1. Lani

1

Lani

L ani's heart pounded as she strode across the parking lot.

It was a ridiculous, immature reaction, and she had no idea where she was going. But she couldn't help herself. Fear had flooded her body the moment she saw Lorenzo's face.

She wanted to run, to sprint across the gravel lot and home to her daughter, but she kept her pace to a rapid walk. Just enough to put some distance between herself and the man who had suddenly reappeared in her life. She needed a moment to collect herself.

It wasn't helping.

Her whole nervous system vibrated with the need to bolt.

It didn't help that she could hear him behind her, gravel crunching beneath his shoes.

She got as far as the green shade at the edge of the parking lot before she forced herself to pause.

There was no running from this. It was absurd to try.

"Lani?" Lorenzo's voice was full of concern. "Are you well?"

"Yes." She forced herself to turn and look at him.

She had only met Lorenzo once, back in her crazy cruise ship days, but she knew his face as well as she knew her own. She saw it every day in the angle of Rory's eyes, in the shape of her chin and the lines of her smile. The coloring that she and Rory shared… Lorenzo looked the same. Pitch-black hair, glass-brown irises.

His eyes were filled with kindness, and a fresh guilt sliced through her.

She should be overjoyed to see him.

Life was handing her an opportunity to do right by her daughter, to make up for the drunken mistake of giving her a father whose last name she had never even asked for.

Rory deserved to meet him; she deserved to know where she came from. Sooner or later, she would want to know.

In that moment, though, her primary emotion was fear.

Their life was finally so good. Rory was safe and happy and thriving. What would this mean for her?

What would it mean for Lani and Tenn?

With effort, Lani pushed her fears down and nodded at Lorenzo. His presence here was a huge surprise and a major disruption, but that wasn't his fault.

He had a daughter, and she had never told him.

She opened her mouth to reassure him, but what came out was, "How did you find me?"

His grin was as bright as a little boy who had just won a scavenger hunt – or, in his case, la caccia al tesoro . Bits of Italian and Greek floated through her head, half-forgotten memories from those years working on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.

"I will tell you. And you will tell me of our daughter?" Lorenzo's Italian accent was strong, but his English was much better than it had been six years before, when they had met at a bar in Greece.

He seemed perfectly lovely, exuding the same genuine warmth that had attracted her to him the night they met. The panic in her chest relented, curling around the lead weight of the guilt that she had carried for years.

"Maybe we sit down?" Lorenzo gestured across the street. "There is a cafe–"

"No!" Lani interrupted him. The thought of walking into Tenn's cafe with Lorenzo made her head spin. She sucked in a breath and spoke in a calmer voice. "No, let's just sit down here."

Gravel crunched beneath her shoes as she led him back across the parking lot. She chose a picnic table in the shade. It was on the far side of the building, away from the tables full of tourists and the window where Juniper was covering for her.

"I saw Paola in Livorno," he began, sliding onto the bench across from her.

She winced at the familiar name. Paola was a coworker of hers back in their cruise ship days. They'd gone out to the bars together the night that Lani met Lorenzo.

Paola had flirted with him, but he'd invited Lani back to his room.

"I did not know her at first," he continued, "but she still knew my face, even after so much time." He sounded baffled by this, as if he hadn't been blessed with the kind of face that belonged on movie posters and ads for expensive cologne. "She asked me sit down in the cafe where we see each other, and she tell me about you."

"She told you about my pregnancy," Lani murmured.

"She tell me that I have a daughter," he said with wonder. "She take out her phone and show me pictures. She is so beautiful, Lani. Bellissima. "

She stared at him for a moment in consternation, slow to understand. There were no pictures of Rory online, not that anyone could access. She had shared a handful on social media for her family to see, but those profiles were locked down.

Her stomach bottomed out as she realized that Paola was still her ‘friend' online, even though they hadn't spoken since Lani quit her cruise ship job six years ago.

A slow anger burned away the shock. How could that woman go behind her back like this? To put him in contact with her would have been one thing, but to show him pictures of Rory? To send him her way with no warning? She could hardly wrap her head around that.

"She told you where I work?" Lani asked quietly.

"Yes, she show me pictures of this place!" His smile faded as he took in the grim look on her face. " Mi dispiace … I am sorry, Lani. Maybe I should call before I come. But after so much time, I do not know how to start, or what to say. I have missed so much already. I just want to see you, face to face, and to meet our girl."

Remorse twisted in her chest as she stared at him. She was amazed that he would apologize to her.

"I tried to find you," she told him. "When I realized I was pregnant. But I didn't know how, didn't even know your last name."

"And so you raise her yourself." His eyes were sad. "I want to help. I want to… how you say… make up lost time? I thought, face to face is better. After so much time, only writing seem… not good. But maybe I make mistake."

His English seemed to falter the more he got flustered, and her heart hurt for him. Had he learned it just for Rory? She couldn't bring herself to ask.

"Do you want to see more pictures?" she asked instead.

"Yes," he said immediately. "Please."

She pulled out her phone and found the most recent picture of Rory. She was holding up a painting from school, beaming with a wide smile that showed off the new gap in her front teeth. Her dark hair was back in a braid, and there was a streak of lime-green paint on her cheek.

Lorenzo held the screen up to his face and gazed at the picture with such adoration that Lani's heart cracked in two.

"Her full name is Aurora King," she told him, "after the aurora borealis."

He glanced up from the screen and murmured, " L'aurora boreale ."

"She was born under the northern lights," Lani explained.

"Northern lights," he said slowly, testing out the English words. Then he grinned. "Aurora King. This is a good name. A strong name. Like the goddess."

"Who?" Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion, and his grin grew wider.

"You do not know Aurora? She is an ancient Roman goddess. Dell'alba … how you say? The start of the day? First light?"

"She's the goddess of the dawn?"

"Yes! Of the dawn."

Lani drew in a sharp breath as something clicked into place. "The town that we're in, this town I grew up in…"

"Pualena?" It was strange to hear the word in an Italian accent.

"Yes, Pualena. It's the Hawaiian word for dawn."

"It is a good name," he said again, returning his gaze to the picture. He glanced back up at her with a sparkle of mischief in his eyes. "An Italian name."

"I never knew about the goddess."

"She is the sister of the sun and moon." Frowning slightly, he asked, "Does Aurora have sisters? Or brothers?"

Lani shook her head, though she thought of Olivia and felt a twinge of guilt. She and Rory were very nearly sisters, but it was all so new. So fragile.

What if Lorenzo ruined everything, just by being there?

She was terrified, but when he looked at her with a pleading expression identical to Rory's, she knew that she couldn't deny him the chance to meet their daughter.

More than that, she would never deprive her daughter the opportunity to know her father, to know a whole family that she had never met. Did she have living grandparents? Aunts and uncles? Cousins? Lani's head spun with questions that she was too cowardly to voice.

"You will let me see her?" he asked.

"I don't know anything about you," she blurted. "I don't even know your last name."

"Lazzeri," he provided.

"Lorenzo Lazzeri?"

"Yes."

"Nice to meet you."

He grinned and straightened. "I will tell you anything you wish to know."

"Okay. But… later. I should get back to work."

He nodded and started to hand her phone back, then paused.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I will give you my phone number. You will call me?"

With a sigh, she nodded her agreement. He programmed his number into her phone.

"I have rented a room here in Pualena," he said, his voice infused with a quiet plea, "but I cannot stay forever. You will call soon?"

"Yes," she agreed. "Soon."

He nodded and handed her phone back to her.

"I would like more photos, please," he said as she stood. "I want to show to my mother."

A lump rose in Lani's throat, and tears burned her eyes.

Rory had a grandmother.

Lani's foolishness hadn't only cost her daughter five and a half years with her father. It had cost her time with her only living grandmother. And for some reason, that cut even deeper.

"I'll send you some photos," she promised, her voice tight.

"Thank you."

She nodded and retreated inside. Juniper gave her a quick, curious glance before turning her attention back to the customers at the window.

Lani went into the back to scrub pots, trying to give herself time to calm down.

Her whole life was about to be turned upside down. She would have to share her daughter with a whole family of people she had never even met.

She just hoped that they deserved her.