[Unbreakable 02.0] Rule Breaker by Kat Bastion

Author:Kat Bastion [Bastion, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, New Adult, Fiction
ISBN: 9780998232904
Google: oHeIvgAACAAJ
Amazon: B01M995QMT
Barnesnoble: B01M995QMT
Publisher: Kat Bastion and Stone Bastion
Published: 2016-11-03T06:00:00+00:00

Leilani…

I’d never said that aloud…until Mase.

Everyone else knew. How much my makuahine meant to me, how closed we’d been.

The devastation I’d suffered when she’d gone.

Attached to her long skirts, I’d harvested every gourd with her. Together, we’d shopped at every farmer’s market, played in the ocean. I’d learned to trust in others from her.

“Oh, wow. Lani…”

He breathed out my name with sadness, but I reached over and silenced him further with a gentle fingertip touched to his lips. I couldn’t handle hearing him say he was sorry, even though I’d expressed it to him over his brother only moments ago.

I would not break down.

Not again.

His gentle whisper of my name, thick with emotion, reminded me of something. An important something. My eyes drifted shut on memories that flooded in. “Makuahine, my mom, she’s the only one who has ever called me Lani. Before you.”

He needed to know why I’d been so sensitive about it. Everyone had known. But not him.

A brush of fingertips trailed over one corner of my lips, then his hand cupped my cheek. “Leilani is a beautiful name. What does it mean?”

Finding strength in who I was, in the love for the woman who’d named me, I opened my eyes to meet his gaze. “Heavenly flower. My mom loved rare orchids.”

Mind drifting, I recalled the lyrical sound of her voice: “You’re my rarest flower of all.”

“Thank you,” Mase whispered, “for sharing your name with me. I’m honored, Lani.”

My breath caught at the reverence in his tone, at the unexpected tie I’d formed with the man only inches away. Yet vulnerable as I felt in the intimate moment, I wanted him to know more about her. “She taught me the meaning of aloha spirit, the importance of sharing our love with others.”

“What happened?”

I paused, then drew in a shaky breath at the memory of those last days.

He turned onto his side, propped up on an elbow. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me.”

“No.” I partially sat up. Distanced myself, but only because I needed the space to breathe; talking about Makuahine brought her right there with us. “I want to.” I hadn’t talked about it with anyone since it’d happened and a part of me wanted to share it.

And something about Mase made me feel safe enough to do it.

“She died of cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It happened fast, and she didn’t want treatment.” My thoughts drifted to the day she’d broken the news to me. “I was eight. In my first weeks of third grade when she told me before school. She was deep in the rows of orchids that she raised.”

“She raised orchids?”

“Yeah. Orchids. Water lilies. She loved flowers. Supplied them to local restaurants for bouquets. She had a deep love for our land—‘āina—like so many Hawaiians do. ‘Aloha ‘āina,’ she’d say: Love and respect the land.”

“Maui’s an amazing land. Clean water. Pure air. Can’t imagine how you get cancer here.”

“Easy. A lot of people I know blame the GMO seed companies. And the pesticides they make and spray here to test them.

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