No Place Too Far

by Kay Bratt

  Anyway, Liam said he liked his women to have something he could hold on to, and that Hawaiian women were meant to be women of substance.

  “How’s it going up there in the wilds of Hana?” Lani asked. “Have any celebrities checked in yet?”

  “Nope, just normal people like us.” As soon as the words were out, she looked at Lani, and they both burst out laughing.

  Their family being brought together by a swab of saliva could definitely be considered anything but normal. And the fact that Quinn was lost at sea when she was a young girl, then found and raised with another identity, sounded like something out of a movie. But Quinn had to admit, it felt good finally knowing her biological family and having a sister to banter with. Two, actually, though Kira was currently not in the bantering mood and sat outside in a rocking chair, staring at her children playing.

  Quinn wondered what all the seriousness was about. But Kira wasn’t as open to talking to her as Lani was. It was going to take more time to solidify that sisterly bond. Quinn had a feeling that Kira was having trouble with her husband, as the two had barely spoken at dinner or afterward. Kira was such a young wife and mother, working full-time, that it wasn’t hard to imagine that she might be burned out and exhausted, her marriage strained.

  But it wasn’t Quinn’s business until her sister decided it was. She would never dig unless invited.

  When she’d filled her plate, she took it to the kitchen to look for the plastic wrap. Lani followed her.

  “You couldn’t get Jonah to come today?” Lani asked, her expression serious now. She opened a drawer and plucked out the wrap, handing it to Quinn.

  “I haven’t seen him all weekend. He got his list of tasks and somehow completed every one of them when I was elsewhere. Before I left to come here, I went by his cottage, and he wasn’t there.”

  Lani sighed. “Mom and Dad would really like to see him more. Now that he’s not staying on the beach, they don’t have as much contact, and they’re afraid he’s going to backslide. I miss him too.”

  Of all of them, Quinn had noticed that Lani was the closest to Jonah. He was protective of her in the way that he probably was of Quinn long ago, before the accident and her disappearance. Lani also seemed to have a way with Jonah, putting him at ease when she was near. Of course, she would be the most concerned about their brother.

  Quinn finished with her plate and leaned against the counter. “I’m trying to help him. He does his job, but he’s quiet. Too quiet. I don’t think he’s using, though. I really don’t.”

  “I hope not. If he relapses again, it’ll crush them. All of us.”

  She didn’t have to tell Quinn that. The minute she’d driven up, she could see her mom looking out the window, searching for Jonah. It was sad, but it seemed that no one could reach him. It felt as though he were adrift, and no one could pull him in. Quinn knew he’d suffered a lot of trauma—first as being the big brother who was supposed to be watching out for his little sister who was swept away at sea. This guilt had followed him into adulthood, driving him to enlist and head off to Iraq for a few tours of duty that left him scarred even more.

  Her mother said that Jonah’s post-traumatic stress triggered night terrors and worse. Deep down, though, he was still that lost little boy who felt like he had to carry the years of grief his parents went through after losing their daughter.

  In a perfect world, with the reunion of Quinn and her parents and the knowledge that she’d lived a satisfying childhood, her brother would find healing. But thus far that hadn’t happened. What he didn’t understand was that Quinn now also carried a heavy burden of guilt over what he’d lived through because of her and how he continued to let it drive his actions. She didn’t have any memories of that fateful day, but her own questions nagged at her, like what if she hadn’t wandered so close to the edge of the boat? Was she the one responsible for bringing so much pain to her own family?

  Her parents were another story, but they’d somehow turned their early hard times into a story of resilience. Her mother, Jules, had been a wild child, choosing her boyfriend—Quinn’s father—over her family and rejecting the wealthy lifestyle she’d grown up with.

  Instead, they’d gone it alone, overcoming every obstacle as they fought hard to make a living, turning their pennies into dollars and their stubbornness into a thriving business of their own. The years of hardship they went through together before becoming successful had not pulled them apart as it did some couples. Instead, their relationship grew stronger until it was more like a fairy-tale romance than a story of rags to riches.

  But that didn’t erase all the hardships. Those memories were always there, threatening to pop up and upset a stable and happy family if they weren’t careful. And Jonah’s troubles were a constant reminder to them all that it wasn’t always rainbows and sunshine in paradise.

  Life was complicated, and it astounded Quinn how humans ever endured the constant sorrow and traumas to their souls to continue to strive for peace and happiness.

  As though her thoughts were the magic needed to produce her brother, Quinn heard her mother call out happily, “Jonah’s here!”

  Quinn and Lani went outside to join Kira and their mom in welcoming Jonah, their dad suddenly awake and alert right behind them. None of them cared that Jonah was late; they were just overjoyed that he’d come at all. Kira’s husband, Michael, stayed behind, his attention on the midday news.

  Her brother climbed out of his old Ford truck slowly, his reluctance visible in every move of his body and the expression on his face as he made his way to the porch, to the family so glad to see him.

  Jonah turned to Quinn, giving a pained smile as he readied himself for the onslaught of affection coming his way.

  It amazed her how much he looked like a younger version of their father. Tall and lithe, his hair still blond even in his thirties. Even the sun lines around his eyes and mouth mimicked those of their dad’s, adding character and maturity to an already too-handsome face.

  But unlike their father, Jonah lacked the natural confidence and seemed not to know how he stood out from other men. It was clear he wasn’t comfortable in his own skin.

  Kira’s boys reached him first, wrapping their arms around his legs.

  “Come play with us, Uncle Jonah,” five-year-old Micah said.

  “Yeah.” Lukas added his much younger voice to that of his brother’s.

  It still amazed Quinn that Kira was such a young mom, but any doubts of her mothering skills disappeared when she watched her sister with the boys. She was protective, loving, and everything a mom should be, without even looking like she was trying.

  “In a little while,” Jonah answered as he untangled himself from their grasp, just to find someone else vying for his attention.

  Quinn watched as their mom enfolded him into her arms, whispering her thanks to him for coming as she held him a few seconds too long. He obviously had a soft spot for her, as he let her linger, her affection a direct opposite reaction to the way he avoided physical contact with everyone else. Their dad patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him to come in and fix a plate.

  “Come on, Jules,” her father said. “Let the man come in and eat.”

  Quinn decided to sit outside and be one less person on his trail. He saw her enough at the inn, anyway. Much more than he saw the other members of his family.

  Kira had returned to the rocking chair, and Quinn joined her. They watched as the boys dejectedly left their uncle, then went to the end of the yard to work together to try to make a boomerang out of a small piece of rope and a stick.

  “He looked good, didn’t he?” Kira said quietly. “His eyes were focused. Bright, even.”

  “Yes, I think so. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen him when he’s not sober,” Quinn answered, feeling guilty talking behind his back. Out of all of them, she felt the closest to Jonah and would never want him to think she was questioning his sobriety.

  “You’d know it,” Kira said.
“He’s much happier and quite the chatterbox when he’s high. He’s been called the life of the party, believe it or not.”

  “Well, that would be a drastic change.”

  Kira rocked back and forth, her eyes on her boys. “Micah is his mini-me. It infuriates Michael, but it worries me.”

  “Why does it infuriate Michael? Because of Jonah’s past?”

  “No, it’s not that. Michael wanted his firstborn son to be exactly like him. Instead Micah looks like Jonah and acts just like him. He even slips into the same kind of quiet, contemplative moods.”

  That was an interesting tidbit.

  “So are you saying that Jonah was quiet and contemplative even before the accident?” They always referred to her being lost at sea as “the accident.” It sounded much less terrible that way.

  Kira nodded. “Well, I wasn’t around yet, obviously, but Mom said he was. She agrees that Micah acts just like Jonah. She even calls him Jonah half the time. By mistake, of course. I would say she’s getting old, but even I see my brother in my child’s face and his mannerisms. It’s a bit uncanny.”

  “But Michael and Jonah get along, right?” Quinn asked.

  “They do, but between me and you, Michael feels a little resentful that Jonah doesn’t work on the boat anymore. He says if Jonah would step up, it would make it easier for us to do our own thing.”

  “What would you do?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. We just dream a little here and there,” Kira said.

  “Well, I hope you don’t pin any of those dreams on Jonah, because I think he’s just happier on land,” Quinn said. “And he’s doing a good job at the inn. Being the caretaker keeps him outside and busy but also allows him to avoid most people.”

  “But is that really good to let him continue to do that?” Kira said. “Don’t you think he should stop being such a hermit?”

  “Well, he’s made an effort to be here, right? Your mom said he didn’t always come to the Sunday lunches.”

  “Yeah, a lot has changed since you came into the picture,” Kira said.

  Quinn thought she heard a tinge of resentment in her statement, but before she could answer, their dad called everyone in for a family meeting.

  “This can’t be good,” Kira said. “Dad is not a fan of formal family meetings. Come on, let’s go find out what this is all about.”

  She led the way into the back door and Quinn followed, feeling unsure if she should even be a part of it.

  Chapter Seven

  Quinn took the seat closest to the back door. She wasn’t sure what the family meeting was about, but if it got too serious, she would make a quiet exit.

  Most likely, her brother was going to be the subject. All of them had been whispering about him at some point during and after the meal, so what else could there be to talk about? She felt a flush of pity for him and hoped whatever the discussion, it wouldn’t be too intrusive. In her opinion, he was making strides to be more involved with family than he had before, at least according to everything she’d heard about his past tendency to disappear for months on end.

  Kira and her husband, Michael, took up half the couch, and Lani sat at the other end. Their mom pulled a chair up to be beside their dad, and Jonah stood against the front door, an even faster escape route than Quinn had in place. The only evidence that he’d eaten was the toothpick he twirled in his mouth, his expression nonchalant but also guarded.

  Quinn wondered how long it had taken him to perfect the I-don’t-really-care look, or if it was genuine.

  “Jonah, please take a seat. I’d like you to weigh in on this too,” Noah said.

  Surprisingly, her brother didn’t argue. Along with everyone else in the family, the unspoken respect for their father was evident in the way he followed the request. He grabbed a chair from the table and placed it where he’d been standing, perhaps a last effort at finding his way to freedom as soon as humanly possible.

  Jules looked at Noah, nodding for him to take the lead.

  He looked sad, but he took a deep breath and began. “Let’s go back to the weeks after Quinn was returned to us, and we discovered the family betrayal that took her.”

  Quinn stopped breathing when he said her name. Being the topic of a family discussion was on her list of Never Want to Do Again.

  She hung her head, acknowledging the painful memory. When Quinn discovered her family, her one condition of having a relationship with them was that they’d forgive Helen for her involvement. She’d suffered enough by her own hand.

  “Well, once the dust settled and we began to work on forgiveness, we all pledged there’d be no more secrets in this family.”

  Now all of them looked nervous. Just because you say no secrets doesn’t mean that’s going to happen, and Quinn could just bet that every member of her family had something they hoped would remain buried.

  Her dad turned to Kira and Michael.

  “Your grandmother told me that you asked her for a substantial loan,” he said to them.

  Quinn saw relief flash across Jonah’s face before disappearing. She was glad that he wasn’t the one on the hot seat this time.

  Kira’s face fell, but she didn’t answer. She looked at her husband, Michael.

  “We sure did,” he said, raising up in his chair to sit taller.

  Noah nodded. “Well, Michael. You and Kira are adults and normally I wouldn’t interfere on something you obviously wanted to keep private. However, as you know, you both are a huge part of our operation, and if you plan on leaving it, don’t you think that’s something we need to discuss beforehand?”

  Quinn could see a line of perspiration forming on Michael’s upper lip. Kira also looked painfully uncomfortable.

  After many years of struggling when her parents were young, the family business was now successful. Quinn wasn’t involved in it, but the others operated twin vessels called Holoholo I and Holoholo II. They set out to sea six days a week off Front Street in Lahaina where most of the tourists flocked. The boats offered multiple scuba and snorkeling trips, carrying up to forty-nine passengers each time, with three trips per day. One of the reasons they always had a full load was because their ticket prices were affordable. They were honest and never tried to gouge the green tourists. Besides, they catered to the average couple or family, not the rich crowd. Her father said that the size of your bank account shouldn’t be the deciding factor on whether you got to enjoy the magical world under the water or not—that it should be open to everyone. He always made sure of it and rarely raised their prices.

  Michael and Kira managed the original Holoholo, with him the captain and her overseeing the operations. They had a small crew of six, mostly transplants from the mainland eager to live a beach lifestyle and ready to work cheap. Their dad used to captain the other boat, and Jules ran it, but when they decided to step back from operations, they employed a captain and taught Lani to take over the management of that one. It was a lucrative business, built from the ground up by both Noah and Jules, with the profits now shared equally among their girls.

  “Easy for you to say, Noah,” Michael said. “You married into money, but somehow none of it has yet trickled down to Kira.”

  Quinn saw a shadow of anger cross her dad’s face and then just as quickly disappear. Jules looked disappointed, and Quinn was glad she wasn’t Kira. The hot seat was looking mighty toasty at the moment.

  “Hmm. That’s an interesting take on my beginnings on Maui,” Noah replied. “I like how you tried to rewrite the script, but you know damn well—or at least Kira does—that Jules walked away from her family and their money after we met. So if you call living in a tent on a beach and pulling ourselves out of poverty one inch at a time easy, then I’m happy to ‘trickle’ that challenge over to you.”

  “So this house sits on property you bought yourself? The craftsmanship’s not much but the land could bring in a pretty penny,” Michael said.

  Quinn cringed. Michael knew good and well that the land was given to her
parents by her grandmother Helen, Jules’s mother. He was trying to rub it in that they hadn’t paid for it.

  “You’d better check yourself, man,” Jonah said, his voice quiet and steeled. “This is our family home. And Kira gets plenty of the family money, but she has to work for it just like everyone else. If you thought you were stealing away a trust-fund baby, you thought wrong.”

  “Jonah, stay out of it,” Kira said.

  “He doesn’t have to,” Lani said, glaring at her sister. “This is a family business and a family meeting. And I suppose you don’t care that if you back out now, I’m the one who’s going to be left figuring out how to run both boats?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Kira said.

  “Then what’s the loan for?” Lani demanded.

  Quinn began to feel very uncomfortable, and Noah held up a hand. “Calm down. We can discuss this like adults. And Lani, you won’t be left hanging no matter what happens. Don’t jump to conclusions.”

  Jules put her hands up. “Everyone, take a breath. This doesn’t have to turn ugly. We’re here to talk through it. As a family.”

  Quiet settled uneasily around the room, but the vibes of frustration bounced off the walls. Quinn was glad the boys were still outside and not able to hear what was probably going to be even more heated words. A battle had been brewing between Lani and Kira for a while, and now Quinn thought it just might come to a head.

  “Yes,” Michael said. “We want the loan so we can buy our own business and be sole owners. Kira wanted to come to you first, but I talked her into waiting until we knew for sure we could swing it. We were going to tell you. Eventually.”

  Lani shook her head, visibly disgusted at her brother-in-law. “And after all we’ve done for you, Michael. Dad taught you everything there is to know about boating.”