“Not that I’ve seen.” A new light came into her eyes. “Imagine a café with a safe spot for babies to play.”
“Sounds nice,” Halia said.
“We could even hire a couple of teenagers to keep an eye on them while their parents work! Or just drink a cup of coffee in peace, have an adult conversation, whatever. Maybe that should be my next project!”
Halia nodded as she ate the last of her burger – but inwardly, she had the bitter thought that Akemi was too flighty to actually stay long enough to build something.
Immediately, she felt guilty for thinking about her baby sister that way.
Akemi was capable. She could do whatever she set her mind to, and Halia would be there to support her.
She passed a hand over her eyes. Suddenly, she felt very tired.
Maybe being the rock of the family was finally starting to wear on her.
5
Anne
The sun was low and bright over the horizon as Anne worked her way through the last stages of breakfast prep.
She carried a massive tray of local fruit to the table, letting her guests start with that while she finished cooking the rest. Pete was the first to dive in, filling his plate with white pineapple and red bananas.
“Does this make a full year of your bed and breakfast?” Zoe asked her mother.
“It’s been fourteen months,” Dawn said, eyes down as she poured herself a glass of iced mamaki tea.
“Wasn’t it just supposed to be for the summer?” Zoe teased. “Onesummer?”
“It has gone on longer than expected,” Anne admitted. She glanced at her mom, but Dawn was still looking down, now reading something on her phone.
“It’s just as well,” Zoe said with a grin. “I’ve gotten used to the breakfast buffet.”
Anne gave her a grateful smile, then walked back into the kitchen to start making waffles.
Zoe’s attitude towards her mother had softened considerably since Anne moved home to Pualena. The change had been very gradual, almost imperceptible as it was happening – but after a year, the transformation was undeniable.
Not only that, but Zoe herself had changed. She had softened in a way that Anne couldn’t quite figure out, but it was there.
Instead of bleaching her hair and dying it garish colors, as she had for so many years, Zoe had shaved it off entirely. After that, though, she had let her natural hair grow back in. The spiky haircut had grown into something soft and shaggy.
Zoe’s hair was an extraordinary shade of auburn, so dark that it looked almost black until she was in direct sunlight, where it shone a deep shade of red.
When she took her place at the massive wooden dining table with their family and that morning’s guests, she interacted with everyone with an ease that Anne hadn’t seen since she was a small child.
In the beginning, she had rebuffed all of the guests with a spiky attitude that screamed,Don’t talk to me. Now, she engaged with them willingly, even going so far as to help them with recommendations of places to visit during their stay.
The house was full, Anne was surprised to find that shelikedit that way.
When she first started running a bed and breakfast out of her family home, it was out of necessity. At the time, it had felt like the only possible way forward.
It allowed her time to recover, reconnect with her family, and grow a savings account that could fuel her next chapter – whatever that might be.
She had always been grateful for the opportunity to generate income in her mother’s ocean-view home. But she hadn’texpected to love it as much as she did.
As a child, and especially as a teen, a full house had been a source of stress. With so many foster kids constantly coming and going, kids screaming and babies crying, she had been desperate to escape.
More often than not, the Aloha sisters took to the woods and left their mother to deal with whatever little guests filled the house that week.
