“I guess I’d have to. Long enough to get it off the ground, at least. Eventually I could hire a manager and employees to keep it going while I travel. But yeah, I think I’m ready to be here again for a while. I’m not sure how much more solo travel I can handle with Kaleo at this age. I know it’ll get easier again eventually, but man. Solo travel with a toddler is grueling.”
“I’d love to have you home again. We all would.”
“I want to set it up so that Kaleo can come to work with me,” Akemi said, thinking aloud. “So that other moms could bring their babies too. We could put a play space outside. Maybe a soft play space inside too.”
“There would definitely be a market for that.”
Akemi went through her photos and found some of the playspaces and family-friendly cafés she had visited in Bangkok. Behind her, Kaleo pulled board books off the shelves one by one, dropping them on the wooden floor with a clatter.
“Like this,” she said, handing the phone to her sister. “Scroll through these and tell me what you think.”
She went to put the board books back, replacing them at roughly the same rate at which Kaleo was pulling them from the shelves.
“This is brilliant,” Laurie said as she flipped through. She came around the counter and handed Akemi’s phone back. “Local moms would love this. Maybe include something for older kids too?”
“It depends on how much room we have, I guess. Older kids have the park down the street and the bookshop next door, but there’s really nothing in town for toddlers.”
“That’s true,” Laurie said thoughtfully.
“Do you think the owner would go for it?”
“She’s all about keeping things local. It’s certainly worth a try. Here, I’ll send you her number.”
Akemi trailed Kaleo through the bookshop, her mind on this new dream of a family-friendly coffee shop. She imagined her son playing with other toddlers while she pulled espresso shots for tired moms. The image gave her a cozy sense of community that warmed her heart.
She caught a heavy history book just before Kaleo could pullit down on his head.
“You need a padded enclosure,” she told him.
He laughed and ran away.
Akemi chased him down and caught him up in her arms, covering his face with kisses while he shrieked with laughter.
She felt reenergized.
This could be their next chapter. It felt right.
This was something she could do.
8
Oakley
Coming home to her house in Waimea, Oakey always felt a sense of pride and pleasure in the life that she had created there. She loved her white picket fence and her carefully curated living space. It was a picture-perfect life.
Coming home to her rental in Pualena, Oakley felt… not that.
The house was old enough to look run down but new enough to have absolutely zero charm. It was a long beige rectangle with chipped paint and a mangy-looking tin roof. Walking up to that house, Oakley always felt a vague sense of failure.
It was nice enough inside, a reasonably spacious two-bedroom home. Rentals in Pualena were so sparse that she had snapped this one up, so desperate was she to leave her house when Trent filed for divorce.
The place wasn’t in great shape. The roof leaked, and the owner kept promising to fix it. Worse than that, mold was a real problem. The house had a pervasive musty smell that worried her.
She did everything she could to keep a breeze moving through and hoped that whatever spores were in the air wouldn’t haveany deleterious effects on their health.
Even if the air was harmless, the overall feeling was cramped and oppressive.
But it was close to family – and it had been the only viable option available in the area when she moved out of the house that she had shared with Trent.