“I don’t see you for a few months and then I come back to you talking to your pants? Should I be concerned?”
I spin around to find Elizabeth, my sister, standing behind me looking stunning in a floral dress I know our mother picked out for her.
“Christ,” I say as I scoop her up into my arms and hug her furiously. “It’s so good to see you.” I set her down and grip her shoulders as I take her in. Her skin is sun-kissed, her eyes brighter than I’ve ever seen them, and there is a distinct hickey on her neck that I know she left uncovered just out of spite.
God, I’ve missed her.
“How are you? How’s Hannah?”
Smiling brightly, Elizabeth says, “Hannah is great. She’s visiting with her family right now while I sort out this bullshit with you.”
“Better watch your mouth. Mother will be furious if she hears her precious little girl swearing.”
“It’s why I’m getting it out now.” Elizabeth winks. “How are you? Last we talked, you were in America. How was that?”
Jesus, it’s been a while. So much has happened since I last texted her.
I grip the back of my neck and answer, “Well, I, uh, I kind of fell in love.”
Her eyes widen as a gasp falls past her lips. “No…with an American? Oh my God, Theo. Do Mother and Father know?”
I shake my head. “No, don’t even know in the slightest, which means I’m going to need your help. Long story short, I told Father I was looking to get married?—”
“Oh, I heard all about that,” she says. “Mother called me and ranted for an hour about it. So the girl you matched with on that website, is she the one you fell in love with?”
I nod. “Her name is Renley.” Then I pull my phone out of my pocket and show Elizabeth the picture of us together on my screen.
“Theodore, she’s stunning. Shit, look at her eyes.” Elizabeth looks a little closer and I steal my phone away.
“Okay, okay. She’s mine.”
Elizabeth rolls her eyes. “Please, I’m incredibly happy.” She glances behind her at the door that leads to Father’s room. “But tell me why you need my help.”
“Because Father believes I should marry Neil’s daughter and they’re headed over here now.”
“He wants you to marry Walinda?”
“Walinda, that’s her bloody name. I couldn’t remember it.”
“How can you forget the name Walinda?”
“Maybe because she sniffed my armpit and all I ever wanted to do was forget that interaction altogether.”
“You know, now that you mention it, she sniffed mine too.”
“Really?” I ask, with a raise of my brow.
“Yeah, jealous?” She wiggles her brows and I chuckle.
“Not even a little.” Mother’s shoes click across the wood and I quickly lean into Elizabeth. “Seriously, they’re going to try to get me to marry her. Do everything in your power to help me avoid that.”
Elizabeth pats me on the shoulder. “No worries, I have your back. You’ve helped me so much with Hannah that I’ll keep you as far away from the pit-sniffer as possible.”
“It’s why I love you.”
“Ah, I see that you two have had a moment to catch up,” Mother says as she appears, holding her hands in front of her. “Ihope you’re ready to see your father. He’s by all means ready to see the two of you.”
In any normal household, it wouldn’t require this grand of an entrance for a child to see their parent after a heart attack, but with my family, everything is so formal and calculated. My guess, there’s a photographer ready to take pictures the moment we see our father in his bed.
