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Epilogue
Perfect Puzzle Pieces
16 Years Later
Fleur
“Why do you fret so much?” I asked my daughter Dove, who stood balancing on a chair in her room.
“I don’t!”
“You’ve cleaned your room like a sergeant is coming to do an inspection and you’ve been jumpy all morning.”
“Leon cleaned his room too.”
“Only because Mum made me,” my son defended himself as he and I stood in the door opening to Dove’s room and watched her peculiar behavior.
“It’s not the king and queen coming, you know,” I said before turning to the laundry room across the hall where I began folding the latest load. Although I’d removed myself from my daughter’s nervous energy, Leon stayed and talked to her and I couldn’t avoid hearing their conversation.
“When did you ever dust off the top of your window frame? Don’t you think that’s a little excessive?”
“No. Here, give me a hand.”
I turned my head and saw Leon stepping forward to support his twin sister as she crawled down from the chair.
“It’s Lucas, isn’t it?” Leon asked.
“No.” The blush in Dove’s cheeks contradicted her words.
“Ew, he’s family.”
“Don’t make that face. It’s not like we’re blood related or grew up together. He lives in America and I hardly ever see him.” With both her feet back on the floor, Dove rolled the chair back in place and brushed her blond hair back. “Besides, me cleaning my room has nothing to do with Lucas. I’m much more concerned about Rose. I’ve seen her video blog from her room, and she has the most gorgeous bed, a huge walk-in closet, and her own bathroom. I just want her to be comfortable here.”
I turned back to my laundry just as Leon said:
“You act like it’s the first time our cousins are coming to visit.”
“Argh!”
“What?”
“Only Rose and Benjamin are our cousins. Lucas and Gabe aren’t ourrealcousins.”
“Of course they are. Dad and Uncle Nathan are brothers.”
“Adoptedbrothers.”
It amused me to see my normally calm and collected daughter so worked up, but I remembered from previous years when we’d hosted the American Robertson kids that she’d been on edge too. By tomorrow she would be as comfortable with them as she was with Leon and her little brother Hawk.
I wondered if I should say something to ease her nerves and looked over my shoulder to see that Dove had moved in front of the narrow full-body mirror on her closet, giving herself a hard once-over. With a sigh, she pulled off her gray shirt and opened the closet to find another one. Leon was back to leaning against her door opening, probably feeling confused why his beautiful sister would try out three different shirts and find fault with her looks every time.
“Pick the green one,” he told her and walked over to the pile on her bed and handed her one of the shirts. The sound of our dogs barking was followed by sounds of tires on gravel.
“They’re coming,” Leon shouted and ran to the door.
I left the laundry room and closed the door behind me as I moved to the hallway, watching Dove put on the green shirt in fast movements and shove the other shirts back in her closet.
“Act cool,” she screamed after Leon as if he were the one freaking out over Lucas, Gabe, Rose, and Benjamin coming to stay for a week with us.
