by Edie Claire
Ri thought the whole thing looked like something a fisherman might accidentally get caught on his hook, but she said nothing. “And that?” she asked, pointing to a chopped salad in a small dish.
“Lomi lomi salmon,” Maddie answered. “Fresh salmon and tomato salad, with onion and peppers.” She pointed to the second of three small bowls. “This little white square is dessert. It’s called haupia, a coconut cream custard. Sweet and yummy. And this,” she said as she made a little flourish with her fork over the third bowl, “is poi!”
Kai grimaced. “Otherwise known as pulverized taro. Worse than baby food.”
“Oh hush,” Maddie teased, picking up a forkful of kalua pig and dipping it into the pale, brownish-purple paste. “It’s wonderful.”
Kai gestured to Maddie, then shrugged at Ri. “Seriously, she’ll eat anything.”
Maddie swallowed, then nodded. “It’s true. I will. But I do love this especially. You want to try it?” She pushed her plate to the middle of the table. “Try anything you want!”
Ri decided to be adventurous, trying it all and sharing from her own plate as well. She and Maddie quizzed each other about their scientific backgrounds, and Ri was delighted to find they had so many interests in common. But as splendid a time as Ri was having, the more she watched the happy couple, the more worried she grew about Mei Lin.
She told herself she was overreacting. Her long-married parents were no fair comparison, and for all she knew, Maddie and Kai were really unusual. But the closest Kai had come all evening to saying anything even remotely negative about Maddie was “seriously, she’ll eat anything,” and he’d even said that like it was a compliment. Ri couldn’t imagine Kai coming out with a typical Josh laugh line like “that poi’s almost as mushy as your brain, Mei Lin.” Or “you keep eating like that and I’ll never be able to carry you over the threshold.” He always said such things as if they were a joke, and Mei Lin always laughed them off and insisted that she thought it was funny and that his idea of humor really, truly didn’t bother her.
But it bothered Ri.
“Oh!” Ri said, jumping in her seat as a blue-gray flash out on the water caught her eye. “Dolphin!”
“Was it a spinner?” Maddie asked.
Ri shook her head. “I couldn’t see it well enough. But I’m going to pretend it was. I’ve been dying to see a spinner or a spotted, neither of which I’ve ever seen before, and the whole time we were out on the boat yesterday the only dolphin we saw was a bottlenose!”
Maddie laughed. “You’ll see plenty of the others, don’t worry. Enjoy the humpbacks while you can, though. They’ll be getting scarce soon.”
Ri grinned. “Oh, I definitely will. I plan to be out on the water every second they’ll let us, believe me.” Her phone rang in her bag, and she looked down at it with a sense of foreboding. She picked it up and looked at the number. “I’m sorry,” she said nervously as she stood and stepped away from the table. “I’d better take this. It’s my boss.”
Walking instinctively toward the ocean for comfort, she pulled the phone to her ear. “Hello. This is Ri.”
“Ri, hey, Lachland here. Just wanted to catch you up on the latest. First off, you’re good to stay at the motel another two nights on the Red Cross voucher, and then I talked to the head of the Foundation, and we’ve got an emergency fund that can carry you through the rest of the weekend. So don’t worry about the bill.”
Ri froze. The bill? The thought had never occurred to her, but it should have. Although her room was a modest one, the building was technically oceanfront. If she had to pay for even a night or two on her own, she’d wind up camping on a beach somewhere instead.
“As for after this weekend,” Lachland continued, sounding uncomfortable, “things get a bit more complicated.”
“We can do some of the cleanup at Mrs. Araki’s place ourselves, if that will help us get back in faster,” Ri suggested.
Lachland sighed. “I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible. Mrs. Araki is working through her insurance company and they’re saying the restoration will take at least three months. The damage to the kitchen was pretty extensive, and I guess the roof, too.”
Ri’s heart fell into her shoes. No. Everything could not fall apart on her! Not now.
“We’re putting out some feelers within the Foundation,” Lachland continued, “seeing if we can find someone to take you guys in temporarily. We’re also looking for somebody who can rent a room for four months at something close to what you were expecting to pay. I’m afraid we can’t make any guarantees, though. Most everybody with room to rent is already renting it.”
Ri looked out over the gorgeous blue ocean in front of her and tried to calm her fears. Something would work out. It had to.
“It would help if you had somebody you could share rent with,” Lachland added.
His words touched off an alarm. “What about Shelby?” Ri asked.
“Oh,” Lachland said awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I thought you heard. Shelby’s going back to Texas. Her flight should be leaving right around now, actually. I guess the burns on her face were serious enough that she and her parents decided she should be looked at by a specialist back home. She said she wants to come back and finish the term if she can, and I did tell her we’d keep her spot open. But between you and me, I doubt that’s going to happen.”
Ri’s stomach churned. Could she even justify spending money on temporary lodging if a full summer’s worth wasn’t likely to become available? Without the value a completed internship would add to her resume, she could be throwing that money away.
“I’m really sorry about this, Ri,” Lachland commiserated. “Do you think you might be able to pay a little more for housing than you budgeted?”
Ri swallowed. She wanted to say yes with all her heart, but she knew that her head had to rule. Julie and Tom Sullivan had saved very hard to put Ri and Mei Lin through college without student debt, but that gift had come with a clear understanding that graduate school, if desired, would be on their daughters’ shoulders. And in Ri’s field, not only was competition for assistantships uncommonly fierce, but living expenses — near the ocean, of course — were always high. “No,” she answered evenly. “I really can’t afford to pay any more than I’ve already budgeted for the summer.”
“Oh,” Lachland replied stiffly. He paused a moment. “Well, like I said, we’re putting out feelers and we’ll see what we can find. In the meantime, somebody’ll give you guys a ride down to the Foundation tomorrow morning. Just be in the lobby by seven-thirty. All right?”
Ri assured him that she would be ready and waiting, and then they hung up. She remained standing where she was another few minutes, staring out over the turquoise waves and enjoying the breeze as it ruffled the nearby palms.
Everything here was so perfect. She could not go home now.
When she decided that the soothing blues and greens before her eyes had sufficiently mellowed her, she returned to the table. And when Kai and Maddie asked her if anything was wrong, she made the decision in an instant to tell them the truth. They had no way of knowing how unusual such an act of sharing was for Ri. How normally only her nearest and dearest would be privy to any acknowledgment of distress. Her usual MO would be to tell a casual acquaintance that everything was fine, then run back home, pick up the phone, and gush to Mei Lin or to her parents. But Ri felt the thousands of miles of distance between herself and her family acutely. She was here and they were there, and she did not want to be dependent on a phone.
“So that’s where things stand,” she said as she finished. “Hopefully the FOM can help me find someplace before the weekend is out.” She tried to smile, but judging from the looks on her new friends’ faces, her attempt was weak.
Maddie looked at Kai thoughtfully. “When is that guy moving into your old room at your uncle’s?”
Kai shook his head. “Sometime next week. I can’t think of anybody who’s got room right now. Not on my dad’s side, anyw
ay. I could ask my mom, though. Maybe she knows somebody.”
“I’ll ask around, too,” Maddie offered, turning to Ri. “Kai’s related to half the island and I know some people through work. Surely someone’s got some space. If you’re willing to share a kitchen and a bathroom and you’re not picky, people around here are pretty open to bringing in a few extra dollars from a spare bedroom.”
“Or closet,” Kai added.
“Or closet,” Maddie agreed.
“I’ll live pretty much anywhere as long as the people are friendly and I can get to a bus line,” Ri assured. She gave them her budget constraints and tried not to notice the look of dismay that crossed their faces at the number.
“We’ll do our best,” Kai promised.
Chapter 8
Wolf fought down an unaccustomed sense of foreboding as he finished the final leg of his hike. He had no reason to be down today. The weather was magnificent. Unusually clear skies had made visibility on the mountain fantastic since dawn. He’d eaten his lunch while enjoying a view of the Big Island to the east and then watched the late afternoon sun shining around the silhouettes of Kaho'olawe and Lana'i to the west. His equipment had only screwed up twice, and he was pretty sure all of the day’s measurements would be usable.
Still, he was uneasy. He had pushed hard all day so that he could knock off a little earlier than usual. If his worries were realized, he wanted to be back in cell phone range before the answering machine took over the animal abuse hotline.
He reached the empty pullout where he usually parked his truck, then stopped and studied the yard where the dogs lived. The pit bulls were in their fenced runs, snoozing. Of the long-haired mutt, he saw no sign. Since the pit bulls were caged and no truck was parked beside the house, Wolf assumed the man was not home. “Bella?” he called out, happy to know the mutt’s name, finally.
He heard nothing. One of the pit bulls woke and lifted its head, but after one squirmy movement of the rear — which in another breed would have been a tail thump — the dog lay back down again.
Wolf blew out a worried breath. The mutt hadn’t been around this morning, either. She could be wandering. She could even be inside the house. Or maybe animal control had sent a field officer out yesterday and they’d taken the dog into custody. The last option would be a good thing. The mutt was a cutie and would have a good chance of being adopted. But somehow, he doubted all of the above.
He continued down the dirt road, heading around the bend toward the wide spot where he’d pulled off and parked his truck this morning, out of sight of the man’s house, as a precaution. Wolf was sometimes accused of being a pessimist, but he preferred to think of himself as being wise. Not expecting a counterpunch from any man low enough to kick his own dog would be naive.
Unfortunately, he had underestimated the guy’s willingness to travel.
Dammit. He should have parked a full half-mile short of the house, up at the crossroads. It would have been safer. There would have been more witnesses about.
Wolf strode toward his truck with a scowl. He should be thankful, really. At least there wasn’t any monetary damage. No broken windows. No extra dents. The paint-job wasn’t even keyed. Just a solid bucketful of stinking dog crap smeared all over his windshield and door handles.
Whatever, dude.
He took care of the worst of the problem with a rag from the bed of the pickup, then drove off toward the field station for a hose to deal with the rest of it. At least one of his questions was answered. Someone from animal welfare had definitely paid The Beard a call yesterday. And clearly, Wolf’s days of parking in the highly convenient pullout were ended. But the question disturbing him the most still lingered. Where was Bella?
He stewed over the dog’s whereabouts the whole drive around the base of the mountain and back uphill to the field station. The total lack of fog this evening offered rare views from his home base that he ordinarily would revel in, but as he pulled into the lot in the filthy truck he found himself missing the area’s usual shroud of mystery.
Ilma, a German botanist in her early fifties who happened to be standing in the parking lot nearby at the time, raised an eyebrow at him. Ilma’s command of English was marginal, so she didn’t talk much, but she was intelligent and seemed to have a good sense of humor. She sniffed. “What is this?”
Wolf shook his head. “Met up with a really big dog,” he quipped.
Ilma narrowed her eyes to slits. Then she laughed at him and moved on.
Wolf would clean the truck eventually. But now he had other priorities. He locked up his gear and then headed for the Hilton’s shared living area, which was blissfully unoccupied. He sank straight into his favorite recliner and pulled out his phone.
He was in luck. The humane shelter volunteer who answered, Mario, was someone he knew. Every Saturday that Wolf allowed himself a break, he would check out a shelter dog for a day at the beach. It was part of an ongoing program the shelter ran both to exercise the dogs and to advertise their adoptable pets, but for Wolf it was all guilty pleasure. He missed his own dogs and enjoyed the canine company. He explained to Mario the report he’d made two days ago, and the chatty animal lover was only too happy to dish.
“I heard about that one,” Mario said immediately. “But they couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Why not?” Wolf asked, trying to contain himself. If the answer involved a bunch of silly legal restrictions, so help him, he’d—
“Because the guy denied up and down that the dog in the complaint even belonged to him,” Mario said. “He claimed he owned two pit bulls, and the officer confirmed that those two dogs didn’t look abused or neglected. But the guy’s story is that the other dog is a stray, and that he was only aggressive with it because it was threatening him and his other dogs and he was trying to scare it off. He says it was all self-defense.”
“Are you kidding me?” Wolf railed. “That dog doesn’t have an aggressive bone in her body, and I’ve seen her at his house every time I’ve been out there for months! I’ve seen him call her by name! She’s his, all right. He’s just trying to get out of a fine!”
Mario let out a sigh. “I believe you, man. Look, if he sticks to that story, they can always pick her up. They would have picked her up right then but I guess she ran off before they’d finished checking it out.”
Wolf’s teeth gritted. Or The Beard stuffed her in the shed or in the house.
“If you find her wandering off his property, you can bring her in yourself,” Mario advised. “But be careful. We never give out names on citizen complaints, but—”
“Oh, he knows it was me,” Wolf said. “I told him I’d report him.”
The shelter worker did not seem pleased to hear that. Wolf only half listened as the voice on the phone went on to give way more details than necessary about various unpleasant run-ins with abusive dog owners and the inadvisability of Wolf’s having any more to do with this particular bully, who in Mario’s uninformed opinion was at best an alcoholic and at worst mentally unstable.
“Don’t worry about me,” Wolf said dismissively. “I can handle myself.” He thanked Mario and the shelter’s staff for their efforts, then hung up the phone.
Footsteps approached from behind, and he looked around. It was Maddie, looking gorgeous as ever even in nondescript cargo work pants and an orange Auburn University jersey that clashed with her wet, freshly showered hair.
He forced his eyes away. Geez, the woman was easy to stare at.
“Wolf?” she began, her voiced filled with concern. “Not that I was intentionally eavesdropping or anything, but as you happened to be talking on the phone in a public space…” She dropped onto the loveseat across from him and looked at him expectantly.
He made no response.
“Who did you report for what, and what exactly can you handle?” she demanded. “Or if you won’t answer any of those questions, which I’m sure you won’t, how about this one: Is there anything I can do to help?”
/> Wolf looked into her genuinely troubled, gorgeous gray eyes and smiled. She was sweet to be concerned, but her offer of assistance was unnecessary. That said, if he were suddenly to find himself outnumbered three to one in a common street brawl and a female of his acquaintance happened upon the scene, he had a sneaking suspicion that Maddie Westover would be more useful than most. Her well-toned biceps and that steely glint in her eye made him suspect she was not above violence when necessary.
“I think you know the answer to all those questions,” he replied mildly.
Maddie sighed, loud and long. “Of course,” she said sarcastically. “The lone wolf thing. I’d be curious to know your approach to life if your mother had named you Lemming.”
“She named my brother Bear,” Wolf heard himself say.
“Oh?” Maddie replied with interest. “And does he act accordingly?”
Wolf didn’t answer. He was still trying to figure out why he’d said that. He never talked about his mother. His mother didn’t exist. The only mother in his little brother’s life had been Wolf himself.
“Is your brother older or younger?” Maddie asked lightly, settling back in the loveseat’s cushions.
“Younger,” Wolf said begrudgingly, his jaw muscles beginning to twitch.
“I’m envisioning a bush pilot,” Maddie said playfully. “Six foot two, totally ripped, full brown beard. He got taller than you in the tenth grade and you totally flipped out.”
Wolf stared at her. “Wrong.” But damn, she was close. Bear wasn’t rugged in any sense of the word — he was blond, lanky, and looked more like a swimmer than a weight lifter. But he was a pilot. And as for the reference to a certain tenth grade milestone — that was uncanny.
Maddie’s head tilted skeptically. “All of it?”
“Okay, so he’s taller than me,” Wolf said without thinking again. “But only by an inch.”
He regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth. Conversations with Maddie often left him tongue-tied, but the babbling thing was new, and that made it disturbing. Particularly when it came to talking about family. He was a private person. He and Maddie were not that close. He specifically didn’t want them to be.
