Page 23 of Between Hello and Goodbye

“What do you think I should do about it?”

Kaleo grinned, toothy white in the dimness of dusk. “You should take her around in the firetruck!”

I laughed. “Pretty sure that’s whatyouwant to do.”

“Can I?”

“Again? We went twice last month.”

He rolled his eyes. “Like I’m ever going to get tired of that, Uncle Ash.”

I caught his last toss, then dumped my mitt and the ball to the ground. “Come on. It’s getting too dark to see.”

He joined me and I slung my arm around his little shoulders as we crossed the thick, overgrown grass of the yard. My brother’s house was perched on a bluff, tucked into the green of Kauai. Below, the Pacific Ocean stretched out, black and huge under a sky as infinite and scattered with stars.

“You should go back to Faith,” Kaleo said.

I stiffened. “You too, huh? Why is everyone in my business about it?”

“Don’t you want to get married?”

“Nah. I’m not the marrying type. Why?”

“Because the sooner you get married, the sooner you’ll have a baby and then I’ll have someone to play with. Besides”—he looked up at me, scrutinizing—“you’re not getting any younger.”

I snorted a laugh. “Ask your smartass parents to give you a sibling.”

“Does sibling mean little brother?”

“Or sister.”

Kaleo sighed gravely. “I would, but babies are expensive.”

“Where the hell did you hear that?”

“Mama. When she was talking to Daddy about the business being in trouble.”

I jerked to a stop. “The business is in trouble?”

His hand flew to his mouth. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”

“Why not?”

“He said you’d try to fix it with your New York money.”

I muttered a curse.

My brother had been an avid photographer since forever. When he was eighteen, I gifted him a trip to Hawaii for his high school graduation. He fell in love with Kauai’s scenery and Nalani Soriano—in that order—and never looked back. Together, with a modest starter investment from me, they openedIsland Memories, a little photography studio in Princeville.

Kaleo tugged my hand. He was sensitive and sweet, like his dad, but more serious. Solemn. “Please don’t tell on me, Uncle Ash.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said through my teeth and stormed back into the house, ready to confront my brother the minute Kal went to bed.

Instead, I was confronted with Nalani shoving a tinfoil-covered pie into my hands. Her famous key lime, judging by the scent.

“Take this to her.”

“To who…?” I began and then rolled my eyes. “Shit, seriously, Nal?”