25. Anne
Anne
It took no time at all for the new house to feel like home.
Home was her family: Pete laughing with his cousins, Claire making peanut butter cookies in the kitchen, Zoe dropping by to bring them fruit she’d harvested or help herself to a plate of ‘ulu waffles.
Best of all, Oakley was always there for a cup of tea and a chat.
The new house contained all of that with an ease that was both spacious and cozy – and that instantly made it feel like home to all of them, even before the final boxes were unpacked.
Living in the same house as her sister for the first time in over twenty years felt like getting her right arm back. And the kids loved it too, being surrounded by family without the strain of house guests or the sometimes stifling presence of their grandmother.
The entire time they had lived with Dawn, there was an undercurrent of tension that had kept the house from feeling completely like home. Anne had felt it herself, but she hadn’t realized how much it was affecting her kids until they left.
Now, finally, they could all breathe easy.
For Anne, the relief of having her own place was tempered by the sudden switch of starting to pay rent at the precise moment that she had given up her income.
She had been sort of bemused by Oakley’s financial stress the past year, given how much had been awarded to her in the divorce – but now she understood a bit better. Even with substantial savings, it felt scary to have money flowing out when there was nothing coming in.
Anne sat at the kitchen table, scrolling through job listings in a half-hearted way.
There were a few listings on the island, but they were mostly in Kona. The commute would be absolutely atrocious; she would be left with no time at home at all. And yet she knew many people who did just that, all to afford their kids the privilege of growing up in Pualena.
“Mom!” Pete’s shout from outside yanked her attention back to the present moment.
He burst in through the screen door with a full-grown mongoose in his arms.
“He found me! Rikki found me!” Her son was nearly weeping with happiness.
Anne stood up and kissed the top of Pete’s sandy blonde hair. It was pure gold now, brightened by the tropical sunshine.
Rikki perched two paws on Pete’s shoulder and sniffed curiously at Anne.
“How’d he know I was here?” Pete asked.
“He must have heard your voice.”
“I love him so much!” Pete snuggled the mongoose aggressively. “Hey, where’s our cat treats?”
“Under the sink, I think.”
“Thanks!”
Anne went back to the table, feeling a bit lighter.
Whatever she had to do to stay with her family and give her children the best possible childhood, it would be worth it.
Oakley joined her at the table, tapping away on her own laptop as she put in orders for the café.
“Maybe I should look for remote work,” Anne said after a while.
“Like what?” Oakley asked.
“I don’t know… marketing? Digital assistant? I know all the ins and outs of managing reservations, so maybe I could do something with that?”
“How do you even go about finding a remote job?”
“Oh, there’s a ton… and probably ten thousand people applying to each one.”
They were quiet again for a while, each of them focused on their own screen.
“I think I found something.” Oakley turned her laptop to face Anne.
Instead of the job listing she had expected, Anne found herself looking at a beautiful two-story house. It was vaguely familiar, and after a moment she recognized it from her childhood. The tall, stately building was on a quiet side street, and she used to pass it on the way to a friend’s house.
“What if we opened an inn?” Oakley asked.
Anne stared at her. “Do you mean it?”
“You have the experience, and I have the capital.”
“Really? Even after the coffee shop?”
“That wasn’t a huge investment. This…” She pursed her lips and looked at the screen. “This would be, but I think I could swing it. You have some savings too, right?”
“Well, yeah, but nothing close to what you got in the divorce.”
“That’s okay. I’ll fund it, you run it.”
“You’re serious.” A low buzz of excitement thrummed in her chest.
“Always. We’ll have to dig into the research and go over the numbers, but I really think we can do this.”
“I know we can.”
“Well then.” Oakley beamed. “It’s settled.”
“Noah flips houses all the time. He could help us estimate the cost of a remodel.”
“Hopefully it won’t need much.” She turned the screen back towards her again. “But he can come with us to check it out, make sure it’s not hollowed out by termites or anything… You know, it looks like there’s room for a Pilates studio on the first floor.”
“Multiple streams of income.”
“Always a good idea.”
“Can you really do this and the coffee shop?”
“You’ll be managing the day to day. It’s not very big, so the work load will be about the same as Mom’s place was when your bed and breakfast gig was at full swing. Are you up for that?”
“Definitely.”
“Good. Then let’s do this.”
Anne pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes to hold back her tears.
“What?” Oakley put a hand on her arm. “You okay?”
“This would be a dream come true,” she said thickly. “Staying in Pualena. Working with you.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
“It feels too good to be true.”
“We’ll make it happen. One way or another.”
“What if it is just a pile of termite damage?”
“Then we’ll figure something else out. Another place, or another business. But I have a good feeling about this one.”
Anne nodded, but she wasn’t ready to let herself believe until everything was in place.
“Okay. I guess we’ll see.”