a good eight inches taller than her thanks to my dad’s genes. Emotion lodges in my throat, and I have to swallow. It’s the one physical trait of his I have. I’d give anything for one of his burly bear hugs right now, the kind where I’m engulfed entirely in his broad back and arms, the kind that made me feel like a dainty little kid even in my twenties. I wonder what he would think if he could see us, his wife and his only child, trying to carve a place for themselves in the Maui food truck scene.
I wipe away the thought and turn to help the next customer in line, who orders a basket of lumpia.
“They love Tiva’s lumpia.” I flash Mom a thumbs-up. “Best on the island.”
It’s true. This egg roll–like Filipino dish isn’t a unique dish for Maui, not with the island’s strong Southeast Asian population. But Mom’s mixture of finely ground pork with cabbage, carrots, rice noodle, and secret spice blend is a hit with everyone who orders them.
She glances down at a handful of empty paper trays on the counter, waiting to be filled. “I don’t know about that. Just trying my best.” She shrugs before brushing away a chunk of her hair that’s come loose from her pinned-back style. Her deep brown eyes turn sad. “Now that we have this new competition close by, I have to try harder.”
I un-grit my teeth and flash her what I hope is a reassuring smile. When I broke the news about the obnoxious new food truck business encroaching on our territory, her anxiety was immediate. I could see it in her frown, in the way her gaze immediately fell to the floor when I told her.
“People have been driving from all the way across the island to try our food,” I tell her. “We’ll be just fine.”
Judging by the speedy way she turns back to the fryer without making eye contact, she’s not convinced. And the truth is, as much as I’m willing to wage war on our new competition, I’m not certain we’ll survive either.
An angry, English-accented bark causes us both to twist our heads in the direction of the Hungry Chaps food truck.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Callum booms.
When I stick my head out of the window, I see him stomping out of his truck in the direction of the cardboard sign.
“Mom, take over orders for a bit, okay? I’ll be right back.”
I zoom out of the truck and head straight for Callum, whispering apologies as I bump into people waiting in line to order. By the time I make it to Callum, he’s red-faced, clutching the sign in one hand. The other one he points at me.
“You,” he growls. “This is why we’ve had shit for business this entire day.”
I march up to him until we’re maybe a foot apart. He drops his hand; I rest mine on my hips and lean toward him.
“That’s part of the initiation at this spot,” I snarl back. “Deal with it.”
His chest heaves, his mouth splits open, and a gust of hot breath shoots out. I swear, this guy is part dragon with his prickly personality and the rough way he introduces oxygen into his body.
“Stop saying that.”
“Make me.”
The unblinking stare he maintains would have been all kinds of intimidating yesterday when I barely knew him. Not today though. Today it emboldens me, because I know exactly what I’m dealing with.
“Imperialist cuisine?” His grunt is dialed back in volume, but not in intensity. His tone is a dare, a call to my bluff. Combined with his stance and body language, it’s obvious what he wants me to do. Back off. Apologize.
Hell if I’m doing any of that. If a pissing match is what he wants, that’s exactly what I’ll give him.
“Pretty appropriate, don’t you think?” My tone is a sarcastic kind of cheery. “Here you are, this big, bad, intimidating English jerk encroaching on territory where you’re not welcome. That’s the very definition of imperialist, wouldn’t you agree?”
Once more his chest heaves. He tosses the sign aside. “That’s some nerve you’ve got posting a sign like that.”
“And that’s some nerve you’ve got setting up shop when it’s clearly against established etiquette.”
It’s a struggle to keep my voice below a yell when all I’m aching to do is scream at this jerk for his blatant disregard for rules.
“Like I said yesterday, there are no laws governing where we park.”