Chapter 12
The Kona low started slow with a day of steady drizzle.
Although it made Zara’s job more difficult, it gave her a break on the childcare front.
The gray skies made Mia extra morose, so she didn’t mind getting “stuck inside” with Eddie.
Her friends were meeting later at their favorite coffee shop, Juicy Java, and Zara promised she could go so long as she watched Eddie until Zara got back from work.
Too bad about her brilliant “manny” idea.
Her powers of persuasion must be failing.
She’d been so sure that Jim would accept her job offer.
He liked Eddie, she knew that. Who wouldn’t like Eddie?
He was the sweetest, most sensitive boy with the most endearing gap-toothed smile in the world.
Whenever she thought about having kids, she imagined a boy like Eddie.
Who would then grow into a teenager like Mia, she reminded herself.
Not that she didn’t love Mia too, but fifteen-year-olds were no picnic, especially when they were struggling.
Her friend Buzzy dropped by the concierge desk around midday.
“Girl!” They hugged each other over the desk.
“It’s my day off and that hottie over there invited me here for lunch.
” Buzzy gestured with her head toward a good-looking white man waiting near the entrance to the restaurant.
It was packed because of the rain. Buzzy generally dated locals, but was always happy to make an exception for someone exceptional.
“Rawr.” Zara purred in appreciation. “Silver fox territory. Hey, thanks for taking care of Eddie. His stitches look topnotch.” She kissed her fingers like a chef.
“He doing okay? The poor kid looked plenty rattled.”
“Nothing a marathon game of Go Fish couldn’t fix.”
Buzzy nodded and caught a signal from her date. “Our table’s ready, but I’m gonna make him wait. See you at the beach?”
“It might be a few days. I heard they’re going to close the beaches because of the storm. Maybe I’ll finally get some study time.”
Buzzy shook her head sadly. “You work too much. It’s not natural. You never used to be like this. Remember when we used to surf until after sunset, then go eat French fries and ice cream until we threw up?”
Zara laughed. “The good old days.”
“I’m serious, girl. You gotta have some fun.”
“I always have fun. You know me.”
Buzzy lifted an eyebrow and looked askance at her Royal Leilani uniform and the plumeria pinned in her hair.
“Aww, are you worried about me?” She reached across the desk and pinched her cheek like an elderly auntie. “That’s adorable.”
Buzzy swatted her hand away as they both laughed.
“Everything is under control,” she told her friend firmly. “I’m making money, I’ve got a plan, the kids are alive. Things could be so much worse!”
“I know you’re like the biggest optimist in the world, and I love that about you. I do. But—”
Zara stopped her right there. “No buts. It’s all going to work out. It always does. You know my motto. Sing while you wait for the wave, then ride it with a smile.”
“That motto is way too long. They’re supposed to be short and sweet.”
“I’ll workshop it.” She gave her friend a winning smile. It was sweet of her to be so worried, and Zara appreciated it. But she didn’t have the option of ditching everything to go play, the way she’d always done in the past. “Go on, enjoy your lunch. And whatever comes after.” She winked at her.
As Buzzy turned away, she remembered one other thing.
“I haven’t forgotten my bill at the Urgent Care.
I’m getting paid this week and I should have enough left over to pay another chunk of it.
” That bill had been weighing on her. Every time Zara had a little extra cash, she threw it that direction.
But then Eddie would have another accident of some sort and there they’d go again.
He was supposed to be covered under Aloha Care, but her father had screwed up the paperwork.
Fixing it would be a full-time job in and of itself.
Buzzy waved her hand. “It’s all taken care of.”
Zara reached over the desk to keep her from leaving. “Wait. What do you mean, taken care of? Did the Aloha Care go through?”
“No. I don’t know who paid it. All I know is when I went to input Eddie’s stitches, your bill read as a zero balance. I asked Mindy what happened and she said some guy called in with a credit card number.”
“Who?”
“You want me to check?”
“Of course I want you to check! I pay my own bills. I don’t want to owe some anonymous stranger for something.”
“But if he’s anonymous, what does it matter?” Buzzy tilted her head, her hoop earrings getting tangled in her thick waves of hair.
“It’s the principle! Also…how would they even know—” She stopped abruptly. “Was it Jim, the gardener? The one who brought Eddie in?”
“You mean Mr. Tall Dark and Serious? He looked pretty scruffy, but I liked his eyes. They were kind of…intense in a hot way. Do you think he has that kind of cash?”
No. Of course he didn’t. That would make no sense at all. Why would he be sleeping in the storage closet at the resort if he did?
“Besides, why would he call in later instead of paying on the spot, if he was going to?” Zara dismissed the idea. “If you can find out who did that, I’d appreciate it. I’ll pay them back.”
“Sure.” Buzzy shrugged and waved at her date. “I better go. Stay dry. You got your roof fixed, right?”
She didn’t wait for an answer, which was a relief. Zara had fixed the roof herself, and it had yet to be put to a real test. No leaks so far; she was keeping her fingers crossed.
The rain outside slowed to a gentle mist. She gazed out at the lush, landscaped grounds, feeling deep appreciation that if she had to work at a little kiosk desk, at least it had a view.
She dialed the phone number from which Jim had called her from the Urgent Care yesterday. After a few rings, it simply went dead. No voicemail, not even the automated message about a mailbox that hadn’t been set up yet.
As she helped customers book dinner reservations and spots on manta ray viewing boats, she tried to isolate the uneasy feeling she was experiencing.
She was worried about Jim, she decided. The poor man probably didn’t have a place to stay now that he’d been fired.
She should have insisted he crash on the couch last night.
Instead, she’d let him run off into the rain to catch an Uber.
When she saw Benito pushing a wheelbarrow toward the garden shed, she pulled on a hoodie and ran outside to talk to him. She’d seen him and Jim working together on more than one occasion.
“Quick question for you. Do you know where Jim is staying? The gardener who got fired?”
She’d checked the linen closet this morning, but there was no sign that anyone had been there. The guards probably wouldn’t have let him on the property anyway.
“No, miss. He didn’t say.” A frown crossed his face. “Why everyone want to know?”
“Everyone?” she asked. His thick Filipino accent could be hard to understand sometimes.
“A man ask me the same thing.”
“What man?” A horrible thought occurred to her. “Was he a Japanese man dressed in black?”
“No, miss. White man in a black Mercedes S-Class.” One thing about Benito, he knew his cars. “Woman in the passenger seat. “
“What did this man say exactly?”
“Questions. Where was Jim. Did I see him. Did I know where he lived. I say no, no, no. I don’t know anything. Then he threatened me. ICE,” he added when Zara looked alarmed. “Imigrasyon. I’m legal but he wanted to scare me. So I tell him nothing.”
Zara pounced. “But you do know something? You can tell me. I don’t want to hurt him, I just…well, I felt bad about him getting fired and I wanted to offer to write him a reference.”
As if a concierge had any standing to do so…but her fiction worked.
“On my day off, I saw him on Ali’i Drive. Outside the Seaside Paradise. Maybe he has another job there. I better go.” He picked up the handles of the wheelbarrow and hurried down the path.
Zara dashed back inside just in time to avoid a wave of heavier rain. If Jim had another job, that would explain why he wasn’t too worried about losing this one…and why he hadn’t accepted her job offer.
But when she swung by the Seaside Paradise after work, they told her no one named Jim worked there.
Frustrated, she got back into the Kumquat and checked in with Mia, who was mourning the cancellation of her coffee shop meetup due to the rain. “Sorry about that. I’ll stop at Costco on the way home. We might need to stock up for this storm. Any requests, besides toilet paper, obviously?”
“Ramen noodles and Godiva chocolate.”
In the background, she heard Eddie chant, “Ramen, ramen.”
Zara probably should have predicted that. “Sorry, they’re all out. Try again.”
“You aren’t even there yet, are you? I can hear the rain on the Kumquat’s roof.”
“You’re so smart, why aren’t you the one doing online law school?” Before Mia could answer, a black Mercedes caught her eye as it pulled out of the Seaside Paradise parking lot. A man was at the wheel, a woman in the passenger seat.
Was it the same one Benito had seen? It turned right onto the street just ahead of her.
“Gotta go. Be back soon,” she told Mia.
“Ramen, ramen,” Mia and Eddie chanted as she ended the call.