They spent the rest of the morning fashioning a tree stand, using lava rocks in a metal bucket to hold the tree upright, and making decorations to hang on the branches. The girls foraged for pine cones, cut out paper snowflakes, and collected sticks to make ornaments. Mochi was up and about and looking more clear-eyed than he had since he’d been with them.
“What about presents?” Coco asked.
“I told you, Santa will get here.”
“I mean for us to give. Can we get presents into the camp?”
“We can make presents, and I’ll work on finding that out.”
As the time drew near for Grant to arrive, Lana caught herself ruminating over how and when to tell him about the Wagners. And what of Mochi and Benji? She wanted to come clean on everything. Whatever it was that was happening between them, she didn’t want it built on untruths. Nor did she want Benji to be hidden away every time Grant came around. But telling him was risky. She decided to bring Benji anyway. This was her property and she could have who she wanted here.
In the stillness of the early afternoon, it sounded like a stampede coming down the driveway. Coco ran outside wearing pants underneath a sleeveless polka-dot dress. Barefoot again. She sprinted up the driveway like a mad fairy. This time, Grant brought three other horses. Lady, a big buckskin and a painted mare.
“I wrangled a couple more horses this time. I figured we could use a few extra cowgirls,” he said when he hopped off. He looked at Benji and said without missing a breath, “And cowboys. The two girls can ride together.”
Benji smiled with a look of relief.
“I want Lady,” Coco said.
“Lady is taken,” Lana said firmly.
Coco didn’t argue, but she stuck her tongue out at Benji, who stuck his tongue out in reply and walked right up to Lady and held his hand out under her nose. She sniffed.
“You ride?” Grant asked him.
“No, but I’m a fast learner.”
Grant showed him how to mount and gave him some basic instructions and treated him like one of the gang. Lana wanted to hug him for it. He looked extremely kissable, too. His skin was several shades darker than when she’d last seen him, and he was wearing a long-sleeved red palaka shirt.
“You look like a real paniolo,” she said.
Grant grinned. “Tryin’ my best to fit in.”
Now that the lines were blurred between them, Lana wasn’t sure how to greet him. But Grant gave her an innocent peck on the cheek as he had every other time, and a wink that caused her knees to weaken. Coco eyed them closely.
They set off with Coco and Marie on the buckskin, Lana on the palomino and Benji on Lady. As they rode along, Lana imagined herself leading tours through the park and sharing every ounce of her experience with the guests. It sure would beat attending parties in Honolulu where the men gambled while the women gossiped about who had come on the last ship. In her mind, Grant would be part of the deal, as would Coco and Marie and Benji. The thought of not having them here caused an ache under her ribs. Maybe war did that to a person, quadrupling every potent feeling so that what mattered most was impossible to ignore.
Time slowed down. Love sped up.
As luck would have it, the wild horses were all in the barn pasture. ‘Ohelo, the white horse, and four other stunners. They all looked like they wanted to bolt, but there was only a short stretch of fencing needed to close the gap. Grant immediately had the group line up to block it. The wild horses trotted to the far corner, stirred up and anxious.
“We need to finish the fence and then see if we can lure ‘Ohelo over here,” he said. “Lana and Benji, I need you with me on the posts. Girls, you keep your horses and Sailor between the others and the gap. Let me know if they give you any trouble.”
“Can I talk to the wild ones?” Coco asked.
“By all means, but gently,” Grant said.
Grant and Lana went to the barn to collect the rest of the posts and fencing. The minute they stepped behind the wall, he pulled her close and kissed her, long and slow. Lana stepped backward until she was up against the wood. A small groan escaped. He tasted salty. She was pinned to the post, unable to move, unable to think. When he pulled away, he whispered into her ear, “I’ve been dying to do that since the minute I left you the other night. You’ve been making it hard to work.”
Lana grabbed his hand and laughed. “Behave yourself, Major.”
He twirled a lock of her hair around his finger. “You know, I was hoping to run off with you alone in the woods today, but I knew how much Coco wanted to ride, and we have work to do. Can I get a rain check on that?”
“Deal,” Lana said.
“Let’s get this stuff out there before they get suspicious. Kids know way more than we give them credit for,” he said.
“Why are you so good with them?”
He shrugged. “My niece and nephews back home. They keep me honest.”
“And Benji is happy to be included.”
“Seems like a hardworking kid.”
“He is.”
“Good to have around in times like these, and if you trust him, then I trust him,” he said.
Lana smiled.
It was hard to imagine Grant in another place, in another life. She wanted to know every small detail of his life, who he loved, and who loved him. Whoever they were, they were probably sick about him over here in Hawaii.
They spent the next hour digging holes and setting posts. Coco and Marie looked happier than she’d seen them in days, and Benji had dug three holes by the time Lana finished one. The horses ripped and crunched on the grass, unfazed by the weight on their backs. Coco was chattering away, and every now and then Lana caught fragments of her words. My name is Coco...love horses...best friends...there’s a war...safe.
At one point, Grant leaned on his shovel and observed. “She’s a special kid, that one. See how the horses are completely at ease? I reckon they like the conversation.”
“Who knows what goes on in that little mind of hers. But I agree, she’s one of a kind.”
“Has she always been this way?”
A bug flew into Lana’s mouth and she coughed. “Since day one.”
Tell him! urged an inner voice. She glanced over at Coco and Marie, and ‘Ohelo, with her swollen knee, then back at Grant, who had rolled up his sleeves and was unspooling barbed wire. Sweat ran down his neck, dampening the collar of his shirt. He was completely focused. She’d tell him in private, before he left for the night.
“Any Christmas plans?” he asked.
“Part of me just wants to forget Christmas. But with kids, that doesn’t work. We cut a tree and made our own decorations, but Coco was worried about Santa being scared away by the Japanese.”
He squinted into the sun. “I hope you told her he’d be here?”
“I did. But where am I going to find presents?”
“Hmm. Let me think on it.”
They worked some more, Grant and Benji easily hoisting posts that Lana couldn’t even budge. Grant had rolled up his sleeves, and veins snaked up his forearms. He was a different breed altogether than the men in Honolulu, who spent most of their time pushing paper. Grant was the kind of man you wanted by your side during trouble.
After the final post was in, and the barbed wire nailed on, Lana finally looked around. Coco was no longer with her horse, but on the far side of the pasture crouching beside a large rock. A smooth and shiny rock. Lana looked closer, confused as to what she was seeing.
She pointed. “Is that ‘Ohelo lying down?”
Grant spun around. They watched. Coco was walking along the horse, stroking the length of her body, and then starting again at her head. “Well, I’ll be...” he said.
“You hardly ever see horses lying down. Is ‘Ohelo all right?” Benji said.
“She looks fine. My old horse was a sucker for a sun bath. Just put her in a grassy field and she was down, lolling about and lazy as a fat baby.”
They approached Marie, who was now leaning against a small eucalyptus tree, catching some shade. Sailor was stretched out next to her. “As you can see, Coco’s at it again, making friends with the animals,” she said.
Coco spotted them and waved.
Grant said, “I made a liniment for ‘Ohelo’s knee. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll try to wrap it once she’s more used to me. You two hang back here.”
He walked slowly toward Coco and ‘Ohelo, talking in a soothing voice the whole way. Lana admired his mix of toughness and tenderness. An ache ran through her.
She and Marie and Benji watched while man and girl and horse bonded over sunshine and tall grass and alfalfa cubes. Grant eventually leaned down and rubbed his hands along ‘Ohelo’s knee, while Coco stood by her head. It looked like she was saying things into the horse’s ear.
“My sister would bring that horse into her bed if she could,” Marie said.
“I would have done the same as a kid.”
Marie turned her lovely blue eyes to Lana. “Thank you for being good to Coco, Aunt Lana. Kids made fun of her at school. Even her teachers thought she was odd and ran out of patience with her.”
Lana considered Coco a blessing. “It’s all about finding your kind. Being with people who let you be your wonderful, peculiar, unique self.”
“Our mom was good at that. Papa not so much.”
“Tell you what—when he gets out, I bet he’ll have a change of heart,” Lana said.
Marie was teary. “I feel the same way. I want to be the best daughter in the world.”
Lana hugged her. “Oh, sweetie, you already are.”
When all was said and done, ‘Ohelo got a good rubdown and a knee full of liniment, both girls were burned pink from the sun, and Grant and Benji looked as though they’d taken a dust bath. Lana figured she probably looked the same.
Marie said she wanted to walk back and set off with Sailor. Once the rest were mounted, Grant said, “Race you back!” He kicked Boss, who took off like a bullet.
All the other horses lurched forward without any prodding. Lana leaned down and hung on. At first she was tense as a fiddle string, but she soon loosened. Her horse, Hoku, carried her along smoothly, wind pressing against her cheeks and the thunder of hooves running up her center. Nothing else mattered, not Grant or the Wagners, not even the war.
Coco’s horse was one body length ahead, but Hoku was gaining. Grant and Boss were nowhere to be seen. They tore through the trees and up the driveway when a loud whistle rang out. Out of the side of her eye, she saw Grant standing in the yard. Lana pulled back on the reins. Hoku came to a stop, but Coco kept on going.
Grant wore a huge smile. “See what I mean? These horses keep me sane.”
The intoxication was undeniable.
“What about Coco? She’s gone again.”
He laughed. “That look on her face. Half-mad with delight. I say you’ve got a true cowgirl on your hands.”
“Shouldn’t you go after her?”
“Nah, she’ll be back.”
Benji and Lady soon trotted up, followed by Marie with Sailor trailing not too far behind. Sailor’s tongue hung out to the side and she was panting. A few minutes later Coco appeared. They all circled up near an old whiskey barrel that the horses drank from. Even the two geese joined them. Grant appointed Coco as the keeper of the newly fenced-in herd, and she beamed at her new responsibility, asking ninety-nine questions.
A crisscross pattern formed on the grass the minute the sun dipped behind the trees. The sky began to buzz, faintly at first, and then the sound hummed through her body. Lana shivered. Not as strong as the days preceding the last disaster, but too strong to ignore. She tried to shake it off, but the feeling stuck.
On a regular afternoon, she would have invited Grant in for dinner, warmed up in front of the fireplace with logs crackling, offered him cider and a hot meal. Maybe she would have even kissed him. None of that was about to happen anytime soon. She was about to tell the girls to go inside so she could speak with Grant alone, when Coco said, “Wanna come in and see our tree? We started decorating it this morning.”
“Sure, but—”
Lana jumped in. “I’m sure you have to get back to camp, right?”
He shrugged. “I can spare a few minutes. I’d love to.”
If Mochi had any sense about him, he would be making himself scarce. Lana took mental inventory of what was out in the house.
Benji turned toward the house and hurried away, calling over his shoulder, “I have to use the bathroom. Excuse me.”
“Shall we tie up the horses, then?” she asked Grant, dragging her heels over to Lady and rubbing her rump.
“They won’t go anywhere,” he said.
Attempting to slow time, Lana sat on the bottom step and began to unlace her shoes. Some people on the mainland never understood why people in Hawaii took off their shoes before entering a home, but Grant followed suit without a word. He sat next to her, hip touching hers. The air felt thick and syrupy as she walked up the stairs. Coco was waiting at the top with a guilty look on her face, as though she had just realized her error. Marie stood in front of the door as though blocking it but slowly opened it when they approached.
Inside, the fire was roaring. Benji hunched in front of it with the bellows, pumping away. There was an indentation in the air where Mochi had just been. Lana could feel it.
If Grant noticed the mature fire, he didn’t let on. Instead he went to the tree with Coco and admired the handmade ornaments. Lana stole away into the kitchen. The pantry door was shut, thank heavens. She pulled out the pitcher of lemonade they’d made earlier and brought it out to the table by the fire. Sweetened with honey instead of sugar, it was tart enough to make you pucker, but still drinkable. Refreshing after a hot and sweaty afternoon.
Coco was telling Grant, “Did you know that Sailor really likes you?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Did she tell you that?”
“I just know.”
He reached down and scratched Sailor’s ears. “I like her a lot, too. She’s an exceptional dog with a lot of spunk. Will you tell her I said so?”
Coco smiled up at him and then said in the most nonchalant way, “Do you think we could bring her to camp one day soon?”
Lana gave her a harsh look. “Coco, it’s not that kind of camp, remember?”
Grant guzzled down his lemonade. No one else had had a sip yet. A few seconds later, he was yawning and blinking and rubbing his eyes. He sunk down on the bench, leaning on his elbows. “Gosh, I’m wiped out all of a sudden.”
“Must be the fire,” Lana said.
His eyes were closed. “And a long day.”
“Do you want me to drive you back?” Lana said.
“No, I have to return the horses. The foreman was irked I left Lady overnight last time.”
Grant leaned all the way down and rested his head on the table. He looked so peaceful, as though he could have stayed there the whole night. Lana’s palms started sweating. Her mind went to the lemonade. She and Marie had squeezed the lemons and Coco had stirred in the honey, a batch of dark red that turned the lemonade almost brown.
A twitch of his leg and he bolted to standing. “Look at me, falling asleep at your table. Ladies, I’m sorry, but I should go while I can still see,” he said.
Lana ushered him outside and was surprised to see sheet lightning flashing above Mauna Loa. It was hard to tell approaching night from the storm clouds stacking up—ash, charcoal and inky black. Grant moved like an eighty-year-old man. She thought she may have to help him onto Boss, but he managed.
Even in his condition, he had all the horses rounded up in less than thirty seconds. He then swung past her again, swooping down and kissing her on the top of her head. “Good night, my beautiful dream,” he slurred.
She sprinted back inside, oblivious to the cold on her bare feet. Coco and Marie were sitting at the table across from each other. Neither had touched the pitcher.
“Did you do something to the lemonade?” Lana demanded.
Coco shrunk back. “No.”
Marie came to her sister’s defense. “Coco hasn’t been sleeping well. Neither of us have, really. Half the time she wakes up crying from her dreams and then I wake up and neither of us can sleep. Could you have been thinking about that when we mixed it? Wishing for a good sleep?” she asked Coco.
“I might have been,” Coco said.
Lana called into the secret room that the coast was clear, then returned to the table. Frustration boiled up. “That’s the second time poor Grant has been oddly affected by what we’ve given him. Pretty soon, he’s going to start thinking we’re doing it intentionally. And inviting him in here with Mochi? What were you thinking?”
Coco sat there with her shoulders slumped, staring at the flames. The sudden rise in humidity caused her ringlets to coil. “I want him to be our friend. That way he’ll be nicer to our parents.”
Lana’s stomach did a slow flip.
“When are you going to tell him?” Marie asked.
“I was about to tell him when Coco invited him in. I’ll go tomorrow and clear things up once and for all.”
From out of nowhere, a clap of thunder ripped through the house. They all jumped a foot off their seats and Sailor slid under the table. The air tasted metallic and highly uncertain. Lana thought of Grant riding back with the horses. In her experience, thunderstorms brought on change. Changes in mood, changes in circumstance, changes in heart.