“I’ll see you sooner than that. How about I come scoop you up for a hike in a few days? I’ll check my schedule and text you a time.”
“Sounds good.”
Oakley went to find her girls, and Anne fell back onto the sofa next to Halia.
Her big sister put an arm around her, and she leaned in.
“How about you?” Halia asked.
“How about me?” Anne echoed.
“What’s your plan?”
“It’s kind of you to assume that I have one.”
“What are you going to do for work?” Halia’s voice was kind but insistent.
“Pualena’s not exactly bursting with job opportunities.” Anne sat up and scooted away so that she could see Halia’s face. “We have to make our own.”
“And what are you making,kaikaina?”
“I want to rent out some rooms.”
Halia’s eyebrows shot up. “Here?”
“Of course here,” Anne said, exasperated. Where else?”
She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “Are you sure?”
“It’s all I know how to do,” Anne said quietly.
For nearly twenty years, she had managed – and then eventually owned – a boutique hotel in California. She’d poured everything that she had into making that business a success… only to have to sell it all in an attempt to make good on her husband’s debts.
And after all that, after she had sacrificed everything just to keep them afloat, the man still up and left left. Not just her, but all of them. His own children.
It beggared belief, all of it.
“But… here?” Halia’s voice pulled her back to the present. “I don’t know if this is the right time. Dawn’s barely coping as it is.”
“It’s the perfect time. Or at least… it’s necessary. Anyway, having more people around would be good for her. She’s always thrived with that sort of low-level chaos. It’s this self-imposed isolation that’s killing her. We have to find a way to shake her out of it. I think that this could work. For everyone.”
“This is our family home, Anne. It’s not a hotel.”
“Mom’s rented rooms out before, and growing up this place was practically an orphanage.”
Halia’s expression shuttered.
“Sorry,” Anne said. “But you know what I mean. When has this housenothad people constantly rotating through? We could use tutu’s old room as a vacation rental–”
“Katie’s living in the ‘ohana unit,” Halia cut in.
“Right.” She paused, recalculating. “Okay. So if me and the kids bunk together, and we leave Akemi’s room alone, that’s still four rooms that we can rent out.”
“To tourists?”
“One summer, Halia. Four rooms, one summer. Nightly rent, eighty percent capacity, maybe some tours. I could earn enough to get my feet under me again and figure something else out. What do you think?”
“It doesn’t much matter what I think,” Halia said, glancing towards the stairs. “I’m not the one you need to convince.”
