“You’ll be proud of me for this, too, but yesterday I boxed up my entire room and even gave away a lot of it to the church for the summer yard sale.” Maria rattled on about how it felt good to begin cleaning out the clutter; then she moved on to the kids changing schools and other details, but what Quinn noticed most of all was that Maria seemed to be taking everything in stride now.

“I’d better run, Maria,” Quinn said. “I need to get to the airport to pick up my friend who is coming for a short visit. I want to make sure I leave early enough in case there’s a traffic jam.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Is it your fiancé?”

Quinn felt a stab in her gut. “No, it’s my best friend from many years back.”

“That’ll be nice,” Maria said. “And you’re right, one fender bender can put you back an hour or more. Be careful.”

She waved and returned to the house. Quinn saw Kupuna standing in the doorway, and as she climbed into the car, she wondered what he thought about moving to the other side of the island. So far he hadn’t mentioned much about having to leave his home, but he did give advice on the various projects that were going on. He said the house had needed a makeover for years. Quinn wondered how he knew, considering he couldn’t see it, but obviously he knew every inch of it.

Yes, the house was finally coming together, and since the countertops were still held up somewhere, the plan was to tackle the floors next.

All the changes were going to look amazing.

At least one thing was going right.

Traffic wasn’t too bad, and the drive gave Quinn a lot of time to think about her current state of affairs. She was so lost in thought, automatically following the GPS directions, that she was surprised when she arrived effortlessly. She found short-term parking, pulled in, and shut off the car.

She checked herself in the mirror, took a deep breath, and climbed out.

The sidewalks were busy, lined with cars and people checking luggage at the kiosks. The tourists were easy to pick out, as they looked confused navigating around in their flowered shirts or sundresses, the locals moving around them smoothly, wearing less ostentatious clothes and carrying plain travel bags.

Quinn went through the doors, and the atmosphere changed yet again. Inside, it was a mixture of vibes of elation from arriving passengers, happy and eager to have made it to Maui, and the disappointed and holiday-hungover people getting ready to make the sad trek back to reality.

As for herself, she was stuck between excitement to see Maggie and anxiety that their friendship wouldn’t feel the same. That the easy and effortless vibe they’d always had would be gone, making the next few days even more stressful.