somehow dug up from God knows where, the whole while our makuahine telling him it was useless, that kuku would never eat it and then finally, at eleven o’clock that night, Luka finishes.” Kona’s slow smile spread across his mouth, held for several seconds, but then lowered. “The little idiot plates up sweet bread and this bowl of soup, wakes up kuku and makes a big deal of telling him he’d made Saimin for him with real white noodles. He was so proud.”
“And did your grandfather eat it?”
Kona nodded, that wide smile returning. “Every drop.” He looked at the pig again, rubbing the belly once more before he gave it back to Gia. “The next day we had to take kuku to the hospital for food poisoning but he made us swear never to tell Luka.”
“Oh no!” Gia said, not able to keep from laughing. “That’s awful…”
“It was a mess, but hell, Lu tried.” Kona watched her, leaning forward as he kept his attention on her face. “He kept you from me and I get why. At first, I kept Keira from him. We were always in competition. We’d always gone after the same girls and then would kick each other’s asses when things didn’t work out like we wanted. But with Keira…and with you, I suppose, that all changed.”
Gia didn’t understand why Kona had come back here to talk about things that didn’t matter anymore. It was all in the past. Things that happened between he and his brother, especially the mistakes they made, held no weight now.
“If I’d known…maybe…” Kona looked at the silver band on his left hand, rubbing it around his finger. “I had no one back then, when I got out and I missed my brother.” He glanced at Gia, holding her attention. “I pushed everyone away because I was so scared if I let anyone else close to me then I’d run the risk of feeling the same pain when I lost them too. To me, back then, it just wasn’t worth the risk.”
“Kona…” she tried, aware now where he was leading to and why he’d come unannounced. The prospect of what he wanted terrified her.
He held up his hand, keeping her quiet. “From what I made out between you and Kai, there’s been a lot you didn’t say to him. There’s been a lot you haven’t said to anyone. Maybe it’s because you’re still scared of the risk too.”
Gia shook her head, looking away from him, the grip she held on the pig so tight now that it dug into her palm. “This…isn’t your business.”
“My brother loved you, G.” Kona grabbed her hand, holding it between his. “You were the last love of Luka’s life. That makes you family. My kaikuahine.” When Gia frowned at Kona, confused, the tightness in his features eased, and he rubbed her wrist with his thumb. “My sister.” He was kind enough not to mention how quickly her eyes filled with tears. Kona, in fact, looked away from the emotion on her face. “I take care of my family.”
Something inside her chest fractured when Kona looked back at her. There was a fierceness in his eyes that Gia knew she shouldn’t discount. He wasn’t feeding her a line or telling her anything he thought she might want to hear. Why would he? Kona had no reason to be here but to do what he thought was right.
“What…what do you want?” she asked him, resigned to let the man say what he wanted.
He nodded once and the fierceness in his eyes transformed into something that looked to Gia like resignation. “Come with me?” he said. “It’s time.”
25.
GIA
“IS IT SAFE?” she asked, taking Kona’s hand as he led her up the rocky terrain. “I would have thought your mom would have wanted the city…”
“The city was too crowded. Luka didn’t like a crowd, you know that.”
It was true. When they were together, Gia had always believed it was the clandestine nature of their relationship that kept him wanting to hide her away from anyone’s notice. But one trip to the fair during a bye week, seeing how uncomfortable Luka had been weaving through the crowd and she understood he simply didn’t like being around people.
“Why wouldn’t it be safe? Watch yourself,” Kona said, holding her bicep when Gia slipped.
“The lake’s so close. Won’t it flood?” There had been so much flooding in the area the past few years. Gia had heard of homes and schools flooding and the stadium had