18. Tara

A steady drizzle fell as she drove up the highway to Liam’s place. The whole mountainside was misted gray, with dark green ferns growing along the ground and red tail lights glowing ahead of her.

All three kids were in the van. The girls had a lesson today, and Cody had decided to tag along. To keep an eye on her and Liam? She didn’t know. But he came along often enough that his sisters thought nothing of it.

As soon as she parked, he climbed out of the car and stomped off to his favorite tree, where he climbed up into the branches and settled in to wait. Mostly sheltered from the rain, he pulled out his waterproof ereader and escaped to some other world.

“Helmets!” she called as the girls went out into the drizzling rain.

“We probably won’t even ride today,” Piper complained. “It’ll be all brushing the horses and cleaning their hooves and stuff.”

“Take them anyway. Just in case.”

“Fine.” She grabbed both helmets and ran to catch up with Paige, who had gone ahead to the barn.

Tara walked up to the house, where Liam greeted her at the door with a warm cup of tea.

“This smells wonderful,” she said as she followed him into the kitchen. “What is it?”

“Mamaki and lemongrass.”

“Mmm.” She took a sip and paused again to inhale the steam.

“Any sign of your missing macaw?” he asked.

“Not since he left that stand of ‘ōhi?a.”

“I’m sorry. He’ll turn up.”

“I hope so. Lucy’s still a mess.”

“Did getting her back into the aviary help at all?”

“Not really. I mean, it helped us. Having her in the house when she was so stressed that she was a bite risk to the kids, that was awful. But she’s still so upset. She’s screaming day and night for her mate. They’ve been together all their lives, over thirty years.”

“You’ve had them that long?”

“They belonged to my mom. She loved them so much that she moved to Hawai’i to give them more time outside, escape cold New England winters and give them a more natural life.

“I got together with Mitch right after my mom died, and the first thing I did when we bought that land was to build the aviary my mom had always dreamed of.”

She paused and looked at Liam. “You repairing it meant a lot to me. Thank you.”

“Happy to help.”

Hands clasped around the warm mug, she walked across the room to the wide window that overlooked the ranch. She couldn’t see Cody, but she could see the tree that he was hiding in.

“Everything else okay?” Liam asked, coming to stand beside her.

“Not really.”

He looked at her, patiently waiting.

“Cody saw us together the other day, and he kind of flipped. I’ve tried to talk to him about it a couple times since then, but he just clammed up.”

“You hadn’t told him about us?”

She looked up at him in surprise. “Have you told Maddie?”

“Yeah, I told her that I was taking you out the other day.”

“And how did she react?”

He smiled sheepishly. “She’s happy for me.”

“That’s sweet.” She sighed and looked out at the green and gray. “I don’t get why Cody blew up.”

“It hasn’t been long since his dad left.”

“I don’t think that’s it.”

“It could be that he thinks he won’t stand a chance with Maddie if their parents are dating.”

She looked at him in surprise. “What? Him and Maddie?”

“Haven’t you seen the way he looks at her?”

“No. I guess I haven’t.” She frowned fretfully out the window. “Do you think that we should back off?”

“No.” Liam’s laugh was a low rumble, and he put an arm around your waist. “We can take this as slow as you’d like, but I’m not putting a teenage crush ahead of what’s between us. This is real, Tara.”

She set her tea down on the windowsill and leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“In the ten years since I lost my wife, I’ve never felt this way about anyone but you.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way,” Tara admitted. She had loved Mitch, but never like this. There had been an intoxicating excitement in the early days, an infatuation that had distracted her from the grief she felt after losing her mother… but it had never settled into this, the deep friendship and sense of safety that she felt in Liam’s arms.

“A connection like this doesn’t come around often,” he said.

“I suppose it doesn’t. But the kids…”

He ran a hand up and down her back, massaging the muscles on either side of her spine. “We’ll figure it out.”