“Can Daddy come?” Hayden asked.
Oakley nearly told her to ask him herself, but she didn’t want Hayden to have to bear the disappointment of being shot down directly. It happened too much lately; every bid for attention was met by a dismissal or a promise of “next time”.
“I’ll ask him,” she said instead. “You wash up.”
“Okay!” Harper rushed her plate to the sink.
Oakley walked through the house and into Trent’s office. It was the biggest room in the house, originally designed to be the master bedroom. He’d equipped it with both a traditional desk and another desk that was high enough to be used witha treadmill. There were weights, a yoga mat, and other fitness accessories that he used to stay active even when he was in the office twelve hours a day. Between all of that, his protein shakes, and the private bathroom, he hardly needed to leave.
“Hey Trent,” she said softly.
“Hey!” He clicked quickly away from whatever window he’d been on, and suddenly she wondered how much of his time spent ‘working’ was really just hiding out from her and the kids.
That’s not fair, she told herself, breathing deep. Her husband worked hard to provide for them. He had at least half a dozen video conference meetings every day, and he was constantly flying to the mainland for work.
He was a good husband, and a good father.
She just needed to try a bit harder.
“Can you get away?” she asked gently. “I want to take the girls to the beach.”
“I don’t think so. I have a lot of work to do.”
She waited for him to say something about piano lessons, but his eyes just flicked back and forth between the two big screens on his desk. He cared about piano in theory, but he didn’t know Hayden and Harper’s schedules at all.
“Let’s go down to Hapuna,” she suggested. The gorgeous Hawaiian beach was only about twenty minutes away, but often they let whole months slip by without driving down to enjoy it.
“I don’t think so.” He met her eyes and softened the blow with a smile. “You go ahead. Enjoy the last few days of summer.”
“Hayden misses you,” she pressed, keeping her voice down so that the girls wouldn’t hear her pleas. “We all do, but she’s been missing you extra lately.”
He sighed impatiently. “I’m right here, Oakley.”
“Are you?”
“All day, every day.” He returned his focus to the computer.
Oakley waited a while, but he didn’t look at her again.
She walked back out to get her girls ready for the beach.
9
Laurie
Laurie moved into Mahina’s ‘ohana unit just a few days after seeing it – and she moved in with all of her books.
When she told Halia about leaving her house in a panic with just a couple of bags, her eldest sister offered to drive her back up to Hawi and pack up the rest of her stuff.
Most important of all was her library. In a moment when it had felt like her life might be on the line, she had abandoned her books without a second thought. Now, though, she felt as though she had abandoned her oldest friends.
For the moment, Chris was contrite. That could change at any time, and so Halia had insisted that they strike while the iron was hot. They needed to go back for the rest of Laurie’s things while he was still trying to wheedle his way back into her life –beforeshe filed for divorce and he went into a rage.
So Laurie texted him asking if she could come up to the house for her books, and he agreed. But when she asked if he couldplease be off the property by the time that she arrived, he didn’t reply.
Just the thought of walking back into that house made her feel sick to her stomach. If she’d had to go alone, she wouldn’t have gone at all.
With Halia by her side, she could just about handle it.
