Page 98 of Between Hello and Goodbye

My parents were out of the country for the holidays; my mother was in Sorrento, and my father’s new wife had convinced him to do a tour of Southeast Asia. I received a standard Christmas card from both—clearly something their household staffs prepared. I spent Christmas with Silas and Max and Silas’s brother, Eddie. Everyone was wonderful and did everything they could to make me feel welcome, but I still felt like an interloper.

When Christmas Day was safely behind me, I got on a plane and flew to Kauai. I tried to look at it in a new light. An audition of sorts, imagining myself there for something that wasn’t a vacation. Cynthia’s words echoed in my head, like a door slamming shut.

The rest of the world might be moving toward remote work, but our industry—this agency—is not one of them.

“Remotebeing the operative word,” I muttered as the plane landed on the tiny island. Even if I managed to carve out some kind of career here, I’d still be in the middle of the ocean, hours from the rest of the country. What happened if I upheaved my life only to find out I couldn’t handle the island fever?

Same flaky Faith, only the stakes would be so much higher…

But there was a deeper question I was avoiding. One that came from my heart and was getting more insistent every day I was away from Asher. It demanded to know if it belonged to him. Handing it over to him was both the absolute only thing I wanted to do and the most terrifying. What if he didn’t feel the same? What if he got sick of me? What if—?

“Shut up,” I muttered as I walked down the gangway, garnering a look from a passerby.

Asher met me at baggage claim. I clung to him, inhaling him and basking in the solidity of him. Falling into his arms felt like pieces of myself falling into place.

Like coming home?

“How was your flight?” he asked, pulling back to hold my face in his hands, his thumbs brushing over my cheeks.

“Long,” I said. “The kid behind me wouldn’t stop kicking my seat.”

Asher nodded absently, his gaze roaming.

I grinned. “You didn’t hear a word I said.”

“Yes, I did. You said you wouldn’t stop kicking the kid behind you.”

I laughed and kissed him and put all the turbulent thoughts on hold to just be with him.

We went back to his house and spent several long, heated hours becoming reacquainted. After the first need had burned itself out, we lay tangled and naked, while the sun set in hues of violet and honey outside his bedroom windows.

“How was your holiday?” I asked, tucked in his arms.

“Good,” he said. “But we got a bit of shit news. Morgan and Nalani’s house is in a mudslide zone, apparently.”

“Oh, no, really? What’s going to happen to it?”

“We’re still waiting on the final report from the surveyor but it’s not great. If they’re in danger of sliding off the mountain, they have to move.”

“That’s awful. They’re home is so beautiful and cozy and…homey.”

He nodded gravely. “I’m worried about Momi, too. Her arthritis is getting worse. The wheelchair used to be only for major outings but now it’s permanent.”

“I hate that,” I said. “Can we see her?”

“She’ll be at the family lunch tomorrow.”

“And how is everyone else? Mudslides aside.”

Asher and I had stayed in close communication since we’d embarked on our relationshit, but it wasn’t like hearing the new developments in his voice. Because no matter how often we talked or FaceTimed or grabbed a few days either here or in Seattle, it just wasn’t the same.

And getting impossible.

“They’re doing great,” he said. “Christmas is always a busy season for their business but now even more so. They’re expanding pretty fast.” His fingers tangled idly in my hair. “The humpbacks are here now, and Morgan is going to start boating excursions for tourists to take their photographs with the whales.”

“That’s absolute genius.”

“It’s going to be incredible. Not to be weird about it, but seeing the whales up close, watching them breach, and the mothers with their calves…it’s kind of a spiritual experience. Especially in February when they’re everywhere. You should see it.”