Her Hawaiian Homecoming

She hopped on one foot, squealing, unable to help herself as she looked around for a weapon—a stone, a stick, anything. She couldn’t step on the thing with her bare foot.

That was when a square-toed brown cowboy boot crunched it for her, mashing it into the dirt.

“Got it, ma’am,” Dallas drawled, an amused smile on his face as the thing twisted and turned under his boot. He ground it farther into the dust.

Allie had never felt so relieved and so embarrassed at the same time. Her wet hair hung in strands down her shoulders, black mud caked her once-clean toes. She clutched the towel more tightly around her chest, but it did no good. She might as well have been wearing a washcloth.

“Th-thanks,” she managed, trying to regain her composure. He’d put on a T-shirt, she noticed, wondering fleetingly about whether the Cheeseburger in Paradise was a real restaurant. It clung to his muscular chest, stretched and near popping as if his pecs were planning an escape. He was handsome, even she had to admit. He had golden hair, worn shaggy, with natural highlights from the sun. His age was hard to place, but midthirties, Allie guessed. She felt drawn to him, and immediately shut down the urge.

“Those things are nasty. Sting hurts worse than a yellow jacket. Want me to check for any more?”

“More?” Allie’s voice came out as a squeak of fear. She hadn’t even considered there’d be another one of those creatures.

“Sometimes they travel in pairs,” Dallas drawled, and Allie was unable to tell whether he was teasing or not. “I’ll check.”

“Okay.” Allie stood very still as Dallas made a slow sweep, walking so close to her she could catch the faded scent of some earthy aftershave. He just grazed her shoulder as he glided behind her, and she was more than aware she was standing almost naked in front of him. He seemed to be taking his time, she thought, and doing more looking at her skin than for bugs. She felt suddenly shy.

No one has seen me naked since...Jason. She shifted on her bare feet, very aware of Dallas’s eyes on her.

“You’re all clear,” he said at last, stepping away from her, eyes still on her bare knees.

“Good,” Allie said, her face still flushed. “Uh...thanks.”

“Anytime, ma’am.” Dallas grinned, a big, white smile that made the pit of her stomach feel fuzzy.

“I’ve...uh...got to get dressed. The Realtor’s coming...”

“The who?” Dallas snapped to attention, his demeanor immediately changing from affable country boy to guarded cowboy.

“Realtor. I took the liberty of inviting Jennifer Thomas. I’ve heard she’s the best on the island. I saw her on that show...Hawaii Living?”

Dallas looked suddenly pale, as if he’d seen a ghost, but Allie kept going.

“She said she might even want to put the property on the show when I talked to her on the phone...”

“I don’t want her here.” Dallas’s voice was a grunt.

Allie, surprised, shifted on one bare foot to another, conscious of the sticky dirt beneath her bare toes. “Oh, well... I don’t know if I can cancel with such late notice. Her assistant was very clear...”

“She can’t come here. She—” Dallas seemed to lose the ability to speak “—just can’t.”

“But...” Allie didn’t get to finish her sentence. Dallas had turned and was stalking away from her, his back taut with anger, his boots making rivets in the mud.

* * *

HOURS LATER, DALLAS still felt hot with anger. He couldn’t believe Allie had invited his ex straight to his doorstep. Might as well just let loose the rest of the lions and tigers and bears.

Jennifer would be more bloodthirsty than all of them. Dallas was arguing with Jennifer’s assistant on the phone that afternoon when he heard a roar near the driveway and realized he’d have to tell the woman to her face just how unwelcome she was. He walked out of his front door and down the path of coffee trees toward Misu’s place, carrying a bundle of papers rolled up and sticking out of the back pocket of his jeans. He made it to the clearing in time to see the goat skitter away at the sight of Jennifer’s cherry-red convertible BMW. Smart goat. Jennifer was the kind of woman who didn’t mind running over anything in her path. Dallas still had the tire tread on his back to prove it.

He frowned as he watched her step out of her sports car, wearing her usual uniform of overpriced designer clothes, which clung tightly to her curves, her too-short skirt inching up her thigh as she slammed the car door with a thunk. She met his gaze over the car roof and smiled just slightly, triumph on her face as she flicked a long, curving strand of blond hair off her shoulder. She must love that Allie invited her here, must be relishing every minute, he thought.

He glanced in the backseat and saw it was empty, save for Kayla’s pink-and-green striped booster seat. She’d be at day care anyhow. He felt a pinch in his chest as he saw her small white stuffed bear. Mr. Cuddles, he remembered. She used to be inconsolable without him. He felt the urge to run it over to her at day care, but then felt a dull ache in his rib cage when he realized that wasn’t his job anymore. Hadn’t been for nearly a year. Jennifer had made sure of that.

He watched as she vigorously shook Allie’s hand, his stomach tightening into knots. He didn’t know if he wanted to shout or run, but his whole body felt as if it was on fire. The two women standing there looked like yin and yang: complete opposites, dark and light. Jennifer was a walking Barbie doll, clad all in pastels and wearing high-heeled wedge sandals. Allie had on flip-flops and hiking shorts, not wearing a bit of makeup and looking all the prettier for it. Even angry at Allie, Dallas felt a strong pull to her. Seeing Jennifer standing so close to her made Dallas want to step between them, if only to protect Allie from being eaten alive.

He couldn’t believe that once upon a time, Jennifer had shared his bed. She’d been as aggressive there as she was everywhere else in her life. And just as selfish, he thought. It would serve her right if he told the whole island the truth of what had happened between them. Except that they both knew why he wouldn’t do that. It wasn’t just Jennifer after all. There was Kayla, and Dallas wasn’t about to do anything that would hurt that sweet, innocent girl. Jennifer knew it, too. Counted on it.

“Jennifer.” Dallas’s voice was stern. Jennifer glanced up, worry flickering across her face for a split second. She knew what she’d done, and the honesty of guilt showed in her eyes for the briefest of moments before she quickly buried it beneath a disingenuous smile. That’s right, Dallas thought. Just pretend nothing happened.

“Dallas,” she purred, and then threw her arms around him as if they were old friends. He staggered back a step, completely taken off guard. The woman had the nerve to touch him? “Good to see you again.”

Allie’s eyes widened, as she glanced from Dallas to Jennifer and back again.

“You two know each other?”

“Oh, we’re old friends.”

Dallas firmly unclasped her hands from his neck and stepped backward. “No, we’re not.”

Jennifer flipped her blond hair from her shoulder, not bothering to register the protest. “I was so surprised when Allie here told me you were selling that I wanted to come right over.” Jennifer ignored Dallas’s hot glare.

“I’m not selling.”

Jennifer swayed a little, unsteady on her feet. “But Allie said...”

“Allie doesn’t speak for me.” Dallas set his lips in a thin, determined line.

“You don’t want to sell?” Now it was Allie’s turn to look dumbfounded.

“Well...I thought it was too good to be true.” Jennifer considered Allie and Dallas.

“Now’s the part where you tell Allie the bad news,” Dallas said. He hated being so close to Jennifer and hated that Allie had brought her here, but the fact was, he would enjoy this next part.

“What bad news?” Allie had no idea what was about to hit her.

“I’m sure you’ve already considered the problem of selling only Allie’s half.” Dallas tucked his thumbs through his belt loops. Jennifer suddenly looked uneasy.

“What problem is that?” Allie’s voice was sharp.

“My half has the seaside views that the tourists want.” Dallas nodded toward his side of the property, which sloped downward. Allie’s house would have a seaside view, except it was completely obscured by tall coffee trees, dotted with white flowers. Dallas, on the other hand, had a house closest to the beach, nothing on three sides but sparkling blue Pacific Ocean. “Plus, I have indoor plumbing.”

“You what?” Allie’s face bunched up in anger.

He took a second to enjoy it. Wasn’t his fault that Misu had turned him down when he’d offered to build a bathroom to her cabin when he was doing the same for his.

“And then there’s the volcano,” Dallas continued, unable to help himself. “Technically, your half of the estate is in Lava Zone Three. I’m in four.”

“I know about the volcano. But what are the zones?” Allie’s gaze roamed from Dallas to Jennifer and back again.

“It means that you’re in a more hazardous zone than Dallas is.” Jennifer picked invisible lint from her shirt. “Your house is more likely to be wiped out by a lava flow.”

“What?” Allie grew pale.

“The divider line pretty much goes right through the property.” Dallas pointed from one end of the land, drawing an invisible line with his finger straight across the ground. “Because of that, and the lack of a seaside view and plumbing, your half will fetch less than half of what mine will if you’re selling to developers. If we sold our shares together and split the profit, you’d make far more. Isn’t that right, Jennifer?”

“Well...” His ex tried to hedge, but even as slick as she was, she couldn’t sidestep this fact. “Dallas is mostly right.”

“Mostly right?” Allie looked as if she was going to explode. Her dark eyes sparked like steel striking flint. “How much difference are we talking about?”

“Well, realistically...” Jennifer hesitated, biting her lower lip.

“Spit it out.”

“The real value is the land and the Kona coffee on it. If you took that away, as well as the seaside views... You’ve got a pretty small house and a coffee-processing facility, but only a very small share of the actual Kona crop, so it wouldn’t be a workable plantation. You’d have to sell it strictly as a residence, and with the lava zone issue and no plumbing...about half as much as we talked about on the phone.”

Allie couldn’t hide her disappointment, and Dallas saw it clearly on her face. Too greedy, Dallas thought. That was the problem with Allie and every other gorgeous woman he’d ever met. Too damn greedy. Maybe she and Jennifer had more in common than he thought.

“And you can’t even get that,” Dallas said. “According to the will, Allie can’t even sell her half without getting permission from Aunt Kaimana first.”

“What? I don’t remember that in the will,” Allie protested.

“Page three, section E,” Dallas said, pulling the will from his back pocket. He’d unrolled a photocopy of the will and began to read it aloud.

Jennifer and Allie listened with interest.

“‘If the land is to be divided and then sold, it is the will of Misuko Osaka that Kaimana Mahi’ai oversee the division and issue written approval of the final sale before official transfer can be made to both parties. No sale will take place unless approved by Ms. Mahi’ai.’”

“Wait—Kai’s aunt? What does Kai’s aunt have to do with my grandma’s estate?” Confusion flickered across Allie’s face.

Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t tell me this was a clause in the will.” She turned to Allie, her brow wrinkled in frustration.

“I didn’t know,” Allie confessed, having clearly missed that part. She took the will from Dallas’s hands and scoured the wording.

Jennifer sighed, annoyed. “Well, this is a waste of my time, then.” Her cheery manner disappeared, and she turned away from Allie.

“Wait—where are you going?”

“Call me after you talk to Kaimana,” Jennifer said, slipping on her designer sunglasses as she walked back to her BMW. “That is, if she’ll talk to you.”

“Wait!” Allie called.

“Don’t bother.” Dallas narrowed his eyes as they both watched Jennifer roar back out of the driveway.

“The lawyer didn’t read that clause over the phone,” Allie said.

“Nope, he didn’t.” Dallas grinned.

“But you knew it was there all along.” Allie turned on Dallas, her eyes flashing. He didn’t know how she did it, but she managed to look diabolically sexy when she was mad. Dallas had to admit, maybe he didn’t mind pushing her buttons. “You couldn’t have mentioned it to me before?”

“Me?” A harsh laugh escaped Dallas. “If you were the one who wanted to strip the land and sell it to no-good resort developers for a quick buck, then you should’ve read the fine print. You had a copy of the will.”

“Yeah, but...that’s not fair.” Allie balled up the photocopy of the will in her hands.

“Oh, really? What else do you call looting your grandmother’s property?”

“I’m not looting!” Allie looked mad enough to spit.

“That’s right. Not on my watch you’re not,” Dallas warned, taking another step closer. “You’ll have to go through me first.”

“You aren’t even family.” Allie’s face turned beet red as anger strangled her words. “What gives you the right...”

“Misu gave me the right. I’m part of this, too, whether you like it or not. She split the land between us for a reason. You haven’t been acting like family! You don’t know the first thing about your grandmother. You haven’t even visited, not once in the five years I’ve been here. Maybe if you’d come, even once, you’d see the land is worth keeping. But you didn’t bother!”

His words found their mark, better even than he thought they would. Allie suddenly looked as if she might slap him straight across the face.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she ground out, eyes blazing, hands balled into fists at her sides.

“I know you didn’t come to her funeral. What kind of granddaughter does that?”

Allie looked stricken, as if he’d slapped her right across the face. The pain was evident, and Dallas was surprised to see it. He hadn’t thought Allie cared, one way or another. Now, seeing her face, he realized he was wrong. But it was too late to take back what he’d said. The words hung between them like a barbed-wire fence.

Allie said nothing, just turned her back on him and stalked away. He almost called out to her, but something in the way she rigidly moved away from him stopped him cold.

CHAPTER THREE

ALLIE FURIOUSLY SWIPED at the tears on her face. She wasn’t the one who’d abandoned her grandmother. When had Grandma Misu visited, even once, in the twenty years Allie and her mother had struggled on the mainland, moving from one job to the next? What had her grandmother ever done for her besides the annual birthday and Christmas cards she got every year, sometimes weeks late because they were sent to an old address?

Sure, she felt bad about missing the funeral. She should’ve gone, should’ve somehow managed the heroic strength to put aside her heartbreak over Jason and just shown up, but, honestly, she’d never asked her grandmother for this land. She had never asked her grandmother for anything. How could she? She lived an ocean away in a different time zone. She knew her grandmother loved her, knew that she hadn’t been swimming in cash, but still. Part of Allie felt as if it was just one more person who wasn’t there when she needed them most.

Long ago, before Allie’s father died, Allie had been the apple of Misu’s eye. That was what she remembered—a doting grandmother who sewed her clothes and played endless rounds of doll tea parties on her breezy veranda. But the car crash had changed all that.

Allie still remembered the screech of tires, the sudden crack of metal and glass like a clap of thunder ripping apart the sky. The car accident had taken her father’s life and altered hers forever. One of the therapists she’d seen once had called it survivor’s guilt. But Allie thought they should just speak plainly: the accident had been her fault. She knew the truth. Her mother knew it. Grandma Misu knew it. If Allie hadn’t been in the backseat of the car that day, her father would still be alive. She’d been the reason he’d swerved into the other lane. Allie wouldn’t have spent a childhood moving from town to town, her mother chasing whatever low-paying job she could find.

After the accident, everything had changed. Grandma Misu changed. Her only son, dead. She wouldn’t get out of bed. Couldn’t even hug Allie goodbye that morning she and her mother left.

Allie blinked fast, pushing away the memory. Dallas had it all wrong. Allie hadn’t abandoned her grandmother; her grandmother had left her first. Not that she blamed her. Allie had paid the price for the car accident: she’d grown up largely alone.

It was why she’d fallen so hard for Jason. He had a huge family, and they all lived near him in Chicago. When she’d met them, a big Irish clan that got together every Fourth of July and nearly every other holiday, she felt like at last, she was part of a family. A real family. If she was honest with herself, she missed Jason’s sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles even more than she missed him.

She sat on one of the bamboo chairs on her grandmother’s porch, staring off toward the rooftop of Kaimana’s house, just visible above the coffee trees in the distance. She’d have to go talk to the woman sometime. She hadn’t seen Kai’s aunt in nearly twenty years. She’d been her grandmother’s best friend. She held the paper in her hand, the release paper she’d dug out of her copy of the will, the one Kaimana would have to sign to let Allie sell. She’d love to see Dallas’s face after she managed to get it signed.

She thought about Dallas and then felt a flash of anger once more. She had no idea how he’d wormed his way into her grandmother’s good graces, but Allie didn’t trust him, and it had nothing to do with Jason or her dislike of men at the moment. Dallas was up to no good.

Allie pulled herself to her feet. It was time to talk to Kaimana, see if she’d be open to getting this over with quickly.

She walked down the path of coffee trees and marveled at the bright coffee berries hanging from the branches. Many had turned from green to orange. The breeze brought the smell of the ocean and the raw scent of leaves in the sun. A red bird flew by, landing on a nearby branch. A bright orange, almost red, berry fell to the dirt near Allie’s feet, and she was overcome with a sudden memory of her and Kai playing tag in the thick foliage. She’d nearly collided with her father’s ladder, where he had climbed up high, basket dangling from his forearm as he picked coffee cherries. He’d smiled down at her, a berry dropping from his nearly full container.

“Careful, I don’t want a broken leg, now,” he’d warned her, half teasing, a twinkle in his eye as he grinned, showing off the big dimple in his left cheek.

Allie stopped, the memory vivid as it washed over her. She thought she’d long since cataloged every last image she had of her father. But this one was new. She held the hard berry between her fingers and rolled it, just like she’d done when she was five. She stood awhile in the same spot, waiting for something more to come to her, but it didn’t. That was what memories of her father were like: fleeting.

Like all the men in her life, she mused, thinking about Jason. No pity party, Allie. No time for that.

She glanced at the nearly red cherry in her hand and studied it.

How did it become that brown split bean she’d seen in countless bags of coffee lining store shelves?

She had no idea. Allie liked coffee, okay, as long as it was loaded up with enough sugar and cream that she could barely even taste the coffee bean. Never even had a cup of Kona that she remembered. Funny, she thought. Her father had loved coffee, claimed no other coffee on earth rivaled the richness of Kona. The dark, fertile soil made by the volcano made it so good, he’d said.

She’d never learned to drink coffee straight like he did. Hers was always laden with vanilla syrups and milk, mocha or caramel drizzle. She rolled the red berry between her finger and thumb, thinking as she walked.

The cool breeze coming down from the mountain caressed her bare shoulder. Clouds rolled in off the hillside from seemingly nowhere. A big raindrop splashed in the black dirt in front of her. Odd, she thought, since to the south the sky was a clear blue. Guess it was a tropical shower. She hurried her pace and came to an open clearing, where a bright blue house stood. Where Kai had grown up. It had been painted since she’d been there last, and the porch furniture was different, but she was surprised by how familiar it seemed. She remembered the big mango tree sprouting up in the yard. She and Kai would climb it daily and see who could pick the fruit from the highest branches.

Another raindrop fell, followed by several others, plunking hard in the nearly black lava soil. She barely made it the hundred or so feet to the porch, before the rain came down in sheets, blanketing the rows of Kona coffee trees behind her in warm tropical rain. She shook raindrops from her hair as she eyed the front door. Bright pink-and-white tropical flowers grew near the porch. A huge bird of paradise rose up from the edge of the porch step, a magnificent flower growing like an ordinary marigold.

She rapped hard on the door. Seconds later, a heavyset woman with warm eyes and thick black hair, a silver streak running through it, opened the screen door. Allie recognized the familiar smile. She wore her same old flowered muumuu with a shiny dark macadamia-nut necklace. Besides the streaks of gray in her hair, she had aged little in twenty years.

“Aloha,” she said in greeting.

“Aloha.” Allie smiled. “I’m Allie Osaka. Misu Osaka’s granddaughter? Remember me?”

“Aah... Uh... Ōlelo Hawai’i ’oe?”

Allie blinked at the woman. Was she speaking Hawaiian?

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

“Ōlelo Hawai’i ’oe?” the woman repeated, looking at Allie expectantly. Allie shook her head and spread her hands.

“Do you speak English?” Allie asked her, wondering if the woman only spoke Hawaiian. Was that even possible? She didn’t remember that before, but then her memory was spotty.

“A’ole no e law aka makaukau ma ho’okahi wale no olelo.”

Now Allie was completely lost. Kaimana held up one finger, the international sign for “wait” and then disappeared back inside her house. She came back a few minutes later with a bag of her grandmother’s coffee.

“Kona coffee?” Allie asked, pointing to the cup and then to the trees behind her.

Kaimana nodded. “Kona,” she repeated, and pointed to the row of coffee trees behind her as she handed her the open ziplock bag. She smelled it and was immediately reminded of her father. He’d always smelled like fresh roasted coffee.

“Uh... Mahalo.” Allie knew the Hawaiian word for thank you. That and aloha were the extent of her Hawaiian language skills.

“A’ole pilikia,” Kaimana said.

“Mmm,” she murmured, inhaling.

Kaimana nodded, as if she knew this already. Allie felt hopeful then. Maybe she did understand English.

Allie held the bag, wondering what it would taste like brewed. She should’ve made more of an effort to know her grandmother, to know her coffee. But it had been so expensive. Kaimana watched her, smiling all the while.

Then she disappeared back inside her house and soon reappeared, carrying a teak bowl filled with hibiscus flowers and a half-strung lei. She bustled out to the porch and sank down on a wooden rocking chair, motioning for Allie to sit in the other. She began stringing the lei while Allie held the coffee, wondering what to do next.