Daniel leaned forward and sipped his tea. “Uncle Koji was devoted to her all those years?”

“From the beginning,” Auntie Nori said. “Even after she married your father, he stayed loyal to her.”

“I can’t imagine our life without him.”

Nori smiled in thought. “When we were young, Koji was always the one we turned to when there was trouble.”

“Trouble?” Daniel asked, and smiled. “What kind of trouble would you and the Hilo Aunties get into? You were always keeping the three of us out of trouble,” he said, thinking of Wilson and Mano.

“We were young once too,” Nori said, pausing in thought. “But those are other stories for other times, yeah.” She poured more tea and continued, “I know that after your father returned, it was hard on your mother and Koji. It took time for Koji to get over the insecurities Franklin brought back in him. He was always afraid Franklin would return and take your mother away again. But something did change in your mother after your father returned. She realized how important Koji was to her. When she saw him hurt, the thought of losing him, yeah, hit home.” Auntie Nori paused to sip her tea. “Your mother never said much about your father afterward; she seemed relieved that she never saw him when he returned. “For the best” was all she told me, but I know he was still in her thoughts. Seeing him would only have been more difficult. She loved your father but she didn’t always like him. Takes the two to make a good marriage, yeah,” Auntie Nori said.

Daniel watched her gaze move to the yellowed photo of the Hilo Aunties on the bulletin board, so young and happy together.

“Franklin never should have married,” Auntie Nori continued, “not to say that he didn’t love your mother as much as he could love anyone, yeah. He was taken with her from the moment he saw her on Onekahakaha Beach. Trouble was, Koji felt the same—you could just see it in his eyes, a longing, yeah. Both of those boys loved her, but Franklin claimed her from the start.” Nori paused. “In the beginning, we were all taken by your father, such a good-looking boy, a real smooth talker, until he began disappearing, only to return with one excuse after another. ‘Got caught up, yeah,’ he’d always say.”

Daniel ran his fingers through his hair. “How did he get caught up?”