“Listen, Liam. I need your help,” she said.

“I was already going to offer my help,” he replied. “Remember the elderly woman you met Tuesday night? Mrs. Wang? She’s somewhat of a family tree hobbyist, and I think she could give you some pointers on the best way to trace your family.”

“Oh,” Quinn said. She had been thinking of the woman just that day when she’d analyzed her DNA report again. Surprisingly, Quinn’s ethnicity report showed she was 41 percent East Asian. A mind-blowing discovery, to say the least. Though she wasn’t exactly sure what it meant. “That’s something to consider. But what I wanted your help with is finding Jaime.”

He looked taken aback before he let out a long whoosh of air, grimacing enough to tell her what he thought about that idea.

“Before you say no, just listen,” Quinn said. “Maria misses him. And she said he’s a good man. What if he didn’t want to leave? Maybe something could be done to reunite them. They have a lot of years invested to just throw it away, without even an explanation. She at least deserves that, don’t you think?”

He looked at her, his expression sad.

“It’s not that I don’t want to help. I’d do anything to bring them back together. Not only for Maria but for the kids. Alani cries all the time missing him, and Pali won’t talk about him, but I can see it’s eating him alive. He needs his dad. But treading into a man’s business—especially since he’s my cousin—that’s just not what we do here.”

“I thought the people of Hawaii were all ‘Ohana, family first’?”

“We are. If our family wants to remain family. But if they take themselves out of the circle, then we wait for them to come back. On their own.”

“Then I’ll do it,” she said. “Just tell me what kind of car he drives.”

She planned to sneak out a family photo and copy it; then she’d go around Maui and look for his car, show his picture, and just poke around to see if she could find any leads.

“Oh, no, I’m not letting you get yourself into trouble,” he said. “If you insist on sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, I’d better be there to make sure it doesn’t get cut off. I’ll give you one afternoon to search, but only if you promise not to go back out and do it alone.”

Quinn smiled into her arms. She’d take that. They could find out a lot in an afternoon if they were smart about it.

He stood and held a hand down to help her up.