“Then get on a plane and come to us.”
“Don’t think I won’t,” she warned, her frowning leaving her face. I could tell she enjoyed arguing with Cade, even though it was tearing her up that we were leaving.
“I dare you,” he replied, then cupped her face and dropped a kiss on her lips. “I love you, Ma.”
“Aloha nui loa.”
We walked inside to utter chaos.
“Mom, I can’t find my bathing suit,” Elena called from somewhere in the middle of the large pile of clothes in the center of the room.
“Did you check the bathroom?” I asked.
“No.”
“Well, go check,” I replied, then looked at Cade and said, “Guess I’d better help the kids pack.”
“I’ll make sure we’ve got everything out of my room,” he said, then disappeared. Quickly.
I looked at the large mound of clothes and wished I could also disappear. Instead, I sighed and started sorting and folding.
We’d thrown everything into the wash this morning, then transferred it to the dryer, thinking it would be easier to pack once it was clean. Somehow, though, it seemed like we’d doubled what we’d arrived with.
“Lena,” I called out.
“Yeah?”
“See if Alani or Tutu have a bag we could borrow for the trip home. I don’t think we have room for everything.”
“Okay,” she called back.
“Do you think I can take this on the plane?” Elin asked, holding up a snow globe he’d gotten at the aquarium.
“I think so, there’s not too much liquid in it. Just wrap it up in a shirt or something, to protect it so it doesn’t break.”
“What about this?” he asked.
I looked up from the shirt I was folding and almost swallowed my tongue.
He was holding a purple dildo.
“Where did you get that?” I choked out, because it sure as hell wasn’t mine. I hadn’t exactly travelled with a dildo.
Elin shrugged. “I think Lena got it out of the drawers when she was emptying them out.”
Oh God!
I grabbed a hand towel out of the laundry and took the purple people pleaser out of his hand, wondering if he knew what was, and praying he wouldn’t ask me any questions about it right then.
“Uh, Alani,” I said quietly as I stepped into her room after making sure the coast was clear. “Is this yours, the kids found it.”
“Ew, no,” she replied, her face wrinkling in disgust.
I turned to walk back into the hallway, then stopped when Cade’s mom started coming down the hall. I didn’t have enough time to hide the dildo behind my back, so I just stood there like an idiot in the doorway, holding it out in front of me.
“Oh, that’s mine,” Cade’s mom said, plucking it from my hand as she kept walking down the hall.
“Gross,” Alani said, throwing herself face first onto her bed with a groan.