by Aubree Lane
“Erika,” Lena called out from the bottom of the stairs, “did you get Brittany’s message? The sanctuary people are here. Let’s go say goodbye to Turnabout.”
Erika ran her hand lovingly down Boden’s smooth surface. “Catch you later, big guy.” She barreled down the stairs and together, she and Lena walked briskly out to the shed.
“I hate to say this,” Erika began, “but I kind of want to keep him.”
Lena wrapped her arm across Erika’s shoulders. “I know, sweetie, but it wouldn’t be fair to Turnabout. He’s a wild creature. We only caged him for his safety. He needs to live with his own kind.”
Lena was right, but it was still hard to lose another thing she cared about.
Erika opened the door and got a load of the most gorgeous boy on Oahu. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
Lena nudged her further inside and introduced them to the stewards of the Bird’s Nest Sanctuary.
Ben moved beside Erika and pulled her closer to Turnabout. “Brittany said you helped take care of the Fairy tern. He seems to be in good shape. What did you feed him?”
Erika saw his beautiful lips move. The boy asked something, but she couldn’t form a coherent thought.
Brittany saved her. “Didn’t Mr. Caprice make a slurry of sea worms and water?” She grabbed Erika’s arm and pointed to the mortar and pestle. “We don’t have the exact recipe, but Turnabout seemed to enjoy it.”
Erika was thankful for the moment Britt gave her and used the time to compose herself. Once again able to think clearly, she added, “Mr. Kap attended to most of Turnabout’s needs, but I came down to help keep him quiet. He can get pretty loud when he feels ignored.” She looked around the shed. “Where is Mr. Kap? I know he would like to say goodbye.”
“Then I hope he gets here soon,” Mac said. “We need to get him settled at the Bird’s Nest fairly quick. Ben needs to start work on his holiday paper.”
“Erika has a paper she has to write, too.” Lena addressed Ben directly, “You don’t happen to go to the Hawaiian Cyber Academy, do you?”
Ben blinked and his head jerked with surprise.
“Wait,” Erika exclaimed, “are you Benjamin Kaʻuhane?”
Ben’s smile showed off his pearly whites. “You must be Erika Turner. You’re the only one getting a better grade than me in English. What’s your paper going to be on?”
She and Larry hadn’t had a chance to discuss it. The reason she went over to his house the day he suffered his stroke was to argue with him about the paper’s necessity over school break. Erika’s world caved in around her. Grief and sadness grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go.
Brittany took her hand and gently guided her outside.
• • •
“Did I say something wrong?” Ben asked.
Lena shook her head. “It wasn’t you. Larry, Erika’s learning coach, passed away recently. They were very close. She is still dealing with the loss.”
Ben nodded.
“I bet caring for the Fairy tern has been a great comfort,” the boy’s grandfather interjected.
“Immensely,” Lena agreed.
Mac gave Ben a sly wink and suggested, “Would she be interested in continuing with the chore?”
That piqued Lena’s interest. “What do you have in mind?”
“Ben will be working on his paper while I’m doing my chores at the sanctuary. The young lady could collaborate on the project with Ben? I would allow her to visit the bird during the many breaks I would encourage them to take. Ben’s mom is in the Army. She was recently deployed. My grandson is stuck with me at the Bird’s Nest. This could be beneficial for both of them.”
Lena liked the idea, but didn’t want to commit to anything without first speaking to Terence and having David check out the Kaʻuhanes. Her niece’s safety was paramount. “I’m just the aunt,” she explained. “I’ll speak with my brother and see how he feels about it. If it’s okay with him, it’s okay with me.”
“You are welcome to accompany us back to the sanctuary,” Mac offered. “It might help if Erika saw little Turnabout’s new living quarters.”
“Please say yes,” Ben beseeched.
Lena couldn’t say no to the boy. “I think you and Erika will get along just fine. You see an opportunity to get out of doing school work and you jump on it.”
Mac scowled. “His mom would kill me if he shirked his school responsibilities.” When the boy’s face dropped, Mac snickered. “However, I don’t see why we can’t postpone the assignment until we know if Erika is able to work on it with you.”
“She’s super smart, Grandpa,” Ben informed him as they gathered up Turnabout, and all the unnecessary belongings he acquired living at the B&B. “We might have just met in person, but we see each other all the time in our online classroom. A lot of the other kids don’t participate, or think it’s funny to post things that don’t pertain to the subject matter, but not Erika. The teachers let the kids stay after class to chat with each other, so we’re kind of friends already.”
Mac seemed confused. “You and Erika see each other in class? Why didn’t you recognize her?”
Ben closed his eyes and sighed. Frustration about having to explain every little detail about how the school operated was written plainly on his face. Grandpa was obviously a rookie at being the boy’s learning coach. Even Lena knew the kids chatted in a chat box and they didn’t actually see each other. She bit back the urge to snicker. Mac probably couldn’t understand why anyone would attend an online school. It might have been a foreign concept to the older man, but it made total sense to Lena why Ben’s mom chose that route. She was in the military. At any time, she was subject for transfer or deployment. Their world could be thrown into chaos in the blink of an eye. An online school kept one thing constant for her son.
Listening to Erika, Lena knew that too many parents didn’t take their responsibility seriously and allowed their kids to slack off. Larry and Eleanor did not fit into that category, and it didn’t appear as if Ben’s mom or grandfather did either.
“As long as Brittany doesn’t mind keeping an eye on things around here, then Erika and I will meet you back at the Bird’s Nest in about an hour. If I had known we were going to make the trip, we could have brought Turnabout out to you and saved you the gas.”
Mac looked more confused about that revelation than he had about his grandson’s school. “When I spoke with Mr. Kaplinger, I explained we could take the bird at any time, but he expressed the necessity of us picking him up. We were busy getting Ben moved in, which is why we couldn’t come until now.”
The enchanted Mr. Kaplinger had somehow worked his magic again. Erika had a new friend and a way to keep an eye on the bird. It was a mystery how Kap was able to arrange so many comforting and beneficial moves for the family. He had the help of the spinners. It was the only thing that made sense.
• • •
“It sounds like you had an exciting day,” Annie said after listening to Erika’s play-by-play of her adventure at the Bird’s Nest Sanctuary.
“Did I tell you one of the kids in my class is the curator’s grandson?”
Terence touched Annie’s hand and cued her in about their daughter’s new crush. “Only about five times,” he said.
Annie’s eyes glowed with amusement. “Tell us what he looks like again,” she prompted.
“Well,” Erika began excitedly, “he’s taller than me. His black hair is kind of long.”
Annie ran her fingers through Terence’s shaggy, almost black hair.
Erika continued with her description. “His eyes are dark. I’m not sure if they are dark brown or black.”
Annie tugged his hair. Terence glanced her way. Her eyes blinked until they landed on his own dark smoldering eyes. Her brows rose in silent laughter and Terence caught on. Erika was also describing her dear ol’ dad. He shuddered at what Annie was suggesting. Feeling more than a tad horrified, he cut Erika off. “Okay, we’ve heard enough.”
Erika begged with big puppy dog eyes. “Can I call Ben and tell him it’s okay for us to work together on our English project?”
Terence’s outright denial was nipped in the bud when Annie jumped in. “Give us a chance to talk to Lena and your online teacher. We’ve never met these people.”
Erika voice grew firm and loud. “Don’t you dare call David and ask him to run a background check on Ben. He’s just a kid. A nice kid. You are not allowed to ruin this for me.” On that note, the girl marched forcefully out of the living room.
When she was safely away, Terence shot Annie a warning glare. “Don’t say it.”
“What?” she asked innocently. “I think Erika has great taste in men.”
He stuck his fingers in his ears. “I can’t hear you.”
Her body slid up against his, and her fingers traced a matching path to her teasing words. “At least she didn’t describe his broad shoulders, slim waist, and sexy smile.”
Annie was having fun, but she was taking this way too far. He grabbed her hands and glowered directly into her eyes. “You have no idea how much you are freaking me out. Please stop.”
Her fingers tugged his phone out of his front pocket and handed it to him. “You’re calling David, right?”
Now there was the wife he knew and loved. “Damn straight.”
• • •
“No problem, Terence. I’ll get on it right away.” David disconnected and glanced at Marissa.
She bit her lip anxiously. “Do you think they realize we’re back on the island?”
David didn’t think that was the case. “Erika has a new crush and Daddy wants me to check out the kid and his family before they let her hang out at some bird sanctuary to do homework.”
“Teen love. I don’t envy them. We’ll be facing it soon enough with our kids, but I’m perfectly happy to wait.”
“Yeah, and learn from their mistakes.” He opened his laptop. “I still can’t believe Eleanor put a halt to Larry’s San Diego memorial service and convinced us to hightail it back here. I’m glad she’s taking care of our kids. They will help keep her mind off Larry’s passing, and I wouldn’t trust anyone else to watch Jack and Sandy while we help unravel the doobie-ous marijuana misdeed.”
“Convinced us? I didn’t think we had much choice in the matter.”
David glanced up with a knowing grin. “We both know it’s better to give in and do whatever she says. I think Eleanor needed to get out of San Diego and take a break up in Tahoe. And you’re glad to be away from that turmoil, too, even if it’s only for a little while.”
Her husband was right on target. The vultures circled after her announcement, and she couldn’t bear watching her father’s firm swirl any further down the toilet. David usually worked fast. With any luck, Grady would be free of all suspicion within a few days and everyone would be able to breathe easier.
Their hotel room was nice enough. It just wasn’t home. “I wish we could stay at the B&B,” Marissa sighed. “Lena’s is much more comfortable.”
David tapped out a few commands on the keyboard. “We need to stay under the radar. I don’t want to get into trouble with that DEA agent.” The screen lit up and David smiled. “It looks like the boy’s mom is a decorated soldier. Without scratching the surface, the family looks to be on the up and up. The kid is staying with Grandpa out at the sanctuary during her deployment. Gramps has worked with the birds for about thirty years.” He opened a new window and began to read. “Scratch that. Pops owns the private sanctuary. His home is smack dab in the middle of the property. He runs a few tours a day.” Her husband’s eyes flew open wide. “He charges twenty bucks a person.” David looked up, clearly impressed with Mr. Kaʻuhane’s entrepreneurial skills. “Now there’s a racket. Birds fly in and birds fly out. It’s registered as a sanctuary so they can’t be disturbed. He doesn’t have to feed them or clean up after them.” David tallied up the potential profits. “Let’s say he runs four, one hour tours a day, of roughly ten people in each group. That’s eight-hundred bucks a day, or four-thousand dollars a week. Multiply that by fifty-two and he’s raking in over two hundred grand a year.”
Marissa raised an eyebrow. “Maybe we should sell the Tahoe house and open a sanctuary instead.”
“Maybe we should,” David replied with complete seriousness. “It would be a hell of a lot less stressful than what we’re doing now.”
Marissa couldn’t argue with his logic. If everything went as planned, she would be unemployed in a few months. The buyout would sustain them for a while, but her huge paycheck would be history. Everything from health insurance down to cell service would have to be switched over to private carriers. Setting up their new life was going to be a pain.
Her dad let David go after he made one horrifically bad decision concerning one of their clients, and the couple had been living separate lives since. David packed up the kids and moved to their new home in Lake Tahoe. Marissa was to follow as soon as she could get out of the job her father entrusted her with.
While the rest of her family was busy building a new life beside the second deepest lake in the United States, Marissa was paying the bills, and suffering the agony of not seeing her kids on a daily basis. Each step she took further away from the firm, the more she never wanted to return.
When Eleanor said his expertise was needed in Hawaii and that Marissa was mandated to come along, he jumped at the chance to be someone other than Mr. Mom. David was a man of action and doing the family’s laundry didn’t provide the adrenaline rush he was used to.
“Other than the fact that I’m enormously jealous of their income bracket, the family checks out,” David said, bringing her back to the present. “Unless I uncover something unsavory when I check this place out in person, I’m comfortable giving my tentative okay for your little sister to date Ben Kaʻuhane.”
Distracted by her own thoughts, Marissa only heard half of what he said, but the word date stood out in her mind. “No one said anything about her dating the boy.”
“Homework, dating,” David shrugged, “The terms are interchangeable at their age.”
Marissa ran her hands through her hair. “Maybe it’s time I had a talk with baby sis.”
“Or maybe,” David grabbed the edge of her silky shirt and tugged her close, “you let Terence and Annie take care of Erika, and you and I take care of Grady and Brittany.”
She hooked her fingers on David’s belt. Marissa didn’t have to pull. David willingly stepped forward and drew her into his arms. “Let’s do this,” she stated with renewed conviction. “Grady had a rough year. He may have made some questionable choices―”
David threw his head back and unleashed a belly roll.
His laughter was contagious, but Marissa chuckled onward. “Grady let his grief get the better of him, but he doesn’t deserve to go to prison for it. I don’t understand how Brittany’s innocence is in question. She just arrived.”
“That’s why,” David explained. “She’s new to the area, and the plants are young. She has landscaping knowledge and access. I doubt the timetable lines up close enough to convict her, so let’s start with that. Do you think you can get me some photos of the plants without tipping our hand?”
“Piece of cake.” Marissa whipped out her phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“Brittany. I told her I’d help. I believe she and Annie were scrolling through some pictures of Grady’s backyard one day when I walked into the kitchen. Daddy had just died and they closed the laptop when they saw me. I’ll just ask her to forward them.” Brittany’s phone began ringing on the other end and Marissa held up a hushing finger.
16
Grady floated spread eagle in the surf. The gentle waves rocked him while he gazed up into the bright blue sky. It was surprising how comfortable he felt and how much he missed being in the water. Practically from birth, his parents had him out playing in the Pacific. His dad loved to say that the happiest day of his life was the d
ay he purchased the boat of his dreams, and the second happiest was the day he sold it.
For the longest time, Grady wondered where he fit on his dad’s happy scale. As he grew, he realized the boat was only a conductor, and the time his family spent out on the ocean, away from daily stress and strife, was what made the boat so special.
Each boat sold, followed by the purchase of a bigger, better model was the cornerstone of his father’s existence. The trip which took his parents’ life was the maiden voyage of the last boat he would ever want or need.
His dad nailed that prediction.
Grady embraced the memory of his parents before he let the air out of his lungs and let his body slip below the surface to join them.
As that thought passed through his mind, he realized that was all it was...a passing thought. The feeling of loss that gripped him had loosened its hold. Grady had a life he looked forward to living. It was time to rethink his business venture with Annie. The plan to franchise the Jamoka Jack Coffee Cart was a solid one. He could see it being highly successful. If it went forward, he already had ten people waiting to start their new business. Annie cared and worried about him. She got caught up in his excitement, but it wasn’t her dream. Grady had to find a way to come up with a ton of cash so he could buy Jamoka Jack and finance the franchise himself.
Grady chuckled at his idiocy. If he hadn’t reported the marijuana grow in his backyard, he would have had a viable source of income.
He ducked under the surface to wash the hair from his face, then began to swim. Twenty yards out past the breakers, he turned right and made his way down the shoreline. This was something he used to do every day. The open water, the rhythm of his breath, and the strain of his muscles was part of his daily routine. It served as his workout and helped him handle his high school AP classes, the SATs, and waiting for the college acceptance letters.
All that seemed a lifetime ago. In the end, he decided to save money and attend the local junior college. His parents were disappointed he hadn’t gone off and lived the college experience as they had, but they supported his choice. Grady was never going back. School wasn’t for him. He had no desire to waste his time sitting in a classroom when he could be out building his own empire. Everything he needed was readily available on the Internet or through Annie and Terence. They were a wealth of knowledge, and he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, they wouldn’t mind mentoring him.
