Aloha Love Read Online Free

to you, Matilda. And Jane. . .” Straightening his shoulders, he leaned back against the chair, a signal that he had decided.
    “Jane,” he said, “since you will have to wait until your aunt returns before the wedding is planned, and if it’s what you want. . .”
    Jane nodded and lowered her eyes lest they pop out with anticipation.
    “This trip can be a wedding present from me. That way, apart from the sadness of the situation, you may find some joy in your journey.”
    Her heart hammered against her chest. “I really think it’s something I should do, Daddy.”
    “Yes,” he said. “I can tell both you and Matilda feel a great sense of responsibility in this matter.” His glance swung toward the high ceiling. She had the feeling he might understand her and Matilda better than she’d realized.
    “But with you gone, that would mean changes here, too. Eating dinner alone without my little girl. For a year, at least.”
    His gaze wandered to Pilar. Was he thinking he wouldn’t need Pilar and her mother without Jane around? But how could he in all good conscience dismiss them, even for a year, after he’d saved them from a life of destitution?
    Her father seemed to be debating the issue himself. “Matilda will be busy comforting her brother.” He smiled at Matilda, then turned his attention back to Jane. “You might become bored.”
    Bored? Jane could hardly believe that word. The stories from Pansy’s letters that Matilda had shared over the years had been enchanting. Of course, Matilda had a way of making a trickle of water sound like an oil gusher.
    Matilda slapped both hands down on the table and put on her best smile. “You are so right, Buck. Why not send along a companion for Jane?”
    “Wha—” Jane’s father stammered. “Who?”
    “Why, who else but the one you implied.” She lifted her hands in the air. “Pilar.”
    Pilar screamed, and they all jumped.
    She quickly slapped her hand against her mouth, and the gulp of swallowing just about made her choke.
    A face peered around the dining-room doorway. Jane glanced from Inez to Pilar, whose head began to bob like it might fall from her neck. Her mother’s head was doing the opposite, moving from side to side as if the very idea was out of the question.
    Jane knew that Pilar was happy just pulling down the bedcovers for Matilda. The thought of going to Hawaii would be as earthshaking to her as it was to Jane.
    “Daddy, Pilar has been very much like a companion to me—at times, like a younger sister.” That was partly true. In earlier years, they had cried together about Pilar’s loss of her dad.
    “Besides, Buck,” Matilda said, looking at Inez instead of him. “Inez is capable of running this household without Pilar. I mean, with only. . .you here.”
    Inez’s hand moved to the throat of her high-necked black dress. “But she’s only seventeen.”
    “Oh, how lovely.” Matilda about came out of her chair. “Imagine Pilar celebrating her coming-out debut in Hawaii.”
    She’d shocked them all into taking on the demeanor of statues. After a long moment, the unblinking gaze of Inez moved to Pilar. The two stared at each other as if looking at strangers.
    Jane wondered if Inez was thinking about a coming-out debut. When Inez’s husband had lost his business and killed himself, it had seemed that any hope of Pilar’s marrying into a fine family was gone.
    Inez turned and disappeared from the dining room. Pilar’s head was bent, not bobbing anymore, and her teeth had captured her lower lip.
    Matilda sighed. “Maybe I can convince Inez to let Pilar go as a companion to Jane.”
    After dinner, Jane walked with Matilda in the gardens, and they settled on a bench.
    “Matilda, what was the tragedy Pansy mentioned?”
    Her aunt paused. “I honestly don’t recall, Jane. We wrote to each other often, and she told about many events in their church and school. The MacCauley name seems familiar, but I just can’t place which tragedy that