The boy had been looking wistfully toward the beach and ocean throughout the meal, and Kenna smiled to herself when she saw him give into his longing to get a closer look.
But his father obviously wasn’t happy with his son wandering off. He sprang out of his seat and took the few steps required to reach him, grabbed a handful of his shirt, and jerked him backward.
Kenna could only stare in horrified shock as the man smacked his son across the face, then swatted his butt, hard. “You do not leave our sides!” he shouted, pointing a finger into the boy’s face. “Hear me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Sit your ass back down. Now.”
Kenna already had her phone out. There was no universe she lived in where she would not report abuse. Didn’t matter if it was an adult to a child, a man to a woman, or even a woman to a man. She quickly explained to the police what had happened and implored them to hurry as the family was getting ready to leave.
She managed to stall them by lingering in the kitchen for much longer than she would normally when a customer was waiting for something. But she needed to give the cops time to get there. Luckily, just like the other day, they arrived quickly, and Kenna met them at the front of the restaurant. She explained what had happened and pointed out the man.
The second the man saw the police officers headed his way, he completely lost his cool. He stood up and started swearing loudly. Kenna watched from a distance as the officers tried to have a calm and rational conversation with him, but when he drew back his fist to hit one of them, all bets were off. They had the man on the ground with his hands cuffed behind him before he could follow through with his physical threat. One officer hauled him up and out of the restaurant, while the other stayed behind to talk to his wife and son.
On his way past her, the man glared and hissed, “You’ll be sorry, bitch. You’re nothing! Lower than the dirt on my fucking shoes. You shouldn’t have fucked with me. I’ll—”
“Come on,” the officer said harshly, cutting off whatever threat he was going to spew next. “I think you’re in trouble enough, let’s not add threatening your waitress to that list, shall we?”
Then he hauled him down the small hallway toward the exit…and hopefully right to his cop car sitting at the curb on Ala Moana Boulevard.
Kenna was a bit shaken at the hatred in the man’s tone, but did her best to shake it off. She looked back at the table where his family were still sitting. The little boy had a large red mark on his face from his dad’s abuse, and was quietly playing with a toy police shield the officer had obviously given him.
Kenna couldn’t hear what was being said, but she prayed the woman would press charges. If anyone dared to hit her child like the man had done to his son, Kenna would’ve lost her mind. She hurried back into the kitchen to grab a fresh piece of pie and a side order of French fries. She’d noticed the little boy seemed to love them, while he’d only nibbled on his hamburger. She supposed that giving him more of the greasy fried potatoes maybe wasn’t the healthiest thing, but she wanted to comfort him in some way. And since she knew he enjoyed the fries, that was the first thing she’d thought of.
As Kenna suspected, when she approached the table, the woman was shaking her head and telling the officer she didn’t want to press charges.
Mentally sighing, Kenna knelt by the boy’s chair.
“Hey, I brought you some French fries to take home. The cook said he made too many and was about to throw them away. I figured you might want them instead.”
His eyes lit up, but before he accepted, Kenna saw him look over at his mother. She nodded at him, and only then did he reach for the container.
Kenna put the piece of pie on the table. “And I brought you a full slice of hula pie instead of the half-eaten one from your dinner.”
“Thank you,” the woman said distractedly. Kenna could tell her mind was on other things. Probably how mad her husband was going to be when he was released and able to return to their hotel room.
“Can I call you a taxi?” Kenna asked.
“No, thank you,” the woman said.
“We’re gonna need your statement,” the officer told Kenna.
She nodded.
“You shouldn’t’ve called the police,” the woman said quietly.
“And your son shouldn’t ever be hit in the face. Especially not by his father,” Kenna returned.
The woman looked away without meeting her gaze.
Kenna sighed again. She hadn’t exactly saved the boy or the woman from being abused further. In fact, there was a chance she’d made things worse, and she fervently hoped that wasn’t the case…while adding a silent prayer that maybe, just maybe, the woman would eventually realize her son’s well-being was more important than staying with her bully of a husband.
The paperwork with the police didn’t take too long and luckily the other servers dealt with her tables while she completed her statement. By the time she got back to work, Kenna was exhausted. It was more emotional than physical. She never hesitated to stand up for what she felt was right, but that didn’t always mean it was easy.
By the time she headed home from her shift, Kenna was dead on her feet. Usually after situations like this, she didn’t want to talk to anyone. She just wanted to be alone. She’d normally rewind the incident over and over in her mind, finally falling into a fitful sleep in the wee hours of the morning.
But tonight, all she could think about was getting home and talking to Marshall.
She was able to resist calling him until she’d showered and put on the oversized T-shirt she liked to sleep in. She crawled into her bed, pulled the covers up, and reached for her phone.
Marshall answered after only one ring.
“Good evening, beautiful.”
“Hi.”
“What’s wrong?”
It was pretty wonderful how easily this man could read her. She’d only said one word, and that was enough to convey her state of mind. “Work sucked,” she said.
“Talk to me,” Marshall implored.
So she did. She told him everything. How she’d suspected the man was going to be trouble from the second she saw him. How cowed his wife and son seemed to be. How Kenna had worried as the man downed one drink after another. And then her horror when the guy had struck his son. She even told him about the man’s threats as he was hauled out of the restaurant. By the time she was done rehashing everything, Kenna felt drained.
“I’m so sorry, babe. That sounds awful. But I’m proud of you for calling the police on his ass.”
Kenna smiled and turned onto her side. This is what she needed. Marshall’s voice in her ear, saying he was proud of her. “Thanks.”
“Although I’m not thrilled with his threats. You need to be extra careful. It was bad enough with that Shawn asshole being pissed at you, I can’t stand the thought of someone else wanting to get back at you.”
Kenna hadn’t even really thought about that. “I hate to even tell you this, because you might get upset, but honestly, people threaten the servers all the time. Well, maybe not all the time, but they generally aren’t happy when we refuse to serve them alcohol when they’re obviously drunk as hell already, or if there’s anything wrong with their meal. We’ve even had people accuse us of stealing their credit card numbers to use later. Most customers are great. Happy to be in Hawaii and enjoying the food and ambiance, but there are always those assholes who want to throw their weight around.”