The Aloha Quilt (41 page)

When they were gone, Bonnie’s legs gave way and she sank to the floor, trembling.

Soon after Eric and Claire drove away with Craig, the police arrived at the inn. After
Bonnie and Midori gave them a full
report, the officers advised Bonnie of her legal options. Bonnie thought that since
Craig had decided to go away on his own, it would be best to let him. As a precaution,
one of the officers called dispatch and arranged for security to meet him at the airport
and make sure he boarded the plane.

The police were gone by the time Eric and Claire returned from the airport. Claire
and Bonnie embraced, and Bonnie breathlessly thanked her again and again. “If you
hadn’t been here—”

“You would have managed fine on your own. But I
was
here, and so were Midori and many of our guests. Craig wouldn’t have done anything
stupid in front of all those people.”

Bonnie was less certain of that. “How did you know what to say to him?”

“He’s hardly unique.” Claire waved a hand dismissively. “They all think their illicit
affairs are unique in the universe, so special, so rare, and yet they’re all the same.
All sordid and all false. I should have known he would come here, but you said he
was too cheap to pay the airfare.”

“Maybe he used frequent flyer miles,” suggested Midori, and the friends’ disproportionate
laughter was a release of tension that soon gave way to the sober realization that
they had been lucky. Bonnie had been left with rattled emotions and bruised arms,
but the afternoon could have taken a far more tragic turn.

At Eric’s urging, Bonnie contacted Darren Taylor and told him all that had happened.
Darren took down Craig’s flight information and promised to arrange for another police
escort to meet him upon his arrival in Pennsylvania. He also urged Bonnie to obtain
a protection from abuse order from the county. When Bonnie hesitated, worried that
more legal action might provoke another violent outburst, Claire and Eric persuaded
her that it was a necessary precaution. Craig had left Maui and Bonnie would be safe
at the Hale Kapa Kuiki for the rest of her visit, but Bonnie needed to think ahead
to the days and weeks and months that would follow her return to Pennsylvania. Craig
was not entirely unreasonable, as his willingness to leave Maui indicated, but a deterrent
against future contact was appropriate and warranted.

So Bonnie agreed, knowing that she would feel safer returning to the Elm Creek Valley
knowing that Craig had been officially warned to keep his distance.

For she would return soon.

That evening, when she told Hinano about Craig’s unexpected appearance, he was as
wary as Darren had been that Craig’s rage was not completely spent and that he might
cause trouble for her upon her return to Pennsylvania. He was also unfairly upset
with himself that he had not been there to help her.

Touched, Bonnie nonetheless teased, “That would have been an entertaining sight for
Claire’s guests—my new boyfriend slugging it out with my ex-husband on the front lanai.”

“I wouldn’t have slugged him unless absolutely necessary,” said Hinano, and then added,
“Is that what I am, your new boyfriend?”

“You’re certainly not my old boyfriend,” she said lightly. “I don’t know, Hinano.
It’s been so long since I’ve dated that I have no idea what to call you.”

“You’re my lovely snowbird,” said Hinano, embracing her, but his smile was sad. “I
only wish you weren’t flying back to the mainland so soon. I wonder when you’ll fly
back.”

Bonnie wondered, too.

In the days that followed, Bonnie and Claire returned to the task Craig had so brutally
interrupted. They studied each camper’s evaluation, mulled over which changes were
immediately necessary and what could be postponed until later seasons, and devised
a plan for fine-tuning their program in time for the official launch of Aloha Quilt
Camp, now only days away.

“I wish I could be here to see it,” said Bonnie wistfully. “If only to mark that historic
first day. If only to experience one more Ho ‘
ā
Ahi ceremony on the beach.”

“You could change your ticket,” Claire suggested, as she had done several times before.
She didn’t wait for the answer Bonnie invariably offered, that she would love to stay
but she was expected back at Elm Creek Quilt Camp and couldn’t delay any longer. “I’m
glad you stuck around this long. After everything that happened…”

“You had to have known that I wouldn’t have left you without finishing the job.”

“I know,” said Claire. “Unlike some of us, you stand by your commitments.”

“Don’t say that,” said Bonnie. “You’ve had your commitments tested in ways I can only
imagine. You could have given up and started over somewhere else, but you held your
head high, stuck it out, and saved your marriage. You deserve my admiration, not all
this unfair judgment and condemnation I’ve been slinging at you ever since you told
me the truth. And after the way you stood up for me to Craig—All I can think of is
that I’ve let you down and I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want your admiration, just your friendship.”

“You have it.” Bonnie embraced her, tears in her eyes. “You always will.”

“I know.”

“It’s so hard to leave the Hale Kapa Kuiki now,” Bonnie confessed. “I can’t bear to
leave without seeing how everything turns out. I know you’re going to be a huge success,
but I feel like I’m walking out of an exciting movie after the first few scenes.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” said Claire. “Maybe you’re only heading to the lobby
for intermission.”

Slowly Bonnie smiled, her heart lifting. “What did you have in mind?”

On Bonnie’s last day, Eric and Claire offered to take her to the airport, but Bonnie
explained that Hinano had asked to see her off. With tearful hugs and promises to
be in touch soon, Bonnie bade Claire, Midori, and Eric good-bye, took one last, long
look around the Hale Kapa Kuiki, and met Hinano outside. They loaded her bags into
the trunk of his old blue car and headed east across the beautiful island of Maui.

She would miss the endless blue ocean, the lush green mountains, the soft caress of
gentle breezes. She would miss her morning walks along Front Street on the ocean,
watching glorious sunsets from her lanai, and sleeping beneath the turquoise and white
Breadfruit quilt Midori had made.

She would miss the new friends she had made, and the old friends she had almost lost.

She would miss Hinano.

She wanted to take his hand, but he needed it free to change gears. She rested her
head on his shoulder instead, thinking that if she were in the way, he would ask her
to move.

He didn’t.

He cleared his throat a few times as they left Lahaina behind, as if he wanted to
speak but couldn’t find the words.
Bonnie knew exactly how he felt. Eventually they fell into conversation, obscuring
the painful subject of their separation with a light flurry of questions about Kai’s
plans for spring break, whether Bonnie had remembered to pack everything, how well
she might sleep on the red-eye flight, Hinano’s next upcoming gig with his band.

All the while Bonnie wished he would ask her to come back soon. She had an answer
ready on her lips, but unless he asked, she would say nothing. He had made her no
promises, no commitments. All along he had assumed that she would be leaving, and
perhaps that’s what he secretly wanted. Thousands of miles would separate them for
a very long time and she could not expect him to wait for her. He might not even remember
her by the time she returned to Maui. Perhaps to him she had been nothing more than
a diversion, a light romance to pass the winter, easily forgotten with the coming
of spring. He meant more to her than that, so much more, but her heart had been broken
before. If he wanted a future with her, any sort of future, he would have to let her
know without any prompting from her.

They reached the Kahului Airport. Hinano parked the car and helped her inside with
her luggage. Before long she stood at the security checkpoint and he could accompany
her no farther.

She hardly knew how to say good-bye.

They embraced. She blinked back tears and tried to smile.

“Bonnie,” Hinano said, holding her at arm’s length, searching her face as if memorizing
every feature. “You’re going to laugh, and you’re going to say no. But I have to ask.”

“What?” Bonnie could scarcely breathe. “Ask me what?”

“Don’t go.” He smiled helplessly as he said it, knowing what he asked was impossible.
“Stay here in Maui. I think I’m falling
in love with you and I’d like you to stick around long enough for me to figure it
out.”

His words were so unexpected and yet exactly what she needed to hear. She burst out
laughing, and after regarding her in puzzlement for a moment, Hinano grinned.

“So you did laugh,” he said. “Now do we come to the part where you say no?”

“I have to say no,” she told him as gently as she could, quickly adding, “but I’m
coming back.”

He forced a pained smile and nodded, pulling away.

“No, you don’t understand,” she hastened to add. “I’m not talking about coming back
on some future vacation that might never happen. I’m coming back at the beginning
of September.”

He hesitated as if waiting for the punch line. “September of this year?”

“Yes, September of this year and every year after that.” Bonnie threw her arms around
him, bright with happiness. “As the new part-owner of the Hale Kapa Kuiki Inn, I’ll
be coming back every winter to help run quilt camp and look after my investment.”

“New part-owner?”

Bonnie nodded. “Claire offered me a partnership months ago. I was considering it until
we had our falling out. But now I see that Claire is a true friend to me and has always
been, and I couldn’t bear not to be a part of Aloha Quilt Camp after all the work
I’ve put in to it. When Claire assured me the offer was still on the table, I took
it. We signed the paperwork two days ago.”

“Congratulations, snowbird!” Hinano swept her up in a hug. “Any chance the thought
of how much you’d miss your favorite ukulele player influenced your decision?”

“It influenced me a lot,” said Bonnie. “I think… I think I need to figure out if I’m
falling in love with him too, and I can’t do that from thousands of miles away.”

“We’ll have to, for the next few months.”

She forced a smile to keep tears at bay. “I know. But I’ll be back at the end of the
summer and then we’ll have all the time we need.”

He nodded, but she could tell that he was thinking that the beautiful Hawaiian summer
would pass too slowly to suit him. “I have a present for you,” he said, reaching into
his back pocket. “Something to keep you busy so you aren’t pining away for me. Something
so you won’t forget me.”

“I could never forget you,” Bonnie said, but she fell silent at the sight of the small
triangle of paper Hinano was carefully unfolding before her. She knew at once that
it was a pattern for a Hawaiian quilt, and as she took in the cascade of arcs and
graceful curves he had drawn, she saw a small bird alighting upon a bird of paradise
stem surrounded by a full
lei
of bird of paradise flowers so lifelike and graceful that they appeared tossed by
a garden breeze.