Page 78 of Lucky Penny
I didn’t think much of my uneventful holidays the past few years, to be honest. I’m used to not having family around; being a loner is encoded in me. I haven’t spoken to my father since the day I left sixteen years ago. He saw me packing a duffel bag and told me no one would want me and that I wouldn’t be welcomed back once I stepped out the front door. He could be six feet under right now, and I wouldn’t know, or care.
Family isn’t the blood that binds, but the hearts that open when you need it most. And right now, I’m here with two of the people who, at one point, loved me like their own.
Even if one of them won’t fully admit that yet.
“See, I knew forcing you two to hangout would rekindle your friendship!” Fia smiles, reaching for a glass ornament from the box in front of me as I pause mid-unwrap.
Penny’s face flushes, and she nervously laughs. “What are you talking about?”
Fia peers around the tree at her sister. “You two were best friends. There’s history there. That’s all—I’m just glad you’re not trying to cut his jugular out anymore.” Fia rolls her eyes at me, as if to saycan you believe how dumb my sister is?
“Wereallywere close, weren’t we, Penny?” I chime in and grab a strand of beads to wrap around the tree. I’m sure I’ll do it wrong and Penny will come behind me, adjusting every bead, but right now, she’s too stunned, watching me like a sniper. “Funny how inseparable we were back then, hmm?”
“Mhm,” she replies and repeatedly readjusts the same ornament.
I circle the tree with the metallic bead string and stop directly behind her, my chest pressed to her back, and tuck the end of the strand into the branches above her head.
Penny goes still.
“To think I used to knoweverythingabout you.” I lay it on thick, my lips hovering right beside her ear.
Penny steps back, beneath my arm, nearly knocking the tree over to get away.
“Careful!” Fia cries out, but Penny hops over boxes on the floor and widens her eyes in warning.
“I knew all the buttons to press to make youtick…inside and out.” I slowly drag my eyes up her body and watch her stiffen.
Then she claps once, loudly, making Tank jump up, alert.
“Who wants something to drink? To eat? I’m going to the kitchen. To cook. To drink.” She beelines to the fridge, and I chuckle.
Fia passes a weird look at us both. “What’s her deal?” she asks, throwing tinsel on the tree. It’s really beginning to look like a hot mess, but I just go along with it.
“She’s just worked up aboutChristmas, that’s all.”
After twenty minutes, the tree is done—a sporadic display of old ornaments, tinsel, beads, and half-working lights. So I head out the back door, followed by Fia and Tank, to grab a few wreaths. Onto the next task.
Nan always hung a boxwood wreath over the fireplace and one on each window on thefront of the house—Fia reminded us. We might be the last home on the block to decorate for the holidays, but if I have any control over it, I’m going to make sure it feels like old times for the Hanson girls.
It’s chilly and damp inside the large shed, and Fia pulls her green sweater over her fingertips, drawing her arms close to her body.
I hand her a trash bag with a wreath inside it. “Hey, while I have you a moment, I need to tell you something,” I start, and she freezes, looking up at me.
“Sure, what’s up?”
“I might’ve made a promise I’m not sure I can deliver.”
Fia furrows her brow, cocking her head back. “Oh?”
I wasn’t planning on confiding in her, but the clock is ticking and I can’t do it without her. I need her help. She may be the quiet and softer sister, but she holds a quiet strength I don’t think she sees.
“Last Monday at visitation, I told Danny that Penny was in town,” I start, and she inhales sharply, waiting for the punchline. “And he asked me for a favor… He wants me to bring her to visitation. He said he needs to talk to her.”
Fia drops her hands to her hips, her belly swaying back and forth as she gnaws on her bottom lip. “Damn, that’s a big promise.”
“Yeah, I know.” I exhale my words, feeling the weight of reality. “It might’ve been the dumbest shit I’ve done in a while, but I can’t break another promise.”
“Another?”
