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“Oh my god, I do not get paid enough for this,” I said under my breath.
“Can we be done now?” Riley asked as I did my final inspection.
“Much better,” I said. Even if it wasn’t perfect, it was close enough and I didn’t have any more fight in me.
“Good job,” I said, high fiving both of them.
“We’re hungry,” Zoey said.
“Let’s go do something about that,” I said as we all went downstairs.
Mark came out to make himself lunch as I was arranging cheese slices on a tray for the girls as they fought over which movie they were going to watch first.
“I miss the days when they were happy with finger paints,” I said as he assembled a sandwich on the counter.
Mark sighed. “Me too. I don’t know what I’m going to do when they’re teenagers. What do teen girls even like?”
I shrugged. “I haven’t been a teen girl in a long time, so I’m not a lot of help. Things are so different now. There’s a new social media app every single day and each one is weirder and more concerning than the last.”
I shuddered.
Mark grunted and sliced his sandwich in half. “Sometimes I definitely consider getting rid of all technology and moving to the woods.”
“Don’t blame you,” I said. He nodded and went back to his office.
I handed the tray off to the girls, who were on the floor with their giant beanbag chairs. I lounged on the couch and stole bites from their plate and let the movie play as I looked at my own social media apps. I was only human after all.
I heard someone in the kitchen and judging from the clack of heels on the hardwood, it was Honor. I peered over the back of the couch as she got herself a glass of water.
I hated admitting it, but she looked really pretty today. Honor always dressed like a sexy secretary from some 1950s dream. I had no idea if her clothes were really vintage or not, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were.
Today her dress was black with capped sleeves and it skimmed her body like it was poured on. Her heels were gold with red bottoms, of course. Why she wore heels when she didn’t have to was a mystery, but maybe she liked them. I could imagine it would make you feel powerful to wear shoes that made such a definitive sound. Like a kind of armor.
Honor stared out the windows at the rain, which was coming down hard. Lightning forked the sky and she startled.
“Pause it,” Zoey said as she got up from her beanbag chair. I turned to watch Riley pause the movie and when I turned back, Honor was gone.
* * *
The rain lasted all day,but the movies entertained the twins until it was time for me to get cook dinner. I popped into Mark’s office to let him know it would be ready soon, but he was on the phone.
“Can you let him know dinner is in ten?” I asked Honor. She didn’t take her eyes from her laptop as she nodded.
Then, for some reason that I blamed on the rainy weather or hormones, I said, “you could stay, if you’re hungry.”
That made her look up.
She blinked once at me, and I realized I’d caught her completely off guard.
“No thank you,” she said, but it took her a few seconds. Phew.
Mark got off the phone and groaned. “Stay if you want, Honor. No pressure, though. I know you didn’t sign up for family dinners.”
“Thanks, I’m having dinner with my sister,” she said, staring so hard at her laptop screen that I thought she was trying to glare a hole through it.
She had a sister? That was news to me.
“Right, of course,” Mark said, nodding. “Well, she’s welcome here as well.”
