by Aubree Lane
Mike reached out and wrapped Terence up in his arm and smashed the three of them together. “Ho’i hou ke aloha,” he whooped. “Let’s wake up Lena, I want breakfast!”
Lena had been up most of the night trying to convince Phoebe to stay until after the B&B’s grand opening celebration, but Phoebe was ready to go home and get back to her new job. With Mr. Barrington’s backing, Phoebe was buying Annie H. Designs, and she understood the need to move her business off of Larry Wright’s property as quickly as possible.
During the last few weeks Annie discovered there were conspiracies at work all around her. It didn’t take much for Nathan to see the writing on the wall. He called Phoebe and asked her to send out the SOS, which helped bring Annie back to Oahu. Having heard of Annie’s wish to sell, and knowing a great investment when he saw one, Annie’s very own Mr. Green Jeans approached her with an offer. The deal was closed the moment Annie heard Phoebe was to take the helm.
Mrs. B. (as Phoebe now affectionately calls her) was planning an epic coming out party to introduce Phoebe as the next designing phenom. In addition, she sent letters out to their agitated clientele, requesting their patience during the restructuring, and promised a ten percent discount to all those willing to stay and give the new head designer a chance. Since Annie wasn’t the only one who found it difficult to say no to Mrs. Barrington, Phoebe had plenty of work waiting for her upon her return.
If Annie dared to look a little deeper, she might have seen David’s hand in all this, and maybe even a touch of Eleanor’s. Everything went smooth as silk, and Annie found it hard to believe that life could fall into place that easily. More had to have been going on behind the scenes, but for the time being she was willing to accept it at face value.
She was home. It felt good, and more importantly, it felt right.
“No, let’s not wake Lena up,” Annie said as Mike dragged them up the hill towards the kitchen. “How about a cup of Kona coffee instead? I have some brewing as we speak.”
“Kona, the hot wind that blows from the lee side of the island,” he replied, taking six giant steps towards the B&B. Annie was lifted off the ground with each step. “I think I’d like a cup of that.”
Annie looked up at the big man. “Is that what kona really means?”
Mike laughed. “I don’t know, I read it off the coffee bag when we were up there earlier.”
• • •
Phoebe came downstairs while they were enjoying their coffee, looking tired and worn out. She dragged her feet over to Lena’s brand spanking new, professional coffee brewing station. She filled a mug and shuffled back over to them. Placing a heavy arm across Mike’s shoulder, she leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Annie’s eyes about popped out of her head. She wondered how she could have missed this fascinating new development.
Dramatically, Phoebe scraped a chair out from the table, dropped into it, pushed her mug towards the middle of the table, laid her head down, and closed her eyes.
When they tried to pick up their conversation, Phoebe moaned and covered her head with her arms.
Mike stood up. “We might as well get back to work. Phoebe is not a morning person.”
When the men left, Annie leaned close to her ex-assistant and whispered, “Since when aren’t you a morning person?”
Phoebe shifted her head and popped one eye open. “Are they gone?”
“Yes, they’re gone. What’s going on?”
Phoebe sat up. “I’m avoiding Mike. He’s great, and I appreciate him coming to the rescue and finishing the work Alan started, but I’m leaving. We have no future.”
Annie sipped her coffee thoughtfully. “I don’t think you have to worry. Mike’s pretty cool. I think he’ll kiss you goodbye and wish you aloha kāua.”
Phoebe rolled her eyes. “Not you, too. I’m getting pretty sick of all that Hawaiian. Half the time I don’t have a clue what the man is saying.” She bugged her eyes open wide. “And we certainly aren’t communicating all that well in the universal language of love department.” She picked up her mug and gulped down its contents, but by the time the mug was back on the table her face softened and a sad smile crossed her face. “But he’s so sweet. Annie, what am I going to do?”
Thankfully Annie did not have to answer that question because just then Lena banged the kitchen door open and yelled, “What does a person have to do to get a little sleep around here?” She poured herself a cup of coffee and even more dramatically than Phoebe, sat down at the table, tilted her head back like a crane, and closed her eyes.
Annie looked back at the coffee machine, and an idea began to percolate. She excused herself from the cranky women and headed upstairs to her laptop. A quick Internet search revealed that the nearest gourmet coffee house was ten miles away. She smiled at the news. With Annie H. Designs no longer her responsibility, she had an opportunity to start a new business. The amount of money she spent on specialty coffee alone could support a small, fledgling operation. She thought she might start off with a portable coffee cart before working her way into a storefront.
After another quick search, she learned that from Kauai all the way down to the Big Island coffee was grown in abundance. The idea of how she might strike a deal with some of the local growers and specialize in some of their unique blends began to swirl around in her mind. She never pictured herself as a barista, but the idea fascinated her, and she felt it warranted further investigation.
Terence wasn’t going to need her financial help. During one of their many long and involved conversations over the last few days, Terence informed her that he would not be pursuing custody of Erika. Every attorney he consulted told him the same thing. He could not win. So for Erika’s sake, he was going to put all his energy into staying on Larry’s good side and hope for the best.
Relying solely on Larry’s good will didn’t sit well with Annie, but she didn’t know what to tell him. She hadn’t spoken to Marissa in weeks, and she and Larry had only shared brief cordial conversations since her return. They were both uncomfortable with their present situation and avoided each other. Annie knew why she was avoiding him. She didn’t want to talk about Marissa, but she couldn’t understand why he was avoiding her. Annie could picture Terence’s worst fears coming true, and she didn’t have a clue how to stop it.
The happy cricket sounded off on her bedside table, and Annie smiled when she saw who was calling.
“Hi, Eleanor,” she said to her dear, dear friend. “What’s going on?”
• • •
Later that afternoon, when Phoebe and Lena were awake and moving about, Phoebe made it clear it was a mad dash to the finish line. Lena’s grand opening was fast approaching, and she insisted there was still a week or two of work left to complete. In designer speak, that meant they were cutting it extremely close to the massive celebration Lena planned only one month away.
Phoebe was at her wit’s end and ranted and raved about being put on such a strict deadline. She begged Lena for more time, but the only answer she received was in the form of Lena’s famous laugh.
Phoebe complained, quite loudly, that until recently they’d been working at a leisurely pace, which left plenty of time for relaxation, and what had once been a working vacation was now just work. She followed that with a few well-placed barbs directed at Mike. “What are you doing?” she yelled at the hulking carpenter she enjoyed so much over the last few weeks. “That cabinet is not supposed to go all the way to the ceiling! There is not a single surface in this house that is plumb, straight, or level! It will never look right that way. It has to be free standing with a nice bit of molding on top. I simply need to hide that exposed pipe in the corner and add more storage. It has to look nice, but it doesn’t have to be fancy. The grand opening is right around the corner, and I’ll have your hide if you don’t get it right!”
Mike gave Phoebe a slow, steady smile, and without a word picked up the source of her displeasure and carried it outside. Unfortunately, he scraped some
fresh paint off the wall when he misjudged a corner, causing a new set of complaints to spew out of Phoebe’s mouth.
Annie cringed listening to Phoebe lay into Mike. “I guess the honeymoon is over,” she whispered to Lena.
Lena smiled. “Don’t be too sure. Mike isn’t yelling back. So far, he’s not taking it personally. If he’s smart, he will never agree to work for her again, at least not while they are still seeing each other.”
Annie cocked her head and frowned. “Do you think they’ll stay together?”
“Stranger things have happened. Look at you and Terence. A year ago, no one could foresee all the changes that happened to our family.” Then Lena shook her head. “But I think Phoebe’s just passing time with Mike. She likes him well enough, but I don’t think she loves him.”
Twelve months ago, Annie certainly would not have imagined that Phoebe would be the head of Annie H. Designs and that she would be unemployed. The funny thing was, it didn’t bother her, and she was surprised at the relief she felt not having that noose around her neck any longer.
She also came to realize that no matter how much she loved Marissa and Larry, she had never been part of their family. She knew they would argue the point, but it was true. She also saw how she’d never been secure enough in their odd relationship to give them the space they needed for just each other, and how she clung to them like a lifeboat. They saved her in every sense of the word, and she would be forever grateful, but Annie could also see how wearing her constant clinging had been on everyone. Where she and Terence would fit into the Wright family was still a significant unknown, but Erika had been welcomed with open arms into their special family, and Annie was happy for her.
She also realized David could have treated her far worse for the way she monopolized his wife’s time, and Annie thought she might have to find some way to thank him. She laughed at herself when she realized she had already given him the best possible gift by moving to Oahu.
It certainly had been the best gift she had ever given herself. She didn’t know if it was the warm Kona winds blowing in from the lee side of the island, or the love of a good man, but a newfound contentment had settled deep within her soul, and for the first time in her entire life she was beginning to feel comfortable within her own skin.
Phoebe screamed at another poor worker and Annie grabbed Lena’s arm and pulled her out the back door. “Let’s get out of here while we still can. That girl is going to give herself a heart attack.”
Lena balked. “Maybe I should tell her to lighten up. Last night I begged her to stay longer, and today she’s screaming that she doesn’t have enough time. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. We’re almost finished. I thought the only thing left was the downstairs bathroom. The grand opening is going to be based outside. Most of my family will probably end up whizzing in the bushes. Even if the toilet doesn’t arrive, it’s not a big deal.”
Annie continued to drag Lena outside and down to the beach. In the distance, Lena finally saw a bunch of women sitting in the sand. One of the women got up to greet them. It was Susan, the pyro.
“What’s going on?” Lena asked in surprise.
Susan handed Lena a plastic cup filled with her own version of Jumby Brew. “We’re throwing you a surprise Pre-Grand Opening Party. We thought it was about time you sat back and enjoyed the fruits of your labor.”
Lena squinted. “Who are all these other women?” She smiled as her eyes snapped into focus. Lena threw her head back and let out a thunderous roar of laughter. “My in-laws of course.”
Phoebe came out to join them. “I see my temper tantrum successfully made you run for the hills. Are you surprised?”
Lena punched Phoebe tenderly on the arm. “I thought you were cracking under pressure.”
“A fine friend you turned out to be,” Phoebe laughed, “abandoning me in my time of need. I’m going to remember this.”
Susan hooked arms with Lena and escorted her to her place of honor under the shade of a palm tree. Soon after, an unseen drum began pounding out a rhythm and Mike, dressed in nothing but a grass skirt, jumped in front of Lena and began to shimmy.
Annie laughed so hard she could hardly breathe. Then as Mike continued his dance, she realized he was actually quite good. His large body was surprisingly firm, and absolutely nothing jiggled where it wasn’t supposed to.
When the drums stopped, Mike finished the dance by whipping off the grass skirt, leaving nothing but a thong to cover his private parts. Lena screamed and covered her eyes. Mike hammed it up even more by going over and planting a big wet, juicy kiss on Lena’s cheek.
When the laughter subsided, Terence, Larry, and all of the male counterparts of the female congregation began bringing trays of food down from a catering van parked in the drive.
“Hey, Susan,” Annie yelled. “Great party! How did you get the guys to do that?”
Susan shook her cropped hair. “I didn’t have anything to do with it. Frank must have worked his psycho-babble on them.”
Annie knew something must have happened to cause the shift. At the last luau the women served the men. “Are they going to wait on us all afternoon?”
Susan drained her cup and a man with a flat top and way more muscles than his buff wife was instantly by her side to refill it. “Longer than that,” she called back. “I’ve booked this one for life. The party might end,” she winked. “But the service never does.” The pair mingled off into the crowd with Susan’s husband topping off every empty cup he encountered.
Annie wondered where her own personal waiter was. She caught sight of Terence and five or six other men carrying several pieces of large electronic equipment, along with a couple of oversized speakers and a microphone.
“I didn’t know we were going to have a band,” Annie said, mostly to herself.
Phoebe snickered behind her. “One would think you would recognize a karaoke machine when you saw one. Better put something together fast. The natives want to hear you sing. I hear you’re the grand finale.”
That was also news to Annie, but she didn’t mind.
Phoebe pushed past her and made her way into the crowd towards the man she screamed at all afternoon.
Annie found Erika sitting alone in the seat Lena had abandoned. The young girl was quietly reading a paperback. For the moment, she was the lone child in a sea of adults. The other children of the clan were catching a ride with Terence’s friend, Jason, who planned on packing them in the back of his truck, pointing his compass in the direction of Lena’s B&B, and punching it.
Annie was pretty sure he was kidding, but she was relieved when Terence brought Erika over with him, otherwise she would have gone over and picked her up herself.
Annie handed Erika a can of soda. “Why are you over here all alone?”
“I’m reading a book Larry gave to me. He said all the fourth graders in California read it. It’s about a kid during the gold rush. It’s called The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin.”
Annie vaguely remembered the book. “What’s the kid’s name again?” she asked.
“Jack, but later on he gets the nickname Jamoka Jack.”
It was a sign. It was serendipity. It was fate. Her gourmet coffee cart would be called Jamoka Jack. She smiled. “We’ll have to go to the video store and rent the movie. Rodney McDowell starred in it.”
“Who?”
Annie forgot that Erika was only familiar with animated stars. She gestured towards the karaoke machine. “Would you like to sing a song with me?”
Erika’s eyes grew wide with pleasure. “What will we sing?”
“Whatever you want.” Annie racked her brain for some of the songs from that Roseanne Barr cow movie.
“How about Sunny Down by Danger Zone?” Erika suggested.
Annie was pleased that her taste of music was rubbing off on the girl. She sang the first line, “Never in my town.”
Erika chimed in. “Will my Sunny be let down.”
Then they sang tog
ether. “So we’ve got to trudge, trudge, trudge together.”
Annie laughed. “You’re a fantastic singer! Let’s do it. Do you have the CD? We could practice a bit before our premiere performance.”
They were interrupted by the roar of a monster truck coming down the road. They looked up and saw Jason’s full-sized, four-wheeled, jacked-up, yellow, Dodge Ram 3500, its bed filled dangerously close to the brim with an assortment of different sized cousins, come barreling into the drive. He pulled up on the grass not far from them and before the truck had come to a full and complete stop, the kids began leaping out.
Erika took off to join them, but managed to yell back, “I know the song by heart. I don’t need any practice.”
Once the children dispersed, Annie settled back and watched the designated roadies test out the karaoke equipment they just set up. She wondered how many of the guests would actually perform.
She didn’t have long to wait. As soon as the adults left the makeshift stage, aka, the dock Terence was about to rip out, the younger members of the family jumped up and began performing one song right after the other without any hesitation or talent.
Thomas, with his flaming red hair and irritating ways, arrived an hour later with the final piece of porcelain Phoebe needed to complete the B&B’s renovation.
While a plumber-in-law was busy installing the toilet in the downstairs bathroom, Annie and Erika sang their duet flawlessly. Annie was impressed with Erika’s voice. Then it dawned on her that her new singing partner was Marissa’s little sister and that the ability to carry a tune must run on the Wright side of the family. Jack and Sandy were tone deaf. Much to Marissa’s dismay, her kids couldn’t carry a tune to save their souls.
Annie caught herself thinking it would be fun to call Marissa and inform her that her children’s lack of music ability must come from David’s side of the family.
• • •
While the party was still in full swing, Phoebe snuck inside and packed her bags. That was it. Her job was done. All that was left was for Mike to cut down the cabinet he purposely built too tall and touch up the paint he accidentally scraped off the wall.
