Page 87 of Big Island Sunset
“Surprise!” the crowd shouted as soon as she rounded the corner.
Fern stopped and put a hand to her mouth, moved to tears.
Nearly all of her students were there, plus more friendly faces from around town. Emma’s son ran past with ‘Olena’s daughters, and another group of kids had rolled out some mats and started an impromptu yoga class led by an imperious little girl with dark hair and lively brown eyes. Juniper had set up the rainbow array of tea that she sold at the farmers markets, and there was a table loaded with food.
It was beautiful.
“Are you okay?” Ethan crossed the lanai to stand between her and the crowd. Theo was balanced on his left arm, waving a happy greeting. “Is it too much? I didn’t know–”
Theo launched his considerable weight towards Fern, and Ethan cut off with a laugh of surprise as he caught him with his free hand.
“I just wanted you to know how much you mean to us.”
“It’s perfect,” she said, holding her arms out for Theo. “Thank you.”
“Good.” Ethan smiled with relief. Theo went to her, wrapping his arms around her neck in a hug.
What followed was a happy blur. Fern drifted easily between friendly, familiar faces as Theo added to the conversation with baby babble and then fell asleep in her arms. Ethan stood chatting with Nate, and the air was rich with the sound of children chattering and laughing.
Emma brought her a plate of food, Juniper kept refilling her tea, and the whole crowd sang her the Hawaiian birthday song before cutting into a chocolate breadfruit cake that Ethan had baked himself. Never in her life had she felt so held by community, so nourished and loved.
“Arms getting tired yet?” Ethan asked. She sat at one of the portable picnic tables he had set up, cradling Theo in one arm and eating cake with the other.
“A little,” she admitted. “But it’s a good sort of tired. He gets heavier, I get stronger.”
“I can take him upstairs and put him to bed.” It was a halfhearted offer, made with a smile that acknowledged her coming refusal.
“I like him right where he is.”
Ethan settled onto the bench beside her, and they looked up at the cloudy sky. The dusk was turning it a fantastic shade of purple, with streaks of gold and orange jumping up from the mountains to the west. The fed and comfortable crowd chatted to one side of them, and birds in the hibiscus bushes chattered on the other.
“Was it a good birthday?” he asked quietly, his arm warm against hers.
She leaned into him, every cell of her body flooded with a warm sense of peace.
“Best I’ve ever had.”
30
Juniper
The night of Fern’s party, Juniper went to bed at eight o’clock and slept like a rock. Even so, she felt tired when her alarm went off the next morning at five-thirty.
First trimester exhaustion was like nothing she had ever experienced, and it scared her.
If she could hardly cope now, how much more tired would she be when her belly was big and round? How would she get up for work after a newborn kept her up all night long?
I’m as capable as anybody else, she reminded herself again and again.
If other women survived it, she could too.
Except that her mother hadn’t.
Juniper shoved her dark thoughts away and dragged herself out of bed, swimming against the exhaustion that threatened to drown her. She went down the stairs in the dark, comfortableenough in the funny old house that she didn’t need light to manage it anymore.
Once she’d forced herself to eat some breakfast and had a couple of cups of tea with honey, she felt a bit more like herself. Shecouldmanage, if she could just stay fed and hydrated and get enough rest. She was as strong as anybody.
Sometimes she felt like a little steam engine powering her way up the mountain.
