Now, as I prepared to go off to college, she’d found a job at a bank and hoped to take control of her life for the very first time.
And for the very first time in my life, I was proud of her.
I found Honor lounging on the couch, flipping through channels listlessly. She looked up at us as we came into the room and grinned. She wore baggy sweats and her hair had been piled on top of her head in what could only be described as a knot, but she was still the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.
“Don’t leave me!” she whined dramatically.
“I would invite you to come, but…” I waved at her and laughed.
“Hey! I thought we didn’t care about our appearance anymore.” She pushed up into sitting and pulled her knees to her chest.
I smiled at her. “We care. Just enough to not look like a complete slob.”
She threw a pillow at my face and stuck her tongue out at me. “Fine, I didn’t want to go with you anyway.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Do you really want to go with me?”
She wrinkled her cute nose. “No,” she huffed. “Mom and I have an exciting night planned. You and Ryder are boring in comparison.”
My mom walked into the room with a huge bowl of popcorn in her arms and an industrial-sized box of Milk Duds tucked under her elbow.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Dinner?”
She looked at my sister, “She’s a growing girl. We need to hit all of the food groups.”
“All of them?”
She smiled sheepishly, “Well, the important ones.”
Honor had melted into our lives seamlessly. I didn’t know what I would have done without that little girl. She didn’t hold a grudge against my mom or the Greek life. So when things got awkward and difficult between my mom and me, she had been there to smooth things over and bring us back to our new normal.
She was as beautiful and charming as ever. And Smith had been working with her via her new cell phone to use her other powers to supersede her annoying Siren ones. Whatever Smith told her had been working. She started middle school in the fall and had friends- real friends. Normal friends. She was gorgeous, funny and sweet and somehow managed to stay out of trouble.
So basically, she was everything I wasn’t.
I loved her for it.
“Well, you girls enjoy your movie night,” I told them.
“Real Housewives,” Honor clarified. “Orange County.”
“Oh, god,” I groaned.
“What? They’re crazier than I ever was.” My mom plopped onto the couch next to Honor and both of them dug into the popcorn and turned their attention to the TV.
I smiled and watched them for a minute. I had lived my entire life without believing I could have this, a family, a family that loved each other. I hadn’t even thought it was possible. And yet here we were.
We weren’t perfect. And we had a long way to go. But we had each other and I was learning that made everything easier.
My mom waved a hand over her shoulder, “Go, Ivy! We’ll be here when you get back.” She looked back at me with twinkling eyes. “Actually, could you wake us up when you get home? Last time I had Honor’s foot in my face the whole night. I’d like to avoid that if I can.”
Honor proceeded to shove her foot in my mom’s nose and knocked some popcorn on the floor. Both of them giggled uncontrollably.
“Absolutely,” I laughed too. “Nobody wants to sleep with that smelly thing.”
She threw popcorn at me while I grabbed my purse and ducked out the door.
I couldn’t stop smiling as I walked to the elevator and took it to the lobby. I sucked in a sharp breath when I stepped outside into the frigid January evening air. Two feet of snow lined the sidewalk as I carefully picked my way over ice covered sidewalks and across the street to my favorite place of all time.
