It was all a hopeless jumble, and she tried her best to stay clear of it.
Mostly she succeeded…. The trouble was Noah.
Everywhere she went on the island – every nature spot, anywhere in Pualena, even her own house – she was plagued by memories of her childhood sweetheart. The memories were almost all good… which only made it harder. She had met her match decades before she felt ready to settle down.
Her relationship with her ex-husband had been different: good on paper but ultimately hollow.
Noah was the only man she had ever truly loved… and she had spent so much of their time together holding him at arms length or actively pushing him away.
She still did; it was a perverse habit rooted in fear, and she wanted to rip it out of her life like a weed.
Noah Kapono had loved her since they were children. Against all reason, he seemed ready to love her still. Was she finally ready to let that love in?
Anne wasn’t sure… but she wanted to try.
3
Laurie
It is a truth universally acknowledged,Laurie wrote,that a single woman in possession of a husband must be in want of good fortune.
She sighed and deleted the sentence, then typed up a basic bio summarizing her degrees and relevant work experience. Creativity wasn’t a relevant skill for proofreaders; accuracy and attention to detail were what mattered. That and how quickly you could get things back to frazzled students and authors facing down deadlines. She didn’t want to scare off any potential clients with a weird intro.
Well, she did want to, but she knew that she shouldn’t; she needed all the work she could get.
Laurie had been working online for years, just side gigs here and there. Now she was casting a wider net in an effort to cobble together a full-time income.
The thought of scraping together enough to survive in Hawaii was overwhelming, mostly because she so desperately wanted to spend those working hours with her daughter. That was the main reason she had stayed with Chris so much longer than she really wanted to; she couldn’t bear to lose out on time with Mia. When she was a baby, even being away from her on weekends would have been excruciating. Now that Mia was eight (and a half) she could just about bear it… though the thought of sending her off with Chris still made Laurie nauseous with worry.
She was better off than most women in her situation. She knew that.
She had a few steady clients and the support of her family and a safe place to stay.
Even so, starting over from scratch felt overwhelming.
It was liberating too, though. She stood on the cusp of an exhilarating new life of peace and freedom.
But the looming custody battle was a dark cloud that cast a shadow over every hopeful thing. She had seen enough friends and acquaintances dragged through hell to know exactly how ugly things could get.
Mia burst into the kitchen, sweat-damp and breathing hard. She and her cousins had been playing hide-and-go-seek tag for hours. That was one silver lining to their situation: for Mia, the experience thus far felt like an extended vacation. She had traded her volatile father for a doting grandmother, distant neighbors for adoring aunties, and the casual cruelty of her classmates for time with her cousins.
Dawn kept saying that she had never seen Mia so happy.
She wasn’t there at midnight, when nightmares drove Mia from sleep with such unrelenting terror that it took a full hour for her to calm down. She was never able to tell Laurie about the nightmares; all that stayed with her was the fear. She dideventually sleep again, and in the morning she greeted the day with excitement.
Laurie supposed it was her mind’s way of processing that final day with her father.
I need water, Mia signed. She was red-faced and grinning.
You hungry?Laurie asked.
No.Mia filled a glass of water at the sink, gulped it down, and raced back outside.
Laurie stood to stretch as she watched the kids play in the back yard. When she saw Mia running with her cousins in the summer sunshine, hope and gratitude outshone her fear. If only every day could look like this.
She had already sent an email to Mia’s year-round private school informing them that she would no longer be attending. Public schools were still out for the summer, so she had time to consider her options.
She wanted to homeschool; she always had. Chris had insisted on sending Mia to the tiny Christian private school in Hawi, and Laurie had acquiesced. Now, though, she wanted to take charge of her daughter’s education.
