
It was almost quitting time and Annie agonized over her next move. No matter what the species, leaving a baby alone to fend for himself was not something she was capable of.
She walked around the Coffee Cart and looked up. The snow-white bird paced back and forth down the length of the branch. Annie held out her hands. “Jump.”
The bird turned his head curiously.
“Come on,” Annie urged. “You can do it.” She held her hands up a little higher. “Jump.”
The bird’s head cocked in the other direction and Annie believed she had his attention.
“Excuse me,” a deep voice said behind her, “are you still serving?”
The gentleman removed the ball cap from his head. “Please call me Kap.”
The smile the older man shot her was contagious, and Annie grinned back. “It would be my pleasure, Kap.” She walked around to the serving side of the Coffee Cart and grimaced. “It’s just about quitting time. I’m afraid I don’t have much left. How about a Kona Special?”
“That sounds just about perfect, Mrs. Javier.”
Annie snapped the lid on the cup and handed it to her sister-in-law’s guest. Just as Kap was about to take it, Annie pulled the cup back and locked onto his gaze. “My name is Annie.”
Kap bowed his head. “Thank you, Annie.”
The little tern chose this time to squawk and Mr. Kaplinger looked up into the branches of the nearby tree.
“It’s a sad story, Kap. I don’t believe his parents will be returning.”
Mr. Kaplinger held out a finger and whistled. The little bird flapped his wings, and with feathers still incapable of flight, floated down from the branch and landed on the old man’s friendly extended perch.
“How did you do that?” Annie gasped.
Kap sipped his coffee. “We couldn’t end this lovely encounter on a sad note. I’ll figure out a way to keep this little guy alive.” He tipped his cap and walked away with a lively clip.
Annie watched Kap go, baffled by what had happened. Granted, she tried to coax the bird off his branch, too. He even seemed to consider it, but no matter how hard the little guy tried to flap his wings, he would have landed hard. She also knew it would have been challenging to keep him alive. Somehow under Mr. Kaplinger’s care, Annie believed the hungry bird would survive and probably thrive.
While Annie was still trying to comprehend the encounter between Kap and the baby tern, Erika arrived to pack up her display table. Her head dropped into a disappointed sulk. “It’s full? I thought we would have sold at least one.”
“I think you mean you only have one left,” Annie corrected, staring after the mysterious man.
“Ha, ha, ha, you’re just as funny as Mr. Lee,” Erika shot back. “Then why is my display rack full?”
Annie glanced at the table. Delicate paper ornaments hung in perfectly straight rows from the thin bars. Erika had never been able to tie the ribbons that precisely. No one could. It was impossible. Annie approached and right before her eyes the ornaments shifted. Uneven bobbles appeared, and as difficult as it was to believe, the rack was full.
Erika flicked one of the ornaments with her finger and said sadly, “Mr. Lee told me I sold out. I ran down the pier to see. I got all excited for nothing. Maybe I should give up.”
Annie laughed and gave the young entrepreneur a hug. “I think you should take a look in your money bag before you decide on such a drastic course of action.”
Erika unzipped the pouch and saw the wad of cash. “It’s fatter. I don’t understand.”
Annie squeezed her slight shoulders a little tighter. “Welcome to the club.”
• • •
Larry Wright stared at his computer screen, unable to focus on the blurry words in front of him. He pulled off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The ache in his head was growing exponentially and he knew it was about to escalate into a full-blown migraine. Larry checked the time. Only an hour passed since his last dose of aspirin. If he expected to achieve any kind of relief, his only option was to piggyback his analgesic regiment with acetaminophen.
A wave of dizziness washed over him and he grabbed the edge of his desk to stop from toppling over. A piercing pain behind his eyes caused his face to flinch in agony.
Larry was in trouble. Eleanor was out shopping and his cell phone was in the other room.
The pain behind his eyes migrated to the base of his neck. Larry felt his hands begin to shake and the muscles in his arms began to tighten. He dropped to the floor. Fear was his greatest enemy and he struggled to remain calm. Help was only twenty feet away if he could somehow manage to maintain consciousness and reach his phone.
The spasms in his arms were gaining the upper hand, so Larry used his feet to push his body across the smooth hardwood he and Eleanor recently installed. Thinking of her and her loving smile gave him renewed strength, and he pushed himself a little further. He was not going to die before he married her and made her the beneficiary of his estate. He refused to leave the woman who had been by his side for over thirty years, without a dime.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. The words echoed in his head louder than the train wreaking havoc in his cerebellum. The whistle blasted and Larry cried out.
Inch by inch he kept going. A paroxysm curled the convulsed hand he’d been propping himself on. His symptoms were gaining traction and blackness threatened to overcome him. Unable to keep his weight on his hands, he fell to his forearms.
Larry closed his eyes and focused on his goal. Getting to his phone and calling for help was paramount.
• • •
Annie pulled up in front of the B&B. Kap had some explaining to do, and she wasn’t going to let him feed her another line of bull. Somehow, he was responsible for replenishing Erika’s ornament display and for the baby bird being able to float safely down to his finger. Brittany and Lena seemed to lock onto the dolphin theory. In their heart of hearts, they probably didn’t truly believe in the story and were simply embracing the magic of the holidays.
Tracking down Mr. Kaplinger turned out to be surprisingly easy. The baby tern was making his distress known to everyone. Annie simply followed her ears to the toolshed. She found Kap using a mortar and pestle bowl to mash up a few worms for his hungry charge.
“Annie,” he cried happily. “Are you here to check up on our new friend?” He ground the worms a little finer and added a few drops of water to better resemble the meals the baby bird’s parents used to feed him.
The little guy was perched on Kap’s shoulder. He squawked hungrily in his new daddy’s ear. Mr. Kaplinger grimaced and stared down the baby tern. The bird became unsettled under the older man’s scrutiny. His beak clamped shut, and his anxious claws scrambled to the furthest point down Kap’s bony shoulder. His white downy feathers ruffled and the baby bird turned around several times before he felt comfortable enough to look at Kap and voice a tiny chirp.
The sight was too precious for words. All thoughts of an angry interrogation slipped away. Since you attract more flies with sugar than with lemons, Annie began softly, “Kap?” she asked, stepping closer. “How did you get Turnabout to drop out of the tree?”
He sucked his concoction up in an eyedropper and offered it to the bird. “Turnabout! I’ve been trying to name him. That fits him perfectly.”
Mr. Kaplinger had evaded her question. Annie pursed her lips and approached the subject from a different angle. She reached out and touched Turnabout’s velvety feathers. “Do you believe in magic?”
Kap squeezed the rubber bulb and let a small amount of the eyedropper’s contents slide down the bird’s throat. His brow lifted. “Magic? I don’t suppose I do.” He pulled the dropper out of Turnabout’s beak and paused the feeding. “Some people are more in tune with the Earth’s energy forces, but I don’t think you can call it magic.”
In a way, Annie understood what Kap was saying. Larry Wright’s daughter, Annie’s best friend, and Erika’s half-sister, had that superpower. Marissa couldn’t move objects with her mind, but she possessed a sixth sense. A foresight of when something bad was about to happen. A special instinct she couldn’t explain and rarely spoke of.
Annie believed it was the reason she was a better lawyer than her father. Thinking of Marissa filled her with warmth. The friends hadn’t seen each other in months, but they spoke regularly on the phone.
The cell phone in Annie’s pocket vibrated. She held a pausing finger up and swiped it across the face of the phone to unlock it.
Marissa wa
s calling.
Annie smiled and raised it to her ear. “I was just thinking about you.”
Shaky and almost frantic, Marissa’s voice sounded the alarm. “Have you seen my dad today?”
“No. Why?”
“I can’t get ahold of him. Something is wrong. How close are you? Will you please humor me and go check on him? Eleanor is about a half an hour away. She’s headed home, but I think she’ll be too late.”
Annie’s heart began to pound and her jaw fell agape.
Kap set the eyedropper down and placed his hand on her arm. A sense of urgency unlike anything she felt before pulsed through her veins.
He spoke just one word. “Hurry.”
Something inside her knew better than to question Marissa and the man who brought the family luck and love. “I’m on my way, Marissa.”
• • •
Annie held Erika in her arms outside the Wrights’ front yard as the EMTs worked on Larry inside the home.
Erika discovered Larry a few minutes before Annie’s arrival and called 911. He was alive, but only just barely.
Annie wanted to get in there and see for herself, but there wasn’t anything she could do for him. The phone in her pocket kept vibrating. Marissa was probably going out of her mind, but there wasn’t anything she could do for her either. Erika was her primary concern. Marissa was an adult, and five minutes wasn’t going to make any difference.
“I can’t lose him,” Erika whimpered softly into Annie’s neck.
Annie didn’t know what to say, so she hugged her daughter a little tighter. She didn’t want to make promises she might not be able to keep. The medical techs had been working on Larry for a long time and hadn’t been able to stabilize him enough for transport to the hospital.
She pushed the negative thoughts aside and focused on the fact that the EMTs hadn’t given up. There was still hope.
“I’m proud of you,” Annie whispered. “You didn’t panic. You took control, called for help, and did everything the 911 operator said. You kept him alive until help arrived.” She rubbed Erika’s quivering body. “Trust it was enough. You said Larry was conscious. That’s a good sign.”