She stood up and pulled away from him. “I have to go.”
Hurrying away from him, she didn’t look back. His words were as empty has they had been when he was eighteen; she knew that. They were just something to make her feel special when she wasn’t. He had perfected the game he had been playing for a decade, but she wasn’t going to fall for it again.
Pushing into Sera’s house, she was immediately engulfed by her sisters. Since only Maby had a day job anymore and even she had managed to cut back on her hours this semester, they were all there, hugging and laughing with her about her success and teasing her for hiding it from them.
It was what she needed: their high spirits to raise hers from the gutter. She didn’t know why she couldn’t just be happy to be in Chris’s bed for a few weeks instead of dwelling on the future and the past and everything in between.
After she had signed all the books Sera had bought for the family, they all sat down and looked through them, oohing and aahing over the different drawings. It had been years since she had shown anyone in the family her drawings besides Violet. Maybe because they were in published books, they didn’t have a bad word to say about them. Or maybe it was because they were all adults now and were more encouraging than when they were younger.
“So how long have you been published?” Maby, who was also a children’s literature professor, was still flipping through the book on her lap.
“Since Thanksgiving week,” Agatha admitted.
“And you still gave me socks for Christmas?” Buzz asked, grinning.
“Yes. They looked like your kind of socks.” Agatha looked at her sister’s fuzzy footed socks and tried not to remember Chris’s erotic use of a very similar sock. She knew she was blushing but realized her sister probably thought it was because she was embarrassed about the books.
“You’re right. But no socks next year. Maybe a car.” Buzz fanned herself with a book, probably because she was wearing winter socks in September.
“Have Jonas buy you a car. I had to buy our house first.” She said and knew Sera had already told them since nobody said anything about it, just nodded in agreement. With that off her chest, she decided to deflect the conversation. “And I have to save my money for my nieces and nephews. Anyone else planning to have one of those?” She looked at Maby and Harper.
Both shook their heads, but neither gave a verbal denial.
By the time the men showed up, Maby and Lucy were fighting about something, and Buzz was angry with Jonas for not buying her a car yet—same old sister squabbles. Agatha wished it were happening at her house; it always felt better when they were at her house.
Somehow, she had always assumed that when she told them, everything would change. That she would tell them she didn’t need another job because she finally had a career, and suddenly, they would treat her differently. But telling them hadn’t changed anything. She was still Agatha and still the same person she was before. Or maybe she had always been the same person in their eyes: jobless or published author, they loved her the same.