Page 110 of Until You

“Girls?” I call up the stairs. “Family meeting time.”

Three.

Two.

One.

The groans come down the stairs as if on cue. The seriouslys come shortly after.

“Seriously. Now, get your butts down here,” I say just as two unhappy tweens tromp down the stairs with eyes already rolling and sighs heavy.

“We’re in the middle of filming a makeup tutorial,” Addy says, looking up for the first time and greeting me with a face covered in rainbow colors. “Clearly we’re not done.”

“Clearly,” I say, forgoing asking what in the world they are trying to paint on her face because at this point, I have no clue. It’s way easier to just smile and nod than to accidentally say the wrong thing and cause tears to burst out without knowing why. “Looks great. Take a seat.”

“Shouldn’t Tenny be here?” Paige asks.

“Why?”

“Well, she’s part of our family, right? Shouldn’t she be part of our family meeting?”

Paige’s words put a hitch in my step as I move to sit in the chair opposite the girls. And just like that, the girls have accepted Tenny into our family as if it’s a no-brainer. Whereas I’m overthinking and struggling with every minute detail of it.

What I’d give to be a kid again so I could just go with the flow and allow change to happen without fighting it.

“Well, true,” I finally say, “but this is about us, and so I wanted it to be just the three of us.”

“Don’t tell us we’re leaving yet,” Paige says matter of fact.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“We don’t want to leave yet,” she says. “We’re having so much fun with our friends and with Tenny . . . and you’re so . . .”

“I’m so, what?”

“You smile more here,” Paige says, averting her eyes to her sister.

“Or maybe we don’t want to leave at all,” Addy adds and effectively knocks me on my ass.

“What?” I ask.

They both shrug in unison. “We like it here, Dad.”

“But you only know summer here. You don’t know what the school is like or what—”

“We know enough,” Paige says.

“Plus, there’s no Ginny.” Addy winces for show.

“Girls . . .” It’s a half-hearted sigh because isn’t this partially what I wanted to hear? But now that I’m hearing it, I’m silently freaking out.

“What did you want to talk to us about? What’s the big family meeting over?” Addy asks.

I shake my head and chuckle. “Honestly? I wanted to see what you guys thought of Redemption. If you liked it or if it made you miss back home, is all. Just a temperature check.”

“Temperature check?” Paige looks at her sister and giggles. “That’s the weirdest phrase ever.”

“I guess it is,” I mutter.