10. Emma
Emma
“Is this okay?” Emma tugged self-consciously at the straps of her bikini.
“You look great,” Juniper said.
“Are you sure?” She turned in front of the mirror, taking stock. Grief and garden work had turned her lean and muscular. After so much time hardly even glancing at her reflection, the woman in the mirror felt like a stranger.
“Very cute,” her niece assured her.
Emma grimaced. “It’s so weird to wear a bathing suit on a first date.”
“You’ve known this guy for like a year. And it’s Hawai‘i .”
“Still.” She sighed and went to her closet in search of something to wear.
“You’re slimmer than your teenage niece,” Jun cracked from her place on Emma’s bed. “It’s very impressive.”
“My niece looks like she swallowed a beach ball,” she muttered.
Juniper gasped and feigned offense. “Rude!”
“How about this?” Emma pulled out a pale blue sundress and turned towards Jun, holding the frock in front of her.
“You own a dress?” she exclaimed.
Emma rolled her eyes. “Very funny.”
“Anything you wear is fine. The guy has basically only seen you wearing your dead husband’s t-shirts and he likes you anyway. I’d say you’re in there.”
“I don’t like you right now,” she huffed, turning back to the closet.
“But you love me,” Jun said in a sing-song tone.
Emma pulled out a transfer-station find that she had never worn, a beautiful leaf-print dress that brought out the green in her eyes.
“That one!” Her niece said, serious now. “Definitely that one.”
She hastily pulled the dress over her head, refusing to overthink it anymore. Then her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the bed next to Jun.
“What am I doing?” she moaned, dropping her head into her hands. “I’ve never dated! I don’t know how to do this.”
“What about Uncle Adam?”
“We were good friends in high school, and then we were boyfriend and girlfriend, and then we were husband and wife. I’ve never even dated anybody else. I don’t know how.”
“Don’t think of him as a date,” Jun advised. “He’s just… a friend you’d like to kiss.”
Emma stared at her for a minute. “I have no idea what to say to that.”
Jun sighed, a world-weary seventeen. “You’re overcomplicating things, Auntie Em.”
“I know,” she moaned.
Jun checked the time on her phone. “He’ll be here any minute.”
Emma sucked in a breath and got up off of her bed.
“Can I stay here?” Jun asked. “My bed is so far away.”
She chuckled. “That’s fine.”
“Have a good time. You deserve to have some fun.”
“There are plenty of leftovers in the fridge. Kai and Prince are crazy about the mac salad, but try to get some protein into them too. I don’t think I’ll be out too late, but you can put them to bed around nine if I’m not back yet.”
“Aye aye, captain.” Juniper gave her a sleepy salute.
“I love you.” Emma kissed her niece’s forehead. “Thanks for watching them.”
“They’re easy. They watch each other.”
“I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Get out of here!”
“Okay, okay, I’m going!” Emma retreated down the stairs and grabbed her beach bag. With the tote slung over one shoulder, she slipped on a pair of sandals and went to check on the boys.
Kai and his friend were out on the old trampoline that they had inherited from Tara’s family when they moved to the ranch. The boys weren’t jumping; they had carried a whole stack of library books out to the trampoline, where they sat reading in the mild winter sunshine.
Emma pressed a hand over her heart, suddenly overwhelmed by gratitude. Those blissful moments had been happening more and more lately, and that in and of itself was something to be grateful for.
“Hey Kai.” She walked up to the trampoline and spoke to him through the netting. “I’m headed out in a few minutes. I might not be home before bedtime. Juniper’s up in my room if you need anything. She’ll give you dinner.”
He barely glanced up from his book. “Okay.”
“I love you, kiddo.”
“Love you too.” He pushed his book towards his friend. “Did you know that platypuses are venomous? They have a special claw for poison, look!”
“Woah!” Prince’s eyes went wide. “Are they deadly?”
“I don’t think so. But the book says it really hurts.”
“Remember to bring the books inside,” Emma warned.
“I know,” Kai intoned, drawing the words out.
She walked away, sending a quick text to Juniper to ask her to make sure that all the library books made it inside that evening. The weather was still glorious and clear, but it rained nearly every night. Those nightly showers kept her garden green and the catchment tanks full.
She rounded the corner and saw that Keith was already out front. He hadn’t texted or called; he’d just waited there patiently.
Dio knew him already, so he was whining and wagging his tail instead of barking a warning. Keith reached over the gate to give him a scratch behind the ears.
The moment he spotted her, a grin lit up his face.
“Have you been waiting long?” she asked as she walked towards him.
“No, not long.”
“Are sandals alright? I don’t know how much we’ll be walking today.”
“No long hikes,” he assured her.
“So I’m dressed okay?”
His eyes flicked to her sandals and skimmed her legs on the way up, taking in her verdant sundress and landing on her face. “You’re perfect.”
Her cheeks warmed and she looked down to the latch on the gate, which he opened before she could do it herself. She slipped through without letting the dog out, and Keith gave her a hand up as she climbed into the cab of his truck.
“So where are we headed?” she asked when he joined her in the cab.
“It’s a surprise. But we’re driving across the island. Is that okay? You have time?”
“I have time.”
Keith grinned, and his hand found hers as he drove slowly down the residential street.
The initial shock of contact faded to warm comfort as they wound their way up the mauna, though a fresh wave of electricity jolted through her each time that he shifted his grip or brushed the pad of his thumb across the back of her hand.
They didn’t speak much as they crossed the black lava rock and wide green pastures of central Hawai‘i. Emma was content to sit and look out the window at the fiery flowers and vast blue sky, simply enjoying his company.
The radio was tuned into local island music, country songs with a distinctive Hawaiian flare, and Emma’s heart was light as they glided along the highway and down towards Kona.
When Keith parked at the harbor and pulled out a cooler, she figured they were headed for the harborside beach that she often visited with Kai. It was a lovely place for a sunset stroll and a quiet picnic.
To her surprise, he led her to a small sailboat and set his things on the deck.
“Is this yours?” she exclaimed.
He chuckled. “No, it belongs to a friend. He lets me borrow it on the rare occasion that I make it over to this side of the island. Are you game?” There was a playful challenge in his voice as he stepped aboard and held out his hand.
“Let’s go.” She accepted his hand, her fingers barely kissing his palm as she leapt aboard.
He proved to be a skillful sailor, and soon they were racing across the water. The sun was already low, and she basked in the last of the day’s warmth as the wind whipped her hair away from her face. Keith turned north and sailed up the coast beneath a boundless blue sky.
Far in the distance, so faint she thought she might have imagined it, Emma saw the white spray of an animal coming up to breathe. She held her breath and scanned the surface of the water. Before long, she saw another.
“Dolphins!” she exclaimed, turning to look at Keith.
“Maybe not,” he said, his expression thoughtful.
It took her a moment to understand. “Do you mean whales? Humpback whales?”
“It’s the right time of year.”
“But they hang out around Maui, don’t they? They never come this far south.”
“They do sometimes,” he said, eyes on the water.
“Do they really? I’ve never seen them here.” She turned and looked again, waiting to see if whatever mammals swam up ahead would breach the surface. Keith kept going, running almost parallel to the distant sprays rather than charging straight at them.
Then, closer than she would have expected, an animal burst up from the water. Emma’s breath caught in astonishment as she watched the low, clumsy jump. Definitely not a sleek spinner dolphin, but it was close to the same size.
Just as she realized what she had seen – a baby whale! – she spotted movement beneath the water.
Keith dropped the sail and waited. He came up next to Emma and let the boat drift.
A full-grown whale, nearly fifty feet long, burst out of the water so near their little boat that a fine mist of salt spray blew past them after she’d crashed back down.
The baby jumped again a moment later, mimicking his mother.
Hand in hand with Keith, Emma watched in awe as they came up for breath, even closer now.
They disappeared with a wave of their tails and she waited breathlessly, waiting to see if they would make another appearance.
When the baby rose up out of the water again, farther away from them now, she laughed at his clumsy attempts.
“Imagine growing up as a mammal in the sea,” she breathed as they went under again. “He has so much to learn.”
“Luckily for him, he has a great mother.”
Emma grinned and met Keith’s eyes for the first time since they’d spotted the whales. He smiled softly and brought a hand up to her face, brushing away some of the salt water that had collected on her skin.
“Are you ready for some dinner?” he asked.
“I’m starving,” she replied, though she hadn’t realized it until the moment he asked.
Keith pulled out a simple picnic of island-grown food: starfruit, roast chicken, ‘ulu chips, heart-of-palm salad, and two perfect avocados.
“This is phenomenal,” Emma said between bites. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
They enjoyed the delicious food in the late afternoon sunshine, boat bobbing gently beneath them. Emma felt perfectly content, more present than she usually managed to feel outside of her garden. It seemed Keith carried that energy with him, the steady comfort of rich soil and growing things.
Just as he was cleaning up after their picnic dinner, the whales passed by again.
With so much open water, Emma thought that the second visit must be deliberate.
She moved to the edge of the boat, heart in her throat as she watched their white tails rise up and disappear beneath the surface of the water.
“Want to join them?” Keith held out a pair of swim goggles.
“Seriously?” A thrill of fear went through her at the thought of swimming so far from shore… and so near these gentle giants.
“I’ll stay with the boat, but you can jump in the water if you’d like.”
Emma glanced at the sun, which was very close to the horizon now. Before she could overthink it or second-guess herself, she shed her sundress and donned the goggles. With one last grin at Keith, she dove in.
The winter ocean was bracingly cold, driving all thoughts from her mind. She plunged down and then kicked for the surface, bursting up for a breath of air. A moment later, she went under again. The vast blue emptiness beneath her gave her a feeling of vertigo.
It was downright spooky, swimming out in the deep sea all on her own.
A huge part of her wanted to scramble right back onto the boat.
Then a noise passed through her: the mother whale singing to her baby. Emma’s heart leapt and calmed in the same moment as she looked around, trying to find them. She went up for another gulp of air and then dove under again, looking all around in the deep blue water.
The massive humpback whale swam right beneath her, with the baby riding along in his mother’s slipstream.
For Emma, it was an otherworldly experience. She felt pure awe as she watched them pass by. The moment seemed to go on forever, yet it happened in the space between breaths. She went up for air, ducked back down, and watched them fade into the blue distance.
By the time she climbed back onto the boat, she was chilled to the bone. She felt so elated that she hardly noticed, but Keith saw that she was shivering.
“Your lips are turning blue!” He hefted a big plastic container onto his shoulder and poured fresh water onto her back.
The sun-warmed water was a blessed relief after the cold Pacific, and she quickly rinsed her face and her hair.
When the water was gone, Keith wrapped an oversized beach towel around her shoulders.
“That was spectacular,” she said through chattering teeth. “Thank you.”
“Do you want some tea?”
“That would be amazing.”
“Sit here,” he said, tossing a cushion down. “There will be a bit less wind.”
Still wrapped in the thick towel, she settled herself into the spot he’d pointed out. Keith produced a thermos from his bag and handed it to her. She sipped the warm mamaki tea gratefully, her mind and soul still in the ocean with those magnificent whales.
Keith sailed them back towards the harbor, then dropped sail again just before sunset.
Always the gentleman, he turned his back and stared out at the horizon while Emma changed into dry clothes beneath her towel.
Once she was dressed, she slipped beneath his arm and stood beside him to watch the spectacular Kona sunset.
There were just enough clouds off to the west to enhance the show without obscuring the last of the sunlight.
They turned fiery shades of orange and gold before fading to lavender.
Emma and Keith stood silent, just taking it in.
She relished the warmth of his chest as she leaned against him.
He ran his hands up and down her bare arms, warming them.
“Are you cold?” he asked, moving away from her with slow reluctance.
“A bit,” she admitted.
“Here.” He peeled off the light jacket he wore and handed it to her.
She donned it gratefully, and he sailed them back to the harbor beneath a twilight sky.