He would skin me alive before he allowed me anywhere near them again. Which was a relief in and of itself. Aloiki might be busy with Lu and the wedding and their pregnancy, but he wouldn’t hesitate to protect m—thegirls. Even from me.
I was banished. I didn’t know what he’d told the others or if he was plotting any other punishment, but I was not allowed to cross the threshold of Bacon’s house. There should be further punishment. Knowing Aloiki, it would be something awful and painful. Staked to the ground and left in the sun to bake for a week or buried up to my head in the sand in front of the rising tide or placed in a coffin above ground with a cluster of giant centipedes.
He wouldn’t kill me. Even if I begged him to. And he would protect them with his life, just as I would.
Unfortunately, he was also busy enough where my punishment might not come for a while. Ironically, it would make the weight of the unknown worse. I didn’t even know how many days it had been since I said something similar in a differentshower.
Two days? Three?
Having no intention of putting my soiled shorts back on, I wrapped a towel around my waist before heading back downstairs to the laundry room. It looked like there was a load of clothes already waiting in the washing machine. I added my shorts, a detergent pod, and then started the cycle.
Being banished from the house did not mean I wasn’t allowed into the barn. I wasn’t sure if that was where I had left my phone or if I’d lost it somewhere else over the past—I glanced at the digital clock on the wall with the date, time, and temperatures—two days. I didn’t even know where my motorcycle was.
I headed into the kitchen. Everywhere I looked in the house I saw evidence that a child lived here. It was like a film had been placed over a television screen. The house still looked just as I’d left it, same furniture and placement, but an entirely different atmosphere.
Framed pictures that had told the story of Kalea’s and my life together were now replaced with the various stages of Pua’s life. Even Aloiki was in some, and Lu from what looked to be Pualani’s last birthday when she turned two. I knew damn well what date it was when Aloiki had lied to me that he was taking Lu surfing, but it had been a lie I needed to hear.
Aloiki might be disgusted by Kalea’s affair, but she was still his little sister, and family meant everything to Aloiki. For a time, it had worked out, his best friend and his sister being happily married. Now there was a phisher, a divide, and he had to lie to my face for the sake of my sanity.
I made myself a sandwich while the washer continued its cycle. I sat in the same seat I had claimed years ago when I bought this kitchen table set. The deep scratch in the wood where Kalea’s jewelry had marked it was still present. I touched the ridge, remembering both buying her that diamond necklace and bending her over the table while she wore it.
The front door opened and closed, and I heard the quick pitter-patter of unsteady feet on the floor a moment before a little girl with dual black braids high on her head came running into the kitchen. She went straight to the fridge without even realizing her audience.
Kalea’s laugh filled the house, assailing my mind with memories and making my heart twinge. “You need to wait for me,Kealoha!”
I winced at the endearment. I’d held a minutes-old Pualani in my arms and called her the same, my beloved child.
Kalea froze in the doorway of the kitchen, her arms weighed down by grocery bags. “What are you doing here?”
That really was a good question. I still hadn’t figured out why I’d ended up on her front lawn in my drunken state. I certainly hadn’t intended to walk here.
I shrugged, taking a bite of my sandwich. “Waiting for the laundry to be done.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she continued into the kitchen to put her bags on the table. She nearly knocked my plate onto the floor in her ire. Like most Pacific Islanders, Kalea had tanned skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. Kalea also had a narrower jawline, almost pointed, similar to her brother. She wasn’t overweight, but she also wasn’t skin and bones. In the three weeks we’d stayed in the hospital waiting to learn Pualani’s fate, Kalea had been weak, her body still recovering from the birth. I hadn’t seen her since. Not until last night when I’d been drunk out of my mind.
She looked…good. But then again, she always had. I didn’t have a specific type when it came to women, but I was a big guy, so I tended to prefer taller women with some heft to them. Once I realized my feelings for Kalea weren’t brotherly, and I’d started looking at her as awomanand not a teenager, I thought her perfect for me. I’d heard a lot of men over the years talk about how pregnancy had ruined their women’s bodies, but that certainlywasn’t the case with Kalea. She was even more beautiful than I remembered.
But then again, I’d always liked to rile her up. She’d been such a shy teenager, and getting to see her feistiness had been a turn on for me.
“When I didn’t see you on the lawn, I figured you’d called someone for a ride. Not that you’d broken into my house to eat my food,” she looked me up and down, “and use my shower.”
“I also drank your coffee,” I informed her. “You left the pot on again.”
A noise behind her stopped Kalea’s rebuttal. As she hurried over to her impatient daughter, she hissed at me in a low tone, “Just cover yourself. I do not need her seeingallof you.” At the fridge, she got out Pualani’s sippy cup and a small tray of crackers and cheese.
I looked down and noticed that the towel was so small around my waist that my entire right leg was showing. Neither frank nor beans were revealed, but a small twist would change that. I wasn’t that much of a dick where I wanted to flash the child in the room. I glanced up at the bags of groceries in front of me, and snorted. Kalea couldn’t cook for shit, but she certainly loved her cooking magazines. I pulled out one that was all about tomatoes, rolled my eyes, and draped the open pages over my groin.
Pua hurried over to the table, where she struggled to get up into her booster seat. Kalea easily lifted her up, setting the plate on the table in front of her. Pualani eyed me over the rim of her sippy cup, but she did not stop drinking long enough to ask me who I was or why I was here. Kalea’s expression said that she was unimpressed by my efforts to become decent.
“Mahalo, Mama!” Pualani exclaimed.
My heart squeezed tightly in my chest at her innocent, little voice. I’d never heard her speak before. Just before we’d gone to Russia, I’d held Pualani for the first time sinceshe’d been three weeks old. Aloiki had been injured in the raid that had destroyed his house, and Lu needed to go to him. I took Pualani from her so she could help Tommy with Aloiki’s injuries.
It had been surreal, to say the least. In that moment, it hadn’t mattered her parentage. I just needed to know she was safe.
Kalea started to put groceries away. I continued eating my sandwich. Pualani ate her snack like crackers and cheese was a gourmet meal prepared by Gordon Ramsey, completely oblivious to the tension between her mother and me.
I truly had no good answer to Kalea’s initial question. Why was I here? She was correct in that I could have called for a ride. I might be banished from Bacon’s house, but I wasn’t out of the club. I was still the VP. I could have ordered anyone but Aloiki to come and get me, and they would have to. So why didn’t I? Why, instead, had I goneintoher house, the house we had planned to raiseourchildren in, and basically made myself at home?