Page 105 of Between Hello and Goodbye

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Faith,” he said. “You love her, right?”

I started to protest but it was useless. And I didn’t want to, anyway. “Yeah. I do.”

“So the real question is not who lives where, but do you trust her with your heart? And can she trust you with hers? If the answer is yes…” Morgan shrugged. “The rest is just logistics.”

“Pretty fucking serious logistics,” I said. “Sorry, Momi.”

She sniffed. “Now shush, listen to Morgan.”

He turned to me, arms crossed. “What did you say when I told you I was moving to Kauai eight years ago?”

“I said you’re crazy.”

“After that.”

“I don’t know…”

Morgan’s smile softened. “You said,Whatever makes you happy, bro.And I am. I’m ridiculously happy. I have everything I could ever want. And it’s all thanks to you.”

“It’s not—”

“You made it possible.” His eyes shone and his voice grew thick. “You made a promise to take care of me and you did. Now it’s your turn. To take care of yourself for a damn change. To be happy with her.” His face broke into a grin. “We’re going to be okay. We’ll miss you like hell, but we’ll be okay.”

Sudden tears flooded my eyes. “The fuck. Are you kicking me out?”

“Yes,” Momi and Morgan said together. My brother chuckled. “We are voting you off the island.”

I laughed and wiped my eyes. “Asshole.” I fought for another argument, but I had none. “I thought it’d be impossible to leave. But…all I want to do is give Faith everything. And that includes the life that she wants. Her perfect life.”

“Her perfect life has you in it.”

I nodded slowly as I realized that thatonlylife I wanted had Faith in it. And maybe it didn’t matter where I was—so long as I was with her, I’d be home.

I glanced between Morgan and Momi, my voice thickening. “This is going to suck.”

“As if you’re going to get rid of us,” Morgan said. “You’re a plane ride away.”

“I’ll be unemployed.”

Morgan scoffed. “They’ll have fires in Seattle, just for you.”

I snorted and wiped my nose.

“Doesn’t she have some kind of big award ceremony coming up?” Momi asked, brows raised.

“This weekend,” I said. “It’s a big deal and she’s going to win, I know it.”

“Then you’d better be there with her when she does,” Morgan said.

We sat with Momi for a few hours more until she became tired and kicked us out.

I stood up and then bent to kiss her on the cheek. “Mahalo nui loa. For everything.” Then I fixed her with a stern look. “You know, you didn’t have to break a hip to stage an intervention. A phone call would’ve worked.”

“What can I say? I’m very dramatic.” She patted my cheek. “Go to your wahine nani.”

My beautiful woman.