“Sorry.” Anne let out a one-note laugh as she reached for the dish soap. “I was just wondering if I’m the only Aloha sister who actually looks my age.”
“You’re beautiful,” Oakley said immediately. She didn’t even try to tell her that she looked young.
Anne sighed. Oh well. She had a twenty-seven-year-old daughter. How young was shesupposedto look?
“I mean it,” Oakley pressed. “You’re so pretty, Anne.”
“To you, sure.”
“And to Noah,” she teased.
Anne bumped Oakley with one amply padded hip. “It’s not easy being surrounded by such age-defying sisters. Laurie and Akemi both look ten years younger than they are. Halia just turned fifty, but she could be the same age as you and me. And you’re a freaking goddess. What gives?”
“I’ve had some help,” Oakley said wryly. “The others… good genes, I guess.”
“I suppose there’s a price to pay for growing up in Hawaii as a redhead. No wonder Claire’s so annoyed with me.”
“I thought that was getting better. You and Claire. Isn’t it?”
“It’s touch and go, especially now that all of her friends are shopping for their first week of high school and she’s stranded out here in the middle of the Pacific.”
“A hard lot indeed,” Oakley looked pointedly out through the kitchen windows at their ocean view. “However will she cope?”
“You know that growing up haole in Hawaii isn’t always easy.”
Oakley snatched a soapy plate from her hands. “Don’t use that word.”
“Growing up… melanin deficient?”
Her sister snorted a laugh.
“What wordshouldI use?”
“Kama‘aina,” Oakley said immediately.
“That might be true for you and me. We were born here, and you’ve lived here most of your life. But even as locals, we got bullied.”
“Not after Noah punched Kevin Lau in the nose we didn’t.”
Anne chuckled. “Yeah, well, my kids don’t have a Noah. And they’re not at easy ages. They’re going to get clobbered if I send them to school in Pahoa.”
“They won’t,” Oakley argued. “Kids these days are soft. It’s not like when we were growing up.”
“Hm.” Anne wasn’t so sure. Her sister lived in a bubble up in Waimea. “I still think they’d have a rough time in public school. They weren’t exactly thriving in California. And I can’t afford private.”
“If you don’t want to send them to school, then don’t.”
“That simple, huh?”
“It’s easy to homeschool here. Legally, I mean. And there’s tons of online programs these days, if you don’t want to teach them yourself.”
Anne hummed again, more thoughtful than dismissive this time. “I’ll look into it.”
With Oakley’s help, Anne got through her work for the day in a third of the time that it usually took to do it all on her own. They drove south to their favorite black sand beach, because neither of them had been down that way in ages.
Oakley’s long, lean legs drew looks from everyone as she strode down the beach. Walking beside her sister, wearing a long cotton dress and a lightweight shirt to cover her arms, Anne felt invisible.
She should probably feel relieved that strange men didn’t stare at her anymore. It was certainly safer to be invisible. And she should be confident in who she was, regardless of whether or not strangers thought that she was good looking.
