Aloha Love Read Online Free Page B

him above his half-glasses and told him what was in it.
    “This was written the week before they planned to leave port. They could be here within a week. Or sooner, depending on how smooth the crossing is.”
    “They, you said?”
    “Ah, yes. Matilda, that’s my sister’s name. Haven’t seen her in ten years. She’s bringing her niece. Oh, how old is that little girl now? Janie was about thirteen, maybe fourteen last I saw her.” He looked off, not seeing children at the door of the school but a memory tucked in his mind.
    “Janie was a skinny little thing. Orange pigtails. Big eyes and a face full of freckles.” He sighed and looked at the ground as if he’d returned to reality. Then he gazed into Mak’s eyes. “That was a hard time for her.”
    Mak could imagine. The description Russell gave left a lot to be desired.
    “But Matilda can do anything, Mak. Doesn’t matter if it’s a business or a school, she can run it. Why, she could even take over the preaching if need be.”
    Mak stared at Russell as he chuckled. “Oh, and a companion for Jane. A young woman they took in after—” He folded the paper. “But you don’t need to know the details.”
    Mak could agree with that. The most he needed to know was that someone was coming to help at school and he could get back to his business on the ranch. “How is Miz Pansy today?”
    Russell’s face brightened. “This has done her a world of good, Mak. We can see where her illness is headed, just like the doctors said. But she’ll hang on for Matilda.” He nodded. “You just wait and see.”
    Mak nodded, wondering which was easier: knowing your wife was going to die or experiencing the unexpected shock of it. He focused his gaze on a wagonload of children being drawn up to the school, grateful for any distraction from his disturbing thoughts.
    With a finger movement toward his hat, Mak left the reverend and walked toward the long, two-story school, as many children were now doing. Lessons would begin soon.
    Greeting children while walking across the long porch, he was again reminded that some were as young as Leia. Was it fair to turn his mother into a teacher? She was already a substitute mother. He wasn’t sure anymore. . .about many things.
    After morning classes, Mak returned to the ranch, and Leia ran out to meet him as usual. After dismounting, he knelt to take her in his arms. He hardly felt her soft little arms around his neck before she moved back and began asking a zillion questions.
    “Is Miss Pansy any better? What did you teach? Can you teach me what you teached them? Put me up there and let me ride. You can hold me real tight and I won’t fall off.”
    The last time Mak had tried that at her request, she’d screamed no at the last minute, and he’d visualized the horrible scene all over again and felt the emotion of it. Yes, he understood his little girl wanting something she couldn’t have. He had lived that way for three years.
    He nodded to a stable boy who came to lead Big Brown to the barn.
    Leia put her hands, balled into little fists, on her sides and poked out her bottom lip.
    “Watch out. Your lip might get stuck like that.”
    She snickered.
    He smiled at his little girl, aware of her beauty, like her mother’s. Black curls and eyes so dark they often looked black. Her skin was a smooth, deep, tan color typical of Tahitians.
    His mother often said Leia resembled her mother in coloring but was like him in stubbornness.
    “I’ll tell you all about school at dinner,” he said. “I need to check on Panai.”
    He saw the droop of her little shoulders when she turned toward the porch. He didn’t look into his mother’s eyes, but felt her stare. Maybe someday he could shake that feeling of tension that he didn’t measure up to what his mother wanted of him.
    After finding out how things went at the ranch and apologizing to Panai for not being around him all day, he cleaned up and joined his mother and daughter for