Hawaiian Rumble by Matt Lincoln

Author:Matt Lincoln [Lincoln, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-26T22:00:00+00:00

24

Kyle

It had been a pleasant surprise to find Rachel and Sadie working away on the firehouse renovations when we got back from the landing strip. Seeing Liz and her brothers together was something that I wouldn’t soon forget. Though Liz wasn’t tiny, her brothers made her look like a child next to them. Still, I could tell that they all cared for Liz like one of their own, and Liz loved them right back. They even seemed to take care of Rachel like a little sister which made sense, considering they all grew up together on the same street.

Speaking of Rachel, I decided to take Liz’s advice and tell her about the boat I was building.

“You’re building a boat?” Rachel asked, eyes wide, clearly impressed.

“I am.” I leaned closer to her to hear her over the lunch chatter. “Liz said you were into that kind of stuff. Maybe you could come to check it out sometime.” I tried to keep it casual while I also got a feel for her reactions.

“Yeah!” she said enthusiastically. “I think I’d really like that.” Rachel giggled while we made small talk about how she had gotten to know Liz and her brothers. We didn’t make set plans exactly, but we exchanged numbers, and I walked away feeling pretty damn good about the whole thing.

After a much longer lunch than we had planned, Liz and I loaded up the car and set off for the Pa`oa estate. I had noticed that Liz didn’t mention our little visit with the Pa`oa family to her brothers, and I couldn’t help but bring it up.

“So,” I said as I turned onto the main highway, “your brothers are pretty awesome.” The spark that lit up in her eyes at the mention of her brothers was painfully sweet.

“They are pretty amazing,” she said wistfully.

“You didn’t tell them we were going to the Pa`oa family estate,” I stated bluntly.

She looked over at me, guilt written all over her face. “You noticed that, huh?”

“You’re not the most subtle when it comes to deception.” I laughed. “It was pretty obvious you were avoiding the subject.”

Liz sighed. “Mana got mixed up in some bad stuff a few years back that involved the Pa`oa family. It wasn’t pretty… or legal. But he’s making a new life for himself, and we’re all incredibly proud of him.” She jutted her chin out with dignity. “So, if my brothers found out that I planned to go anywhere near a Pa`oa, let alone walk straight onto their estate to meet the head of the family, I don’t know what they’d do. At the very least, they would have caused a huge scene which would have been completely unacceptable at my place of work.” She sagged into her seat.

I nodded in understanding. Family could be pretty overbearing, especially big brothers. We lapsed into a comfortable silence for a while until I reached for the stereo, switched on the country station. I hummed along to the tune until we pulled into a fancy looking neighborhood.

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