Epilogue #2
If everybody on the island revered Jaxon, everybody adored Obachan, and nobody said no to her.
She was a second generation Japanese American, incarcerated in a California camp during World War II as a small child.
After their release, her family stayed in California.
She attended Fresno State University, met her husband, a local islander who’d gone to the mainland for school.
After graduation Soto Kanzaki had brought his bride back to the island.
He’d passed years ago and their daughter Akari and her husband Gary Terrence had been killed in a boating accident the summer before Jaxon and Maho’s senior year.
Everyone had been devastated, most of all Maho, but she’d dealt with the tragedy with resilience.
Sometimes he let himself believe losing her parents and not wanting to face her loss was the reason she didn’t return for a visit.
She was probably also avoiding him after their dynamite kiss and him asking her to stay.
He’d made it more than awkward between them.
At least Obachan was loyal to Shadow Cove and had never left. Except to visit her long-lost granddaughter and grandson.
“What does mirror-katuky-acuma mean again?” Jaxon loved teasing her, just as he used to love teasing her granddaughter. Obachan didn’t have any kind of accent as she’d been born and raised in America, but she was proud of her Japanese heritage and threw in Japanese terms often.
“Don’t you slaughter the ancestral tongue.” She rolled her eyes at him and harrumphed, but her dark eyes twinkled. “You know it means handsome devil, and you just want to hear me say it one more time.”
“Yes, ma’am. I love hearing how handsome and devilish I am.” He winked at her.
She swatted at him. She wouldn’t admit to her age, but she had to be well over eighty. She looked and acted younger than most seventy year olds.
“You stay out of trouble, you too-charming sheriff,” she warned, toddling off down the sidewalk.
“We both know I’m too handsome and charming, but I actually keep everyone out of trouble, Obachan Kanzaki.”
She grinned back at him. “See that you do.”
Jaxon put his charming grin back on, buried the longing to find a woman that could replace Maho in his mind, and sauntered past the beauty shop, tilting his head to the ladies inside, several grinning and waving to him.
He stopped at the candy store and peered in.
Maybe just a couple salted caramel chocolates and another date on the calendar with Sallie Hunsaker.
The beautiful blonde was twenty-four, only six years younger than him.
She’d returned to Shadow Cove after graduating from Cal Poly in math education to help her parents run the candy shop.
She had an online math tutoring business and could run it from here.
She was committed to the island and her family, a Christian, and a sweetheart.
He doubted he could find a more perfect fit for him.
On paper. If only she made his heart race from one look or touch like Maho used to do.
Push Maho out, he commanded himself. He had impressive self restraint, except regarding Maho, Obachan’s chocolate chip cookies, and salted caramel chocolates.
He pulled open the wood and glass door as a petite brunette pushed on it with her backside, her hands full of bulging candy bags. That glossy dark hair and small frame reminded him of Maho.
It had been twelve years. Could he not escape her memory for one moment?
Was this visitor as attractive from the front as the back? He could see her left hand and no ring. It was about time the good Lord blessed him.
He shook his head. What was he thinking? Besides Maho leaving him behind, the good Lord did nothing but bless him.
Stepping back onto the sidewalk to let the lady step outside, Jaxon held the door and said, “Ma’am,” in his enticing tenor, waiting for her to look round at him. He was intrigued what her face might look like.
“Thank you.” The woman glanced over her shoulder at him, her jaw dropped open, and her bags of candy thudded to the cement sidewalk.
“Pixie,” he whispered. His stomach swooped and his entire body tingled. Maho was here? She was back?
Her dark eyes filled with surprise and longing. Her face was every bit as beautiful as it had been, maybe even more. Defined features, oval-shaped deep-brown eyes, fair skin, rosebud lips. She’d aged and matured in all the right ways. Still petite but womanly.
Was that longing in her eyes meant for him? He could only hope.
No. He shut that thought down hard. This woman had discarded him twelve years ago.
Sure they’d both tried to maintain their friendship, text and send funny memes for the first couple years, but the communication grew more and more sparse and then dried up completely.
Time passed slow and quick at the same time.
He hadn’t seen her lovely and exotic features in twelve long years.
He feasted on them like a man in the desert finding a spring of fresh, cool water.
Maho didn’t even bend to pick up her candy. She turned to face him fully and stared at him as if the ghost of love past stood in front of her.
“Why are you here?” he asked, his voice gruff and as distant as he could make it.
He prayed she’d say, for you, but that would be all kinds of wrong of her to say and him to wish for.
He was never leaving his island and Maho had made it more than evident she had no reason to come back.
This wasn’t her place any longer. Maybe it had never been.
“Obachan,” she admitted.
He blinked at her. Of course she wasn’t here for him.
Her cheeks flushed pink. She averted her oval-shaped eyes and squatted, grasping the handles of the two bulging bags of candy she’d dropped. Holding them aloft she said, “For Obachan. To butter her up. You know how she loves her sweets.”
“I do.” He folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the open door.
Her gaze traveled over his arms and chest and she moistened her lips.
His own mouth went dry. She liked the way he looked.
His vest enhanced his impressive build and the gun on his hip added to his appeal. He knew his blue eyes drew women in.
Of course she liked the way he looked. He worked hard to be a ‘walking billboard of sheriff hotness’ according to a couple of the silly teenage girls in town. It didn’t matter if Maho was attracted to him. That wasn’t the problem between them.
“You bought her loads of candy to make up for not coming home for twelve years? I thought you wanted her healthy and you were a gut health expert.”
Her dark eyes flashed a warning at him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Pardon me.” She brushed past him and down the sidewalk.
“Oh, I don’t?” He let the door fall closed, turned, and followed her down the sidewalk, raising a hand to somebody calling out ‘Hey Sheriff’.
“You’ve been home in the past twelve years?” he asked her from behind, ignoring everyone else on the street. He never did that. He wanted Maho to admit she had come home, and find out why she hadn’t reached out to him.
She whirled back to face him and spit out. “Yes, I have visited Shadow Cove Island, Sheriff Bradley. But this is not my home and I have luckily not run into the likes of you.”
Jaxon’s abdomen tightened. She left him behind, and now she was acting like this? Wow. He supposed he had started it with his gruff question and asking how she could buy Obachan all that candy.
It stung deep that she’d visited but somehow kept her distance from him. ‘Not her home’. ‘Luckily she hadn’t run into him’? He didn’t have a response. He blinked at her and shook his head, rubbing at his slackened jaw.
“That ferry goes two directions you know,” she taunted further.
Jaxon strode up to her. She tilted her head back to meet his gaze. The pulse in her neck quickened and she moistened her lips again.
“Maho …” his voice deepened. “You never said that you wanted me hopping on that ferry and chasing you to the mainland.”
“I did ask you to come.”
His eyes widened. She had, but they’d both known the answer.
She swallowed and then she said, “It wasn’t fair of you to ask me to stay or me to ask you to go but still I hoped someday you’d …” She looked out at a Buick trolling past.
Pastor Josh. Window down. Gawking with that slight grin on his face. Oh great. Jaxon would get asked about this interaction on Sunday.
He raised a hand and forced a smile at their beloved preacher then he focused on Maho.
She’d wanted him to chase after her? That made no sense.
She’d headed off to Salt Lake City for undergrad and then medical school like the hounds of heck were on her heels.
He understood that losing her parents had made it hard to stay here, but he’d assumed she didn’t want him or his island.
The times they’d sent texts or Snaps, everything in dry, mountainous, warm in the summer and snowy in the winter Utah was sunshine and roses.
Much more thrilling, fulfilling, and fun than the island.
He’d found himself defensive. They had mountains and hiking. Shadow Cove Island was gorgeous with loads of green and trees. Utah might have snow-skiing and boating on lakes but it was dry. Did they have surfing and boating on the ocean? No they didn’t.
Hardly comparable in his mind.
“What does it matter?” Her shoulders drooped and her long lashes fanned her high cheekbones. “We both know you’d never leave this island for anything or anyone.” She gave him a challenging look.
Jaxon almost wished he could throw something back at her about not coming back, but she was right. He wouldn’t leave his people, his family, the islanders he’d sworn to protect and serve. ‘Not my home’. A red flag for certain. If only it wasn’t Maho saying the words.
“Right again,” he agreed.