Aloha Love by Yvonne Lehman Read Free Book Online

a long spill about the day’s events, “before you tell all about the reverend’s relatives, how was Miz Pansy today?”
    “Oh, so much better, Daddy. She just smiled and cried. She said they were happy tears.”
    “I’m sure they were, honey.”
    “Pansy has hung on for this, Mak,” his mother said. “She was so happy. But you know she’s been getting weaker.”
    “Miss Jane got better.” Leia’s eyes widened. “She might could be my teacher if I could go to school. I like her, Daddy.” Her little shoulders lifted with her deep breath. “And I like Miss Pilar. She’s nice. And Miss Tilda, oh my.”
    His mother laughed.
    Mak glanced from one to the other. “Now what does that mean?”
    Leia shook her head, and her gaze traveled around as if she were trying to see an answer. “I don’t know,” she said. “But I think. . .oh, I know. Miss Tilda is like a volcano.”
    They all laughed. He had taken Leia close enough to see the fire that continually spouted up like a fountain, lighting up a night sky with red fireworks, literally.
    “Oh, she is, Mak,” his mother agreed. “She is so full of life. I think we’re friends already.”
    “Me, too,” Leia assured them. “And Miss Jane and Miss Pilar are my friends. Miss Jane might could be my teacher. I’m cleaning up my plate.”
    Sure. . .that should do it.
    His mother turned to him. “Oh, Mak. Jane is the one.”
    “Mother, please,” Mak protested. “My one is gone.”
    “Oh, I don’t mean for you.” Her laugh sounded like a scoff. “She’s the one for Leia. She teaches. . .”
    He missed whatever she said next, but he was aware what she had said was a switch. At every ship docking, particularly the tourist ones, she would tell him of beautiful women, and because she was a generous woman, she invited most of them to their home. So now that one appeared who did get his attention by being green and obnoxious, she’d changed her mind about finding him a woman?
    “Why is this one not for me?”
    His mother smiled. “Oh, Miss Jane was modest about it, but Matilda blurted out the whole thing. Jane has been engaged to marry an oil tycoon’s son since the day she was born.”
    Mak found that puzzling. “I didn’t know arranged marriages went on in America.”
    “Oh, she doesn’t have to do it. It’s just that her daddy is a wealthy cattle rancher and has been friends with the oil tycoon family forever.” She waved her hand in the air and smiled broadly. “So you don’t have to worry about me trying to fix you up with this one, or about her being out to get you. She’s spoken for.”
    “Good,” he said and kept eating.
    She wasn’t finished. “And you don’t have to worry about her being after your money. Her daddy and her fiancé are filthy rich.” She looked at Leia. “Not filthy-dirty. That’s just an expression.”
    Leia nodded and said seriously, “I need to go to school and learn things like that.”
    “Yes, you do,” his mother said and looked triumphantly at him. “Did you see that girl’s ring?”
    “What girl?”
    “Miss Jane.”
    “I think she was wearing gloves, and I think she might have thrown up on them.”
    “Well, she didn’t hurt the ring. That diamond is big as. . .as. . .”
    Leia stuck her hand out over her plate. “As big as a who–o–le finger.”
    His mother’s eyebrows lifted. “Close,” she conceded.
    This was a welcome change. As his mother said, he wouldn’t have to worry about her being after his money, and she was engaged to be married. He needn’t give her a moment’s thought. He wouldn’t need to make a point of keeping his distance.
    Perhaps her fiancé would arrive. He understood his mother’s excitement over having some new women to talk with, to find out about America. Just as Mak’s mother enjoyed the friendship of women who visited Hawaii from other countries, he enjoyed interaction with men.
    Mak was beginning to feel good about the situation when Leia said, “Daddy, I’m