6. Tara

This is the best coconut soup I’ve ever had,Liam told her.

Her other customers had said the same, earning the Tom Ka Gai a regular place in her meal rotation, but only Liam’s words made her heart race. It was absurd how a simple text message could make her feel like a teenager again, giddy and blushing… but she didn’t hate it.

Tara was busy prepping her second batch of meals for the week. Cody had two full delivery days now, one up to Hilo and another to Pualena and the surrounding area. Her customers were steady, buying her meals week after week. Many of them were even purchasing extra meals for their neighbors, particularly postpartum mothers and elderly relatives.

Caring for so many animals and a huge garden could be isolating at times. There was so much to do at any given moment that it was easy to go days on end without even stepping foot off of her own property. She loved how her new business connected her with the wider community, both the farmers who grew the food and busy neighbors grateful for a home-cooked meal.

She worked hard to hang onto that gratitude when it started to fade beneath the sheer overwhelm of all that she had to do. The meals themselves weren’t overwhelming, and she was able to feed her own family from the huge batches of food that she made each week. But between her kids and the farm, life had already been full before adding in a small business.

Now she worked at least fourteen hours on any given day.

She didn’t mind the work, really she didn’t, but what would happen if she got sick? She had no backup in place, no one to look after her animals and keep the business running if she were sick or injured.

That was the true hazard of working for oneself, particularly without savings to fall back on. Her new business was making a profit and keeping them afloat, but only barely. So far, there had been no chance to set money aside for a rainy day.

For now, she was keeping up with all of it. But she didn’t know how much longer she could keep going at this pace.

It was time to think about selling some of her animals.

The thought of parting with any of them just about broke her heart, but there was only so much that she could sustain on her own. Parting with the cows, at the very least, would shave at least an hour off of her daily workload and hundreds of dollars off of her monthly feed costs.

Paige would be disappointed, but she would have to content herself with her twice-weekly visits to the ranch… and the dozens of other animals on their little hobby farm.

Tara would start putting out feelers and see if anyone she knew was interested in a pair of heifers.

She carried a batch of meals out to her second fridge in the garage (at this rate, she would need a third refrigerator pretty soon), then brought a dozen jars of liliko’i curd out to her farm stand.

Paige had painted their old lemonade stand and a number of signs, and Cody had created social media pages. Between the two of them, they had generated more business for the little stand than Tara could keep up with.

Luckily she didn’t have to run out front for every little transaction anymore; the stand worked on an honesty system. There was a wooden box attached for cash and a laminated QR code for instant payments. All she had to do was keep it stocked and make the occasional post letting her neighbors know what was available.

She did that now, uploading a picture of her liliko’i curd with the caption, Twelve more jars! Get one before they’re gone. Goes great with yogurt - we still have some in the cooler.

She was just opening the gate when Mitch drove up, so she opened it all the way to let his car through and then closed it behind him.

After a brief midlife crisis on the mainland, her ex-husband had found himself an apartment up in Hilo. The place had bunk beds for the girls and a convertible couch for Cody, but so far only Paige had spent the night there, on the condition that her dad drive her to her riding lesson the next day.

Their two farm dogs greeted Mitch with ecstatic exuberance, relieved as always to discover that this missing member of their pack was still alive and well.

“Hey Tara,” he greeted her, still petting both dogs. “Are the girls ready to go?”

“Probably not,” she said with a tired laugh. “Piper’s inside, if you want to go tell her you’re here. Paige is out back. I’ll go find her.”

She left him out front with the dogs and looped around to look for Paige, who had taken Rory to see their new baby bunnies. The kits were in their cutest stage, two-week fluffballs with bright eyes and downy-soft fur.

She found them right where she expected to, nestled into a shady patch of lawn with the tiny rabbits in their laps. Paige was always so sweet with little ones, and it warmed her heart to see them together.

Both of her girls were scheduled to start attending the Pualena Playschool co-op the following week, and she liked the idea of them getting more time with kids their age and with younger ones too.

She waited a while, loath to interrupt them, but finally said, “Hey sweet pea, your dad’s here.”

“Already?” Paige popped right up to her feet. She looked down at Rory and said, “Sorry, I’ve gotta go. My dad’s taking us to the hot ponds.”

Tara held her hands out for the tiny brown kit that Paige held. “I can put the bunnies away and walk Rory home.”

“Thanks mom!” She carefully handed the baby over and then sprinted towards the house.

“Five more minutes?” Rory asked, looking up at her with big brown eyes.

“Sure.” Tara settled down on the grass next to the little girl. “Five more minutes.”

She could so clearly remember her girls at this age. Or, stranger still, Cody as a five year old. He had still been an only child, and they had explored all over the island together. Back before Tara had quite so many animals and a daily milking schedule.

She loved the life that she had created for herself and her children, but she missed those days too. She missed the freedom of being able to explore the island on a whim, hike to waterfalls or go snorkeling in the clear waters of the western side.

Maybe it was time to shift the balance a bit and carve out more time for adventures with her kids while they were still in the house. It seemed like just last week Cody had been as small as the neighbor kids, and now he towered over her.

Before she knew it, he would be off living his own life. They all would. Cody was just a couple years from eighteen, and even her baby girls were nearly halfway there.

It was a bittersweet thought, and she didn’t want to spend the last years of their childhood working so hard that they hardly had time together.

“Time to go,” she said gently after Rory had spent another ten minutes with the kits.

“Okay,” the little girl agreed with a sigh.

They put the babies back in with their mother, and Rory reached up to take her hand as they walked out along the road and let themselves through the front gate at the Kealoha place.

Dio greeted them with so much enthusiasm that Rory fell on her butt trying to escape the pup’s slobbery kisses.

“No!” she shrieked with laughter. “Dio, stop!”

“Dio, come!” Lani shouted from the front porch.

The dog turned and sprinted across the lawn, and Rory pulled the skirt of her dress up to wipe her face.

“Thanks for walking her home,” Lani said as they got closer to the house.

“Of course,” Tara replied. “I’ve been thinking that we need a little gate in the fence so we don’t have to go out to the road every time. Then we could just send the kids through.”

“Emma and I keep saying the same thing. That or a ladder.”

“Well, if you want to put one in, you’re welcome to. I don’t know that it will ever make it to the top of my ridiculous to-do list.”

“I hear that.” She smiled and shook her head as Rory grabbed a throwing stick, used it to pick up a rubber ball, and ran off to play fetch with Dio.

“Hey, would you be willing to watch the girls for me next Friday? They’re going to start at Pualena Playschool, but I’m wondering if you could bring them home and maybe feed them some dinner? There will be food to heat up at my place if that’s easier.”

“Sure, I can do that. Why, do you have a hot date?” She said it flippantly, just to tease, but her eyes widened gleefully when Tara blushed. “Oh my goodness, you do!”

“I might.” She covered her face with her hands, embarrassed to be caught blushing like a schoolgirl.

Lani hurried down the steps and pulled at Tara’s sleeve until she sat down beside her. “Tell me everything.”

“I’m going for a hike with Liam.”

“Your friend Liam? The silver fox who helped Emma build that pond?”

She felt her cheeks turn a deeper shade of pink. “That’s the one.”

“Go you!” Lani bumped her shoulder into Tara’s. “Is it, like, a date date?”

“Very much so, yes.” She nearly repeated Liam’s words – I’ve loved you for years – but couldn’t bring herself to speak them aloud. They were too important to share, somehow. Almost sacred.

“Good for you,” Lani said.

“Thanks,” Tara said, half laughing. “I didn’t think I’d date again ever, never mind so soon after my divorce.”

“Girl, same. I wasn’t remotely interested in dating again. Heck, I was half convinced that good men didn’t even exist. Not in our generation, at least. Even after Tenn and I reconnected, I kept trying to avoid him or push him away. I’m lucky he was patient.”

“You feel like you made the right decision? Even if the timing was bad?”

“I know I did.” Lani’s voice was quiet and fierce. “My ex-husband took so much from me. He would love to take this too. He wants me to be as miserable as he is. But I won’t let him steal my peace of mind, or my happiness.”

Something in her voice sent a chill up Tara’s spine. She reached over and put her hand on Lani’s knee. “Is he still trying?”

Lani nodded heavily. She pulled her phone from her pocket and handed it to Tara, showing her an anonymous text message and a picture of her at work.

“He sent this?” Tara asked. “Is he here on the island?”

“I don’t think so. He just wanted me to think that he was.” She sighed and took her phone back. “I did a reverse image search and found that picture on some random travel blog. They had posted it on social media too, and tagged the shave ice place as a location. So it’s not like he took it himself. He’s just trying to scare me. Again.”

“I’m sorry. That’s awful.”

She shrugged and pocketed her phone. “It is what it is. I don’t know how he even got my new number. You can find anything online, I guess, if you have enough free time.”

Tara rubbed a hand up and down her back, the way she did with her kids when they were feeling down. Eventually Lani brightened and stood.

“Look around, though.” She spread her arms, gesturing at the verdant front yard and the bright Hawaiian day. Rory was running circles around the house with Dio. “Look at everything I have to be grateful for. I won’t let him rob me of my peace. I refuse.”

“That’s the spirit.”

They said their goodbyes, and Tara walked home. Mitch was still there, waiting for the girls to pull their things together for a night at his place, and she felt a fresh wave of gratitude for their easy transition to coparenting.

The initial shock of their split had been emotionally grueling for every member of the family, but she was deeply grateful to have avoided the ugliness of custody battles and extended acrimony. From what she had seen from her friend’s experiences, their relatively smooth transition was unusual. And to have her ex-husband actively trying to make her life hell… she could hardly imagine.

When she hugged her girls goodbye, she hugged Mitch too. He froze for a moment in shock, then returned the hug with a light pat on the back.

“You’ll drop them off tomorrow after dinner?” she confirmed.

“Yeah.” He glanced over his shoulder to check that the girls were in the car with the doors closed, then turned back to Tara and said, “It kills me that Cody hasn’t even been to my place.”

“You’ve got two out of three this time,” she reminded him. It would be Piper’s first time staying over at her dad’s place. “Cody will come around. Just give it some time.”

He nodded, then impulsively pulled her into another hug.

This time, she tapped his back to signal that it was time to let go. Then she opened the gate for them and stood watching as they drove down the road and out of sight.