A Place to Call Home | 14

Noelani can hardly contain her excitement. Not only is she about to have a play date with her new friend, Malia, but it also coincides with her first ever visit to the beach. As soon as she's out of the bathtub and her mom wrangles her into her clothes, she's ready to go.

At Ohan'ali Beach, Noelani and Malia shyly reintroduce themselves to one another while the adults observe, oohing and aahing amongst themselves at the adorableness of their exchange.

The toddlers quickly wobble to the shore's edge to begin building a sandcastle together.

Meanwhile, their parents and grandparents, being sure to keep one eye on the girls at all times, of course, enjoy some beachy relaxation of their own. Gaby and Alvin feel like they haven't had a chance to truly relax since their tourist days. It's nice to be reminded that they're still capable of it, even if their day-to-day obligations never truly vanish from their minds.

It turns out that Noelani and Malia are more interested in throwing handfuls of sand at each other than building a castle. They manage only to end up with a small misshapen lump, but it is their first attempt. They've got plenty of time to master the art of sand sculpture in the years to come. In the end, Gaby and Alvin return to help shape their sand pile into a sea turtle.

Finally, the girls encounter the warm and salty ocean water. As Alvin predicted, Noelani is a natural, immediately adapting to her abundantly wet surroundings. Malia, on the other hand, despite her grandfather's encouragement, only dips a few toes in before waddling back to his arms for comfort.

Malia may need some extra time to get used to this strange new liquid, but it's clear Noelani feels right at home. If anything, they're going to have a hell of a time getting her out of the water when it's time to leave.

Soon enough, both girls are playing together in the water like they've never known a world without it - though Malia hasn't yet seemed to grasp the concept that her bucket won't work to scoop up sand the same way it does on land.

As sunset approaches, Gaby has no choice but to delicately extract Noelani from the water herself, as the little girl shows no signs she'll be leaving it of her own free will any time soon. Both she and Malia can't wait to spend another fun-filled day at the beach together soon.

Unfortunately, a beach play date isn't on the schedule for the next day, and Noelani starts pouting as soon as she wakes up. Instead, she'll have to make due with spending the day in her Aunt Kaimana's care, as both of her parents have a long list of work obligations to attend to.

Kaimana is nervous about taking on babysitting duty - she doesn't have much experience caring for children - but Gaby assures her everything will be fine. "Sure, she's in a bit of a mood right now," she admits, brushing any concern aside with a wave of her hand, "but I'm sure she'll snap out of it soon! I promise, she's going to love you."

"Well, maybe love is putting it a little too strongly," she corrects herself when Noelani and Meli join forces to present a decidedly unimpressed opinion of Kaimana. "Perhaps like is a more realistic goal for today."

With that, Gaby leaves her daughter in Kaimana's less-than-confident hands. Immediately, the little girl starts babbling a list of half-comprehensible demands and Kaimana already feels like she's in way over her head (a new sensation for her, considering she's never before met water too deep for her to conquer).

At work, it's training day for several new recruits, and Gaby's glad for the extra hands. She's hoping that once they learn the ropes she can take a step back to focus only on her biggest passion projects and spend more time at home with her family.

Today, she's teaching them the system for logging their daily readings from the various tests that must be run on the ocean water. Of course, she can't help herself from doing most of the data collection and input on her own.

While she's at it, she takes the lead on spraying the waterfall area for invasive species that are endangering the health of its native frog population. She just isn't ready to hand over the reins quite yet, after all. She enjoys doing her job too much to pass her responsibilities off to others so easily.

Back home, as Gaby predicted, Kaimana eventually finds ways to keep Noelani entertained; chief among them is repeatedly shaking her up and down until she's on the verge of throwing up, an activity she inexplicably can't seem to get enough of.

Still, her moods swing drastically, and whenever Kaimana tries to get her to do something she perceives as boring, like sitting patiently in her highchair while waiting for her lunch, she erupts into tears that don't dry until the whole upside down routine starts over again.

Meanwhile, they're under strict orders not to disturb Alvin, who's hard at work retooling Simstagram's security protocols, which are hopelessly outdated and alarmingly weak. She does her best to distract Noelani from the exasperated groans and aggressive keyboard-smashing coming from his direction.

"So how did it go?" Gaby asks when she finally returns from work in the evening.

"Oh, everything went perfectly! I just tucked her into bed, and she fell asleep almost instantly!"

Gaby raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "Judging by the way you're squeezing the life out of that ball of clay, I'm going to guess you're lying... but I won't press you for the details. The important thing is you both made it through the day in one piece."

"No, truly, she's a delight... and I never want to be held accountable for her survival again."

Taking Kaimana's words to heart, the next time Gaby needs a babysitter, she drops Noelani off at Mele and Alika's beach house to spend the day playing with Malia. She's immediately swept off her feet by the sight of the massive doll treehouse on the back patio.

Inside, Gaby is equally impressed by the spread of food Mele has prepared in anticipation of their arrival. "I really wish I could stick around to enjoy some," she says, leaning in for an appreciative hug, "but I promised Alvin we'd spend the whole day together. It's been too long since we've had time alone."

"Of course!" Mele exclaims. "You've got to sneak those moments for yourself in whenever you can. I'll be sure to wrap up some leftovers for you to take home with you later."

They make their way back to the patio just in time to see the girls escaping for the beach while they think the adults have got their backs turned. "Are you sure you can handle both of these little rascals at once?" Gaby jokes.

"Oh, please," Mele responds, "this'll be a breeze. I may have only recently come out of retirement, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten everything I learned about being a mother."

Temporarily freed of the responsibilities of parenthood, Gaby and Alvin head to a seaside bar to enjoy an afternoon glass of wine or two, with a generous helping of flirtation on the side.

It doesn't take long for the alcohol to take possession of their bodies. Just as quickly, their romantic moves become too hot and heavy to be appropriate for such a public setting.

So they take their passion someplace a little more private - and briefly relive the glory of their wedding night.

As the sun goes down behind them, they feel as madly in love as they ever have. They met under such uncertain circumstances that it was impossible then to predict if their feelings would endure. Now, their lives are undeniably more settled, but they're still finding ways to keep things exciting. As time goes on, they only appreciate one another's company more.

And as time goes on, their daughter just keeps growing and growing. Any day now, she's sure to shoot up into a child they barely recognize. But they can hardly wait to meet her.