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thought. If Aunty Cathy had already finished the job, Darby sure wouldn’t go looking for another one.
    Darby sauntered down the hall to her bedroom and dropped her sleepover bag on the bed. She didn’t know whether to curl up on her bed to read right now or take her book with her when she went down to the broodmare pasture to see Hoku.
    Then she heard Aunty Cathy’s voice.
    â€œI’m out on the lanai,” she called.
    With a sigh, Darby headed for the living room and walked through it to the wooden deck that overlooked the ranch.
    Where is Megan? Darby wondered. Why isn’t she inside doing chores, too?
    The job wasn’t repulsive, just boring. Aunty Cathy said that the vog —volcanic fog—drifting from the active one of the Two Sisters wasn’t good for the plants that grew in bright containers on the lanai. Darby’s job was to sponge off each and every leaf to help the plants “breathe.”
    â€œWhat’s in this?” Darby asked, nodding at the basin of liquid Aunty Cathy had prepared.
    â€œJust water. I used to dilute milk and use it as leaf polish, but I read that it clogs the plants’ pores with protein.”
    Darby realized her mind was wandering back to Sugarfoot and what she could do to keep him on his home ranch when Aunty Cathy’s voice rose and she asked, “Did you girls stay up late talking?”
    â€œKind of, but it was this morning that really drained my energy,” Darby admitted. She gave Aunty Cathy a quick account of what had happened with Sugarfoot and Gemma Mookini.
    â€œThat doesn’t sound very good,” Aunty Cathy said, “and I don’t know the family, but Kimo does. You might ask him if she’s likely to carry through with the threat.”
    â€œI will, but they need to work with Sugarfootanyway.” Darby lowered her voice. “He knocked a visitor out of his wheelchair once.”
    Aunty Cathy sucked in a breath and blinked as if she was trying to erase a mental picture of a wheelchair’s silver spokes whirring around in a blur.
    â€œI’ll put my mind to a solution,” Aunty Cathy promised, “but it’s already spinning with luau plans.”
    Instead of drooping with exhaustion, Aunty Cathy looked kind of smug.
    â€œWhy are you smiling like that?” Darby asked her.
    â€œLike what?” Aunty Cathy sounded like she was about to laugh.
    â€œLike you’ve got a secret.” Darby thought for a few seconds, and then said, “Mom told me she was coming for the Fourth of July, you know.”
    â€œI know that you know,” Aunty Cathy said, and this time she did laugh.
    â€œThen what?”
    â€œAre you saying I’m not allowed to smile?” Aunty Cathy’s hands flew up in mock exasperation. “I guess I’ll just go see how Megan’s spa treatment is coming along.”
    â€œWhat?” Darby yelped.
    â€œShampoo, nails…” Aunty Cathy mused.
    Darby was speechless.
    â€œShe’s bathing the dogs,” Aunty Cathy said.
    And then, before she left, she winked.
    Darby looked after the woman she’d come to thinkof as a second mother. Something was up. Aunty Cathy was always nice, and often funny, but never giddy.
    And the dogs hadn’t had a bath since Darby had arrived on the ranch.
    Oh well, she’d let Aunty Cathy have her mystery, Darby thought. All she cared about was finishing this job so that she could get out to the pasture and Hoku.
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    Darby didn’t allow herself to check her watch until she’d dabbed cheesecloth soaked in cool water over every surface of each leaf on the first plant. Then she saw it had taken her ten minutes to do this one, relatively small, plant.
    From the ranch yard, she heard Megan squeal and a dog bark.
    Unfair , Darby thought. Megan was playing in the water while she played servant to a bunch of house-plants. At this rate, it would be too dark to ride Hoku.
    Then she had an