Page 107 of Must Love Bees
“Astrid would let us stay.” Nova had her hands on her hips. “She would.”
“I agree.” Halley inspected her fingernails. “Why are we suddenly leaving?”
“It’s not sudden. Next weekend. That’s a whole week from now.” A week he’d have to prepare himself for goodbyes. He hoped like hell a week would be enough. “Think about all the things you miss.” If he reminded them of their previous lives, they’d remember how hard they’d fought against coming here.
“Go here, go there.” Nova wiggled Scorpio. “Always go go go.” She made a grumpy face.
“Dance and swim and gymnastics and piano.” Halley ticked each item off on her fingers.
“You like those things.” He frowned. At least, he thought they did.
“I like dance.” Nova spun around. “Only dance.”
“I like swim.” Halley shrugged. “Mostly because of the boys, though.”
“I appreciate the honesty.” Charlie groaned and covered his face.
Nova and Halley laughed.
“I bet they have dance here.” Nova spun around.
“We can’t stay here.” He sat back in his chair. “For one thing, this house isn’t ours.”
“Astrid would never kick us out, Charlie.” Halley was frowning at him. “You want us to be honest with you. You should be honest with us.”
He could do that. “We have a home, friends and a life back in Fort Worth.” He wasn’t going to debate this with the girls. “We have responsibilities.”
“We have friends here.” Nova wasn’t budging. “Lots more here.”
“Real friends. Not the kind that tear you down over DM.” Halley held up her phone. “Honey’s not so bad, Charlie. The people are awesome. And there’s Astrid.”
He stood, his frustration getting the best of him. “I’m not going to uproot you two and move to a place an hour from anywhere. I’ve let you both down, over and over. I want what’s best for you, don’t you understand?”
Nova went to sit beside Halley, the two of them watching as he paced back and forth.
“I don’t know what their schools are like or what clubs they have—except for the bees. I know the Hills and all their friends seem to think bees are the best, but I’m not so sure. Anyway, it doesn’t make sense to give up everything we know for relationships based on a couple of weeks.” He kept pacing.
Halley sighed. “It does if we’re happy. You want us to be happy. We want you to be happy.”
“I am happy.” He didn’t sound remotely happy. “Wewillbe happy, once we get back to our normal life. If you want to change up your extracurricular activities, we can look into that. We’ll make new friends. We’ll make it work. It will be good. I won’t stay here just because I’ve fallen in love with Astrid. I don’t even know what that means. I’ll screw that up and then what? I’d rather leave than risk hurting or losing her...” He came to a stop, shocked at everything he’d just said.
Halley and Nova were staring at him, their mouths hanging open and their eyes round as saucers.
“No.” He held up his hands. “Wait. I didn’t mean to say that.”
“No, you wait.” Halley was up on her feet and, by the look on her face, ready to do battle. “You did say it. You fell in love with Astrid.”
“You love Astrid?” Nova was squishing Scorpio in her arms and wearing a big grin on her face. “Does that mean we’ll all live here together?”
“No.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “It doesn’t.”
“Why not?” Nova rolled her eyes. “All you have to do is tell her.” She said this like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “’Cause Iknowshe loves you, too.”
Astrid had said as much, but he still struggled to believe it. He stopped himself from asking Nova how she knew that. She was five. She still talked to her stuffed toy. She wasn’t the most reliable source when it came to the facts.
“You love her, Charlie.” Halley shook her head. “Mom used to say love was the greatest gift we could give another person, remember? She said we should shower love on each other because there wasn’t enough of it.”
“I have you and your sister to love.” He smiled at her.
