“You’re staying with us. No arguments.”
I have arguments, Izzy thought. I have a ton of arguments.
Flora shook her head. “That would be too much of an imposition.”
Yes. It would.
A few hours ago she’d been alarmed at the thought of Flora coming over for lunch, and now she was moving in. And Izzy couldn’t even accuse her of engineering it. Even she didn’t believe Flora had somehow sneaked into the apartment upstairs and flooded it.
“But where will you go? You can’t stay with your family,” Molly said, round-eyed, “because you don’t have family.”
Izzy made a mental note to talk to her sister about tact and diplomacy at some point, but right now she had other priorities.
“Don’t you have friends?” The words burst from her mouth before she could stop them. “Can’t they help you?” Her friends had been pretty crap, but it didn’t stop her from hoping that there were better versions out there somewhere.
Flora gave another one of her brave smiles. “My closest friend is Julia.”
Izzy breathed a sigh of relief. Flora had a friend called Julia. She was going to stay with Julia. She didn’t have to live with them. “You should call her right away. We can help you move there.”
“I can’t stay with her, even for a few nights.” Flora extracted herself from the circle of Jack’s arm and seemed to pull herself together. “She has three kids and their apartment is tiny.”
Izzy was about to say that if they were used to feeling cramped then one more wouldn’t make a difference, but her dad was shaking his head.
“And we’re not talking about a couple of nights, honey. This is going to take a while to fix.”
Honey? Honey? He called her honey.
“I know. And I’ve already decided to find a new apartment. I should have done it a while ago.” Flora looked a little stunned as she looked around her. “The place was supposed to be my dream, but—” She broke off and Izzy waited for the end of the sentence.
But what?
She opened her mouth to say If this was your dream, what do your nightmares look like, and then realized that would simply emphasize the fact that Flora needed alternate accommodation.
Her dad was clearly thinking the way she was. “If you’re looking for a new apartment, all the more reason to have somewhere else to stay for a while. You don’t want to rush a big decision like that. What do you think, girls?” He shifted Molly onto his other hip. “We have plenty of room for Flora, don’t we?”
Molly nodded. “You can live with us. You won’t fit into my clothes, but I can lend you toys.”
Flora’s eyes misted. “You’re far too kind.”
She wasn’t wrong about that.
Izzy wanted to put her hand over her sister’s mouth. Molly had been virtually mute when Flora had come over to dinner. Izzy wished the trend had continued. “Flora isn’t going to live with us, Molly. She’s going to stay with us.”
Molly twisted her hair round her finger. “I said that.”
“When you live with someone it’s forever, and this won’t be forever. It’s temporary.”
Both her father and Flora turned to look at her.
Flora spoke first. “This is an imposition. Are you all sure about this?”
Izzy tensed.
Her father and Molly were both nodding. They looked at her, waiting for her to join in welcoming Flora to their home.
The horror of it choked her. Flora was moving in. She’d be there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She’d be part of the family. She’d probably try to help out as much as possible around the house, and that was Izzy’s job. Her father said she was his superstar, but how could she carry on being his superstar if Flora took over? What would her role be? She wouldn’t be needed, and if she wasn’t needed—
“Izzy?”