Lilo & Stitch

ʻOhana Mākou

"A little to the left," I grunted, heaving the giant board above my shoulder. JJ scooted it towards me, and I nearly toppled off the stepladder. "Jesus shit, Jay I said left!"

"Y/n I'm dyslexic, you know that!" he panicked, readjusting the driftwood with one hand and reaching out to stabilize my hip with his other. Finally, miraculously, we got the huge piece hung up on the wall and stepped back.

I looped my arm around his middle, leaning into his side while he draped one of his across my shoulders. "Hate to break it to you, Stinky, but that's not how dyslexia works."

"What? Totally is," he argued, then checked his watch. "We've got about fifteen until John B and Sarah are supposed to be here. Pope's on his way from the ferry. You heard from Kie?"

I nodded, eyeing out the window to the garden. "Yeah, she's gonna ride over with Sarah from Tannyhill. They had some event to plan, I think Kie's playing another show there and Sarah had to get some paperwork from the boutique."

While I pulled away and started quickly pinning pictures up onto the painted driftwood, JJ groaned. "Sarah's coming from Tannyhill? I thought she was with John B at the surf shop!"

"Maybe? Kie said she was coming from Tannyhill. And, you stayed home from work today to help me, how would you have seen if she was?"

"I don't know. Stop being so right all the time."

After thumbing the last tack into the board, I turned and laid my hands on his chest. "JJ Maybank, I'm your wife. That's my job."

Though he rolled his eyes, JJ wrapped me into a hug and nuzzled his face against my hair, taking a moment to calm himself from the busy day we'd had. "M'So glad you are, baby."

I held him like that for a few minutes, knowing he needed it. He'd taken off work at his surf shop with John B today to help me prepare for our housewarming party. Despite living in this house back on Kildare for a couple of months now, tonight was the first night we could plan all the pogues to come home and celebrate. Kiara had been on a music tour, Pope was still in school, and only JB and Sarah could help us get settled. Sarah and I's boutique that we started working on when I lived on the mainland was fully up and running, and I was helping her and John B run Tannyhill as a music venue and historic site, using the profits to help her brother and pay for his therapy. All four of us were now running businesses that left very little time to even unpack our house and fix it up until now.

The living room around us had only just been painted and the kitchen was half done. The garden was full of weeds because I'd been too busy helping Sarah with our boutique and her venue services at Tannyhill, along with occasionally helping the boys at the surf shop. Despite it all, this was home, and it was coming together beautifully.

"You see that?" I asked, cupping JJ's face and turning us both to look at the board.

Painted on it in careful strokes was ʻOhana Mākou, the very same phrase engraved on my engagement ring and now tattooed on JJ's collar with our wedding date. Surrounding the pale blue and white brush marks were pinned photos and mementos; date nights, group pictures with the pogues, movie tickets, pictures of our friends and their accomplishments. It was something we'd come up with years ago that we wanted to make for when we finally got our forever home back on Kildare.

"Yeah," he grinned, dopey-eyed. "It makes me happy."

"That's our family. We did it, Jay."

There was a laugh, and he kissed me before pulling back a little. "Yeah, yeah we did, pretty girl. Now let's get ready to party."

Sharing another quick kiss–because JJ needed them like oxygen–we split off to hurry and finish our tasks. Pope entered the kitchen just in time to help me get all the extra food out of the fridge, a case of beer in hand. He yanked me into a bear hug, having not gotten to see us since we moved back from the mainland, and then hurried to the backyard to find JJ.