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“Tired yet?” I asked him and he huffed out a laugh. Honor came back with more pizza and a beer that she must have gotten from the kitchen. Awfully comfortable in his house already.
“Here you go,” Honor said with a sultry voice as she slunk down in her chair again.
“I thought when they started sleeping through the night that things would calm down, but it seems like the parenting just never ends.”
As if he’d spoken it into existence, Zoey got out of the pool too fast and took a tumble, scraping her knee. We kept a first aid kit with the pool supplies and I went to grab it as Mark assessed the damage and patched her up.
After the initial shock of the fall wore off, Zoey wanted to get away from her dad and back to her friends as quickly as possible.
“Go on,” he said, laughing and touching her shoulder. “And remember not to run.”
She nodded and was back crashing on the floats with her friends again.
“It never ends,” I said, packing up the first aid kit again.
“Never,” Mark said.
I glanced over to the chair where Honor was sitting, but she was gone. Maybe she ran away. One could dream.
Mark and I sat back down and worked on our pizza.
“Where’s Honor?” I asked when she’d been gone for at least ten minutes.
Mark looked up as if he’d just remembered she exited. “I’m not sure. Is she in the house?”
“I don’t know,” I said. Why was he asking me? I wasn’t her keeper. He was supposed to be hers, someday.
“Can you go see if she’s inside? I’ll stay out here.”
Why couldn’t he go? I opened my mouth to argue, but then I shut it.
“Sure,” I said, pretending it was fine.
I got up and shoved another piece of pizza in my mouth, walking as I chewed.
The house was much quieter than it would be when the girls finished the movie and came back inside. If they had their way, the twins would have convinced their dad to get a massive pool cover they could sleep on. He and their mother had both vetoed that idea, mostly for safety reasons.
I wandered through the kitchen and then hit the powder room. The door was closed, so I knocked.
“Hey, Honor? Are you okay?” I hated that my voice actually sounded concerned. I didn’t care if she was puking her guts out.
There was a beat of silence. “I’m fine.” Her voice was tight.
“Okay, just checking. Mark asked me to.”
“He did?” Her voice changed.
“Remember to wash your hands when you’re done,” I said and then left before she could make a biting response.
The credits were rolling on the movie and the girls were ready for something sweet, so I set up the sundae station so everyone could have what they wanted.
I completely forgot about Honor, but then I glanced out to see Mark cleaning up and saw her talking to him, one hand twirling some of her hair.
Please. That was one of the oldest tricks in the book. I pictured Honor reading a “How to Seduce a Rich Man” book and practicing her hair twirling and smiling in a mirror.
Once the girls were full of ice cream, I sent some of them off to wash the chlorine out of their hair and get their pajamas on.
Mark came back in and helped me move the family room furniture to set everything out for the girls to sleep.
