27. Tara

“There they are!” Piper pointed to their neighbors as they stepped out of the shade.

Emma’s auburn hair shone almost red in the noonday sunshine. Even Kai’s hair, which looked black when he was in the shade, revealed a hint of red sheen in the strong Hawaiian sun.

“Over here!” Piper leaned halfway out her window and waved them over. Her own roughly cropped hair glowed like a fire when the light hit it.

Tara jumped out to open the back of her van, then greeted Emma with a hug. Kai brushed past them and climbed up into the van, tumbling up and over the back row of seats.

“Welcome home!” Tara said.

“Thank you!” Emma stepped back and hefted her suitcase into the van.

“Does Lani even know you’re here?” she asked as she closed the hatchback.

“I told her that I would come home as soon as I could, but that’s it. I didn’t send her flight info or anything. I didn’t want to give her one more thing to worry about.”

“Makes sense.”

“How’s Tenn?”

“Last I heard, he needs one more surgery before they’re ready to send him home. I guess the bullet did a number on his shoulder blade.”

Emma winced. “I can’t even imagine.”

“I’m glad you’re back.”

“Thank you so much for picking us up. And for taking care of the animals the past few days.”

“Of course.”

A taxi driver honked impatiently, and Tara hurried back to her seat. The two women were quiet as they drove away from the airport, half listening to the chatter of the kids in back.

“It feels good to be back,” Emma said as they drove down the long green highway that led from Hilo to Pualena.

“What was it like being home?” Tara asked. “Back in your hometown, I mean.”

“Good. Hard. I got to meet my baby nephew and get time in with all of my siblings and their kids, which was great. My dad was even home for most of it, which he isn’t usually. So it felt good to have everyone together. Except that only made me more conscious of who was missing.

“I stripped our house down to the bare bones and found a long-term renter, a single mom with two kids. It felt good to be able to hand that off, to put a house on the market there that’s not completely sucking the life and soul out of the place with insane rent prices. And I donated almost all of my late husband’s clothes, which was… it was really hard.”

“I bet,” Tara said quietly.

She glanced over her shoulder at Kai, who was still talking animatedly with Piper and Paige.

“My sister kept a pile of his clothes, all of the things he wore the most. She’s going to make a quilt for Kai and bring it to us when she comes to visit.”

“That’s a beautiful idea.”

Emma nodded slowly, looking out the window at the green jungle that towered alongside the highway. Almost to herself, she said, “I wish I knew how to make it stop hurting so much.”

“Time.” Tara reached over and took Emma’s hand in hers. “It’s been over twenty years since I lost my mom, and it still hurts. But it’s an old ache now, you know? Just another part of me. Not an open wound anymore.”

Emma let out a brief, hollow laugh. “I wish I knew how to suture it shut, at least.”

“You’re doing that, I think. You’re doing everything right. There’s no rushing the healing process, but you’re not letting things fester, either.”

“Yuck.”

“Did I drag that metaphor a bit too far?”

“Maybe.” Emma grinned, and Tara took her hand back to turn off the highway.

“You know what I mean, though.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“I can’t wait to see Dio!” Kai shouted, literally bouncing off the walls in the back of the van.

“Kai!” Emma scolded. “Put your seatbelt on right now!”

“But we’re not on the highway anymore!”

“Right now!”

He groaned and did what he was told. As soon as they turned onto their street, though, he was back out of his seat and pressing impatiently at the button that opened the van’s sliding back door. Given that the vehicle was still in motion, the door didn’t budge.

When Tara finally parked in front of her front gate, Kai tumbled out and sprinted next door to see his dog.

Dio, who had already been waiting at the gate since he’d heard Tara’s van, let out a whining yelp as soon as he saw his boy. His whole body wriggled in explosive excitement, and he scrambled at the fence.

Too impatient to wait for his mom to open the gate, Kai scaled the chain link fence. He landed next to his dog, threw both arms around him, and they rolled around on the lawn in a blur of fabric and fur.

“I guess that was our last trip off island for a while,” Emma said.

Tara grinned at her neighbor. “Fine by me.”