Oakley delivered a chai latte, and Bella finally started to relax. She took a sip of her drink, and Akemi watched some of the tension melt out of her shoulders.
“Up and running?” asked a new voice from the door. This one Akemi knew. She went to the toddler door and peeked herhead out.
“Hi Anne!”
Kaleo cried out and reached for her.
“Somebody missed you,” Anne said.
“Hand him over and get yourself a malasada.”
“If you insist.” Anne grinned and handed Akemi her baby.
Kaleo clung to her for a moment, probably still traumatized that she’d had the temerity to disappear while he slept. Then he realized where they were, and he threw his full weight backwards in an effort to get to the toys as quickly as possible.
Akemi winced as she caught him and placed him carefully on the ground.
“We’ve got to work on you using your words, kid.”
He babbled back at her in a string of sound that contained no discernable words, but his expression seemed to communicate both his opinion of her coldhearted abandonment of him that morning and his delight in being back in his favorite room.
After that short tirade, he ran straight to the play kitchen, where he grabbed a wooden spoon and began banging it against everything in reach with great enthusiasm.
Akemi managed to intervenejustbefore the spoon connected with Bodhi’s head.
“You’re a terror,” she told her son. “You know that?”
He laughed and then attacked her cheek with a sloppy, open-mouthed kiss.
“I love you too.”
Kaleo tried to run away, but Akemi caught him and peppered his face with kisses. His baby giggles rang through the space like music, erasing every bit of Akemi’s exhaustion and frustration.
This was what it was all for. This right here.
By the official opening time, the café was absolutely packed. Every seat was full, more people stood at the counter, and so many kids tried to come into the playroom that Akemi had to divert all of the older ones out back, where Claire and Jasmine had set up an art table and some other fun activities.
‘Olena came with her massive son, only two years old and already the size of a kindergartener. Lani was there too, with all three of her kids. Akemi let Rory in with the babies for a while, and she doted on both of her half-brothers.
Akemi snapped a picture of the three of them together and sent it to Lorenzo.
It was late in Italy, but he replied immediately: an effusive message congratulating her on the café. It was a kind gesture, but it left her feeling hollow.
She wanted himthere.
She didn’t want a relationship built on text messages and video chats.
She wanted something more.
Never in all of her years of travel had Akemi felt like there was a man-shaped hole in her life. Kimo’s death had left a gaping hole in their family, of course, but Akemi had never felt bereft for lack of a boyfriend – even when shehada partner who happened to be off in some other country at the time, which was how life often went for digital nomads.
Now her life was fuller than ever – she had Kaleo and her own business and her whole big messy beautiful family – but somehow, for the first time in her life, she felt like something was missing.
Someonewas missing.
But the ball was in his court. It was no use wanting something that she had zero control over.
Lorenzo had promised to be back as soon as he could. He had told her over and over again that there was no place he would rather be than in Pualena with his children… and with her.
