McDonald_TWT_GENVers_Feb2014 (16 page)

Halia reached over and covered her great-grandmother’s hand. “I don’t mind helping if you feel it’s that important. After what you’ve told me, I want to meet her anyway. What do you want me to do?”

“Take the picture and show Sabine the past. I think it will help her see things more clearly. She is a sharp woman,” Pekala said. “I wish I could go with you.”

“We could take the van. Denise could drive us,” Halia offered.

Pekala shook her head and leaned back on her pillow. “Too tired today,
ku`uipo
. I’m glad you’re here though. It is an important thing to help keep the sunshine in our family. Seattle can be a very dreary place.”

Halia leaned over and kissed the cheek of the wisest woman she had ever met. “Sleep,
Kupunawahine
. I will go do what you ask. I just hope she’s as nice as you say she is.”

***

“What is this? A PR invention?” Sabine asked.

“Call it anything you like,” Anthony said. “But the fact is that you need to do some image repair on yourself. You won’t let Blanche help. You won’t let me help. I don’t like seeing you depressed like this. You just got over that jerk you married.”

“Oh . . . so you did notice my divorce. You never said anything.”

Sabine tapped her pen on the stack of papers while she listened to Anthony’s lecture.

“It seemed a little insensitive to congratulate you on your divorce. Dating Todd Lake on the other hand infused some life back into you and had you humming. So yes, this is a PR intervention because I want to hear you humming again. A happy worker is a productive worker,” Anthony declared.

Sabine snorted at the platitude and gave him her best disbelieving glare. He’d earned it. “And this has nothing to do with the fact that you just happen to like Todd Lake.”

“I don’t need your association with the man to make friends with him. He’s called every day checking on you. And I waited until today to confront you about your silence with him,” Anthony said.

“I’m your employee, Anthony. You don’t get to have an opinion about my boyfriends, whether they call you to spy on me or not. This is not high school, even if you agree with the rest of Seattle that I’m the pudgy band geek dating the physically fit quarterback,” Sabine said tersely.

“So Todd Lake
is
your boyfriend,” Anthony declared, brightening to hear her finally admit it.

Sabine shook her head, dismayed that he’d gotten her to say anything at all. “I don’t know what he is, but you wouldn’t be the first person I told.”

“Do you know why I haven’t offered you a partner position yet?” Anthony asked.

Sabine glared openly, not bothering to soften it. “Because I didn’t have a high profile man in my life that you might extort for charity until now?”

Anthony laughed. “No. Because you lack self-confidence, Sabine. Your insecurities hold you back. I doubt you even realize that you get intimated by every beautiful client that comes along. For all her aggressive traits, Blanche never lets anyone intimidate her, not even you. And you could give lessons in witty comebacks. But you need to step up and own your power to change anything you see that needs changing. That’s what we have to convince every client we can do. This situation is your opportunity to react differently than you ever have before.”

Sabine sighed and nodded. “Okay. My insecurities could be holding me back. I guess those comments are fair. I wish you had saved the lecture for my yearly performance evaluation, but what the hell. The week can’t get much worse.”

“My comments were not a judgment on your personal life. And your reaction to what I said is exactly what I’m talking about,” Anthony exclaimed.

A knock on her open doorway had Sabine’s gaze lifting. Blanche stood there with a young, dark-haired girl.

“Sabine, you have a visitor—a Ms. Halia Whitman. She says you were expecting her.”

Blanche towered over the girl by a foot in her four-inch heels. Sabine hadn’t been expecting her, but she did know who she was.

“Yes. I forgot to have Jan put it on the group calendar. Anthony, I’m sorry. I really need to talk to Ms. Whitman about something,” Sabine said, using her most professional voice.

“Of course—we’ll finish our talk later.”

Anthony gave her a look that said this was just a reprieve. Ignoring him, Sabine shut the door on both him and Blanche.

The girl had already entered her office before she could issue an invitation. By the time she turned back, the girl was sitting in the chair Anthony had just vacated. Obviously, she had inherited Koka’s directness.

“Hello,” Sabine said, walking back around to her desk chair. “You must be Koka’s daughter. Your father told me you were beautiful, but I think for once his poetic descriptions fell short.”

“
Mahalo
,” Halia said. “My dad’s college degree was in Comparative Literature. He intended to be a poet, but said he couldn’t support raising a child on it. Cooking was his hobby at the time. He went to culinary school and came out a chef. But he loves the work. Now I can’t imagine him doing anything else.”

“He still has the soul of a poet. Sometimes the things he says are so beautiful they make me cry. Please don’t tell him I confessed that. He’s so arrogant now I can barely talk honestly to him,” Sabine said. “So did you just come here to meet me? Or did Pekala send you to check on me after the newscast Sunday evening?”

Halia smiled. “
Kupunawahine
said you were a sharp woman.”

Sabine laughed. “Pekala is the sharp woman. I’m just treading water and trying to keep my head up where there’s air. Some days that isn’t so easy a task.”

“I noticed your co-workers call him Todd Lake, but yet you know his real name,” Halia said.

Sabine shrugged. “I’m used to looking after the true identities of clients. Sometimes, especially with celebrities, it’s easier to keep your private life private if you have a different name.”

“Koka means Todd in Hawaiian,” Halia explained.

“Oh, I know,” Sabine said, smiling in recall about how she found out. “When your father told me that, I thought he was joking at first.”

“The network didn’t think his Hawaiian name would be easy to pronounce or remember. So they gave him
Todd Lake
to use. I don’t know why they chose Lake though. He didn’t argue. Pekala was just starting to get sick then. The job allowed him to provide for her,” Halia said.

Sabine nodded as she smiled. “Your father is a very, very good man, especially when it comes to taking care of his family.”

Halia smiled, but shrugged. “He is also quite bossy and inflexible about certain things. Plus he is terribly messy about his clothes. I don’t know how he ever finds anything in his room.”

Sabine laughed at the youthful echo of her own disgust. “Is that your clever-tongued Whitman way of asking me if I’ve seen the inside of your father’s room?”

“No. Pekala already told me you cooked breakfast for her Saturday morning. I assumed this meant you slept with him,” Halia said.

Sabine sighed and ran a hand over her face. “Okay. I slept with your father. Since I have daughters your age, I’m also used to personal questions. So tell me . . . why are you here?”

“I came to meet you and because Pekala asked me to share something with you,” Halia said.

Sabine smiled. “Tell her I’ll be fine, so long as being seen with me doesn’t tank the ratings for your father’s show.”

Halia frowned. “So your concern is for him?”

Sabine nodded. “I met your father less than a month ago. I’m still pinching myself that we’re dating. And yes—I often wonder if he’s going to wake up one day and want one of those other women back.”

“He won’t,” Halia said with confidence. She removed the photo gently from the envelope where it was stored in her purse. “My father looks at women differently than you would think. Now I know why Pekala sent me with the photo of him and my mother.”

Mentally rolling her eyes at Halia’s pronouncement, Sabine took the photo she was handed. She stared at it in complete disbelief, then raised it closer to her face. “This is Koka?”

Halia nodded. “Yes. He and my mother were both grossly overweight when I was born. When I was three or four, my father decided his weight was setting a bad example for me. So he found someone to help him lose the weight. You know the rest. It is all hard work. When I start to gain a few pounds, I watch his cooking show. When I see him, his appearance reminds me that food is for sustenance. If I’m lonely, I go do something with friends instead of eating.”

“The change is absolutely amazing. Koka must have lost more than a hundred pounds,” Sabine said.

“Closer to two hundred I think,” Halia said. “It took a long time. He didn’t get to his current weight until just before he and Pekala moved to Seattle. My mother eventually lost some of her weight too, but she is not obsessive about it like Dad is. My stepfather loves her anyway. He was never overweight. My mother found two great men.”

Sabine looked at the picture. “Koka looks so young, but also very happy in this picture. I think he must have loved your mother very much.”

Halia nodded. “Pekala has told me the story of their love all my life, but my mother was unable to love him back. It had nothing to do with her or his weight. She just loved my stepfather more than my actual father. Dad has burned all the old photos of himself except the ones Pekala hides. She says the past makes us appreciative. I think she also saves them for me.”

“With what your father has accomplished, I can see why he wouldn’t want to see any reminders of the past. He’s incredibly attractive now, however he got that way,” Sabine said.

“My great-grandmother says Dad still sees this man in the mirror. That’s why he’s like he is—I think she means the arrogant, sullen, moody stuff,” Halia said.

Sabine nodded. “But when he smiles, he transforms. And when he does his show, he is amazingly confident. You immediately feel at ease with what he says. Not to mention the fact that he’s an exceptional cook. I’m sure his restaurant will do great when he opens it.”

“The restaurant—that’s his big dream,” Halia said. “What is your dream?”

Sabine laughed. “What is my dream?” She shook her head as she thought. “I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I had a dream. But one thing I do know is that your father is one of the best men that ever walked the earth. For all his male posturing, Koka always seems to know just the exact right thing to say when I need to hear it. Plus, you can forgive a lot, even a messy room, when a man has the ability to make you laugh all the time.”

Sabine handed the photo back to Halia. “Thank you for sharing the story of your parents with me. I agree with Pekala. The past makes us appreciative.”

“So do you believe he loves you now?
Kupunawahine
said you had doubts when he told you,” Halia said.

“Well, if I do, that’s really between me and your father to work out,” Sabine said.

She admired the girl’s nerve for coming to see her, but wasn’t willing to let Koka’s daughter push her into completely admitting her feelings. “I understand the message Pekala is sending me with the picture. I understand now that Koka probably doesn’t judge me as much as I’m judging myself.”

“So will you at least continue to date my father then?”

“What if I say no?” Sabine asked. She chuckled at the thought of any Whitman she’d met actually taking no for an answer.

“
Kupunawahine
will be gravely disappointed that Dad has chased away his sunshine,” Halia said dramatically, wishing her great-grandmother could hear the Hawaiian in her voice. “Dad and I will have to listen to her lecturing about you until she has taken her last breath. You would be saving us all if you could at least pretend that you like him until she returns to the goddess. She is old. It shouldn’t be too many years from now.”

Sabine laughed loudly and long. “Okay. You’ve worn me down. I’ll continue to date your father if you’ll tell me the real reason the man collects so many damn skillets.”

“I honestly don’t know. I think he’s just weird about them. Don’t tell me—Dad made you go the mall so he could buy another one,” Halia said with sudden understanding. “Well, better you than me. I was hoping to stay home this break and just eat his cooking for two or three days. Maybe his trip with you has saved me the trouble of going. Better yet, maybe he’ll be afraid to go again because you made the news.”

“I’m not going again either. Indulging his skillet habit has already cost me several ounces of public humiliation,” Sabine said, being agreeable.

“Well, at least you didn’t say it cost you ‘pounds’. That’s the kind of joke my father would make about what the news implied about you,” Halia declared.

Sabine’s laughter rang out through the office. “Yes—he would make that kind of joke, especially if he thought it would embarrass me.”

“Thank you for seeing me, Sabine. Are you going to lie to your work friends about why I came to see you?”

“Yes. But only until I decide what to do about your father,” Sabine said. “Give Pekala a hug for me. Tell her I’m going to be fine.”

After Pekala had echoed the same sentiment as Joe about leaving Sabine alone, Koka had given her a week to ignore his phone calls. They still hadn’t talked about the newscast, but his greatest disappointment was that Halia had gone back to school without even getting to meet Sabine.

He pulled his attention back to Edwina as they planned the next week of shows.

“Have you even looked at her book yet?” Edwina asked. “If we do this, you’re going to have to talk to her about it, at least a little bit. It’s not a novel so you can probably skim and pick up enough.”

Brooding over keeping his promise to Edwina, Koka accepted the book she handed him. “
Sandwiches Don’t Hug Back,
” he read. “Strange title.”

“Not strange—catchy. It’s about the emotional relationship many people have to food. The author offers lots of advice for eating healthy, but also some pointers on how to stop using food to fill emotional needs,” Edwina said. “I thought you could fix some vegetarian dishes that were low-fat and healthy.”

Koka nodded in reply to Edwina’s food suggestion, as he flipped the book over and looked at the back cover. “No one overweight will believe her. She’s too skinny. What could she possibly know about the struggle of losing weight?”