AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now I’ll never know what moves she was putting on Mark. Seeing as how he wasn’t all over her, and nothing seemed to change in his demeanor, I guess whatever she tried didn’t work.
That made me feel good.
How long would it take Honor to accept that Mark just didn’t want her?
I was handing plates to the girls when Mark and Honor came out of the office.
“Honor is going to stay for dinner if that’s okay with everyone?” Mark said.
I refused to make eye contact with Riley and Zoey because I knew I would lose my composure. Instead, I grabbed another plate and handed it to Honor.
“Of course, she’s welcome,” I said through clenched teeth. Honor, at least, looked a little embarrassed, which was new.
“I appreciate it,” she said, her voice softer than I’d ever heard it.
“Sure,” I said, holding back any other comments. The twins didn’t respond, but I gave them looks and they went to get napkins and silverware and a glass so Honor could join us at the dining table.
“This looks really good,” Honor said as she sat down after arranging the food on her plate like she was a chef at a restaurant. It didn’t escape my notice that she made sure none of her food was touching the other food on her plate. The twins had gone through a phase when they were kids like that. I’d gone out and found plates with separators to make them happy. They were still in a cabinet somewhere. Part of me wanted to ask if Honor would like one.
“Thank you,” I said to Honor. It wasn’t anything special, just my citrus and fresh herb chicken with saffron rice and veggies with goat cheese. Sounded much fancier than it actually was. Honestly, one of the upsides of cooking for a rich family was that I could buy all the fancy ingredients I wanted and experiment. Mark was a smart guy, but he had no idea what the price of an average banana was.
With Honor around, the conversation was stilted, and that was irritating. Mark did his best to include her, but it didn’t really work. Maybe this was her clue that she didn’t fit into this family and she should stop trying.
At least the twins saved us with plenty of stories about camp.
“And then Maxie got her period and some people started calling her “Maxie pad” so we had to make them stop,” Riley said, and Honor choked on her rice.
“I’m not sure that’s an appropriate thing to talk about at the dinner table,” Mark said, his face a little red. He was in for such a rude awakening when the twins got a little older. It was going to be bras and tampons and hormones as far as the eye could see.
“Are you saying periods, a normal bodily function, aren’t appropriate, Dad?” Riley said, giving her father a sassy look.
Mark opened his mouth and then closed it. I’d never seen his face get this red before.
“What your father is saying is that maybe we shouldn’t talk about it right now,” I said, jumping in to rescue him. Riley huffed and Zoey laughed.
Honor hadn’t said a word and I hoped she was scandalized.
“Another girl got food poisoning. That was bad,” Zoey said. “She was in the bathroom all night.”
Mark dropped his fork on his plate.
“Okay, that’s definitely not something we need to talk about while we’re eating. How about nice stories?”
“Like the girl who pretended she was sick and spent all her time masturbating in her bunk?” Riley said and I gasped. Honor swore under her breath and I thought Mark was going to die. He clutched his chest like he was having some kind of episode.
“What?” Riley said. “It’s true.”
Mark made a bunch of noises that I think were supposed to be words, but he couldn’t say anything coherent for a little bit.
“Why don’t you take your plates up to your room,” he finally said, his voice sounding strangled and his face turning from red to shade of purple.
“Okay!” Riley said, hopping up and taking her plate as Zoey followed suit. They were both giggling, and I was starting to get suspicious.
“I’m so sorry, Honor. They’re not normally like this,” Mark said.
“It’s fine,” Honor said, wiping her mouth with her napkin. “I was their age once, too.”
“I’m sure you were better behaved,” Mark grumbled, shaking his head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with them.”
