Illumine Her (26 page)

“Come on.” Kane took Malia’s hand and tugged her out. Reena smirked before she followed them out.

“Believe me when I say Chase can be trusted. He’s a good guy.”

Alana heard him as they walked away. So her sister didn’t know about Chase and his abilities. She admitted she was glad about that.

Chapter 17

A
lana strolled out of the breezeway and made her way across the hospital car park. She had requested to come into work during the day so she could spend the evening preparing for the wedding. Already exhausted, she anticipated it would be a long night of floral arrangements and dodging probing questions from her cousins ahead of her. Before crossing the road to catch the bus home, she spotted the black Land Rover in the lot. Chase was leaning up against the hood, his arms crossed over his chest and looking in her direction. Alana glanced around before she walked over to him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked on approach, smoothing down the skirt of her nurse’s uniform.

“I’m holding you to your word that you’d buy dessert,” he answered with a grin. “You also left this behind.” He raised her bag.

Alana drew closer and took it from him. “Thanks.” She glanced down at her watch. “I don’t have much time. I promised I’d be home to help prepare for tomorrow.”

“Then we won’t be long,” he said opening the passenger door. “I’ll drive you home myself this time,” he said with a sly grin. Alana shook her head before giving him a small smile and climbing in.

“Where to?” he asked when he was behind the wheel.

“To the marina again,” Alana instructed.

Chase shifted gears and drove onto the main road. Fidgeting in her seat, she felt she needed to offer an explanation for Manu’s behavior the day before. She didn’t want Chase to think she was controlled and couldn’t make her own decisions.

“I’m sorry about yesterday at the restaurant…with Manu,” she said sheepishly. “He’s always looked out for me.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he said, giving her a lopsided grin. “I get it. If I know something about Samoan men, it’s that they’re protective of the women they care about.”

Alana snorted. “Yes, well. It’s more like over-protective.” She sighed. “My family is no exception. I don’t want to complain—”

“Complain away,” he interrupted. “I’m all ears.”

Alana smiled. “Okay. Just don’t judge me. Because I’m not that person. I’m not someone that complains about nonsense. I love my family, and despite the dramas that come with it, I have a great one. I do what I can to help them, but I just want a little independence, a little control. I’m twenty one years old and they treat me like a child sometimes. I don’t ask for much, just that they see me as someone more. Someone who is capable and can make decisions, even if it means making a mistake along the way. But God forbid if I do! I’m not saying that I’m going to go streaking along Beach Road or dye my hair orange, but I just want them to take a step back and let me live a little. I…need it.”

Chase glanced sideways at her. “Can you blame them for how they feel though? Look what happened to you in the aftermath of that party. You completely withdrew yourself.”

She pursed her lips and looked out the window.
That was something different
, she thought. That was about her father and failing to get revenge.

“I’m not saying you’re a weak person, Alana, because you’re not. You’re walking this fine line between dutiful daughter and sister and trying to assert yourself in the process without being disobedient or disrespectful. I admire that you’re being gracious about it.” He grinned and added, “Even with your Samoan pride.”

Alana turned and smiled at him. “It’s one of my many flaws,” she boasted sarcastically.

“I wouldn’t say many,” he uttered under his breath.

She pretended she hadn’t heard him and rifled through her bag to get her phone out. Her hand stilled when she noticed her muddy clothes from the day before were clean and folded neatly inside. She snapped her head to him. “You had my clothes washed?” she asked shocked.

Chase shrugged and answered without taking his eyes off the road. “I had them added to the laundry pile at the hotel. No big deal.”

Alana didn’t know what to feel first. Embarrassment that he went through her clothes? Her delicates? Or gratefulness that he had been so thoughtful?

“I didn’t touch them, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he added, turning his head to her. “I know that’s taboo here.”

Alana tried to restrain her smile and nodded.
Incredibly thoughtful
. “Thank you.”

Chase pulled up near the marina and parked in the same spot as the day before. They stepped onto the walkway and strolled along the boardwalk. They didn’t have to walk far, the ice cream parlor only a few doors away. Its neon sign with
Hibiscus Ice
scrawled boldly in the front flashed pink and green to attract customers. Some tourists in surf attire mingled at the entrance, their accents hinting to Alana that they came from Australia. They entered and were instantly blasted with the shop’s cool air conditioning. Tropical fruit flavors in a rainbow of colors greeted them from behind the glass freezer, a staff member behind at the counter with an ice cream scoop at the ready.

“Every flavor in this place is home made from tropical fruits—papaya, coconut, pineapple, banana, guava,” Alana informed Chase. “Nothing is imported. The owners are friends of my parents, and they wanted to start a business that uses local produce as a healthy alternative to the imported stuff.” She paused and pointed to one. “My favorite is the mango and passion fruit combo.”

“That sounds good. I’ll have the same,” he responded.

A friendly, booming voice came from behind them. “Alana! Long time no see! How are you?”

Alana smiled wide and turned around to face a fit and trim man well into his sixties. Dressed in a loud
elei
print shirt, he walked over to them.

“It’s good to see you too, Uncle Toa,” she said.

After she introduced him to Chase, Toa turned to the staff member behind the counter. “Whatever these two want, it’s on the house,” he ordered before turning to Alana and waving his finger. “No arguments.”

Alana opened her mouth to protest but he gave her a look that shut it right up again. “Thanks, Uncle.” She smiled coyly.

“You know what that means, right?” Chase asked as they strolled along the seawall, cones in hand.

“What?”

He grinned. “You still owe me dessert.”

They stopped and sat facing the harbor, water lapping on the black rocks below them, the lights from the town starting to shimmer in the bay. The ice cream melted fast in the heat, and they sat in silence trying to keep the drips to a minimum. The peaceful calm that settled between them was comfortable, and Alana realized she enjoyed it. She savored his company and didn’t want their time together to come to an end.

“Remember yesterday at the waterfall when you asked me what I want to achieve?” she asked tentatively. Chase nodded, looking pensively out at the bay. “I wasn’t being entirely honest with you…well, what I mean is I didn’t tell you my top personal goal. It was hard for me to open up because it’s a little embarrassing to talk about myself like that. I guess I also didn’t trust you before.”

“And you trust me now?” he asked, turning his head so he was facing her.

“Yes. I do.” The honest admittance slipped easily from her mouth.

She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly as she started. “For the longest time, I’ve wanted to become the kind of person that will leave an imprint in someone’s life.” She bit her lip and rushed on. “I know that probably sounds so self-righteous or egotistical—” She stopped short when he gave her a look that told her to stop berating herself. Giving him a small smile, she continued. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to be the type of person that hurts another, consciously or unconsciously. But it’s hard. Really hard. I know I’ve hurt others through my pain, but I don’t want to be that person.”

She paused when she thought about her brother and the hurtful things she said to him at the police station. “I want to strive to be someone that can make a difference in someone’s life. It’s the reason why I went into nursing. It’s all part of a plan that I want to execute but fear I won’t be able to achieve. But I don’t want to just say the words; I want to act on them too. It’s not enough for me to just simply have that diploma in my hands. I want to live it, breath it. But since my father’s death, I’ve been scared that I’ve lost that feeling—the reason why I wanted to become a nurse in the first place. When I see what we’re capable of doing, of hurting, killing, backstabbing, abusing—it’s all just a monumental disappointment to me, and I can’t help but get hurt and upset by it all. I don’t like being so angry, and I know that no one is perfect, that no one has the perfect life and that everyone has a sob story. Heck, I know I’m not perfect. God knows I have my faults, my flaws.”

She swallowed and looked down at her hands which were knotting her skirt. “I just keep asking myself, what is the point of this life otherwise? We were put on this planet with other people. What’s the point of it all if not to help one another out? We go our whole lives wishing for something we can’t have, for things that are out of our reach…but this, this is within our reach. It's a choice, one that can easily be made.”

She stopped and looked out at the lapping water. “I choose this. This life. This purpose. But I’m also scared that what gets thrown my way will only dishearten me. I’m trying so hard to be strong for my family, but after everything we've been put through with my father’s death, it’s so hard. Sometimes I don’t know how to go about it. I’ve craved for some kind of control of my own but that control got out of hand, and it’s just hurt me and the people around me.”

When she looked at him, Chase was watching her. He seemed to measure her in silence, and the silence made her uncomfortable. Anxious nervousness invaded her stomach and she laughed a little to ease it.

“Well, as soon as I sent
those
words out into the universe, it definitely became egotistical. Now when I help someone, you’re probably going to think that I’m expecting some kind of recognition or something, that I’m checking off a mental tick box. Check! Helped the old lady board the bus. Check! Gave a lift to some school kids up the hill. Check! Stopped a bank robber from escaping.” She paused. “Okay, that last one was dumb.”

Chase’s mouth curved into a smile as he shook his head. “I wasn’t thinking that at all.” She raised her eyebrows in question. “I was thinking that this world needs more people like you, Alana. People that think like you, who want to try to live like you,” he said, and something in her heart moved. “I can see that what you’re saying comes from a pure place—that there’s no trace of ego.”

Alana’s face flushed with shyness, and she held up her palm. “Okay, stop, before this really goes to my head,” she said, a small smile stirring on her lips.

Chase chuckled and reached out, squeezing her hand. “What you’ve just shared—it’s one way to fight the villains, Alana.”

Chapter 18

I
t rained heavily, the kind where rolling grey clouds accompanied splatters that pummeled hard against the iron roofing. Alana had always loved rain showers in Samoa. The sound of thrashing rain muted the noises inside the house and consequently created a cozy atmosphere within. It meant the television had to be switched off because you couldn’t hear it anyway. Rain like this usually precipitated a power outage which meant candles and lamp light. She remembered feeling surprised on a trip to Maine when it rained and she couldn’t hear it beating down on the roof. She was nine and her grandfather told her it was because they had insulated roofing which made it practically sound proof. On days like this, she loved nothing more than to curl in bed under a sheet and read a novel until she drifted off to sleep. But sleep was a long way off on this particular day.

“I can’t believe it’s pouring!” her sister exclaimed as wind picked up and carried moisture inside the reception hall.