Honor: a novella (8 page)

“It is nice to meet you Sunny,” Osric said.
 

“You too honey!” she replied as she shook his hand.

“Sunny and I had an early start this morning so we should eat around noon. And Osric, you make yourself at home and help yourself to anything in the kitchen,” my mother told us.
 

We went into the living room, where my dad was snoring in the recliner. I giggled and Osric poked me in the side. “I see where you get it now,” he whispered. I crossed my arms and mocked him laughing at me. We both roared with laughter and it startled my dad.
 

“Hey there, little girl,” he said in a raspy voice. He looked over to Osric and Osric smiled.
 

“I am Osric Tekton. It is nice to meet you sir,” he said holding out his hand to my father.
 

Dad stood, but even his six-foot frame seemed small to Osric. My dad shook his hand. “Nice to meet you Osric. I am Robert Ellis, Honor’s father.”
 

My dad pulled me into a hug. I noticed he had let his beard get really long. I tugged on it.
 
“What is going on here?”
 

He adjusted it with both hands. “Leave an old, retired-man alone little girl.” My dad then turned to Osric. “Honor says you are a carpenter. You want to come look at something I am working on out back?”

Osric had already turned to follow my dad out back. “Sounds good,” I heard Osric call after my dad. I watched them leave and headed for the kitchen.

Mom hugged me as I walked in. “Honor, you said he was good-looking, but that doesn’t even do him justice.” I laughed at her.
 

“He is very handsome,” my aunt added.
 

“Now, get an apron on and help us,” my mom said as she playfully swatted me with a dishtowel.
 

“How did you two meet?” my aunt asked.
 

“He came into the library and I helped him find a book one day.” My mom smiled at me and my aunt patted me on the back.

“He seems wonderful,” Mom said.
 

I just smiled at both of them as I helped cook. I looked out the back window to see Osric running something through my dad’s table saw as my dad stood under the carport and watched.
 

A little while later we set the table and brought out all of the food. The back door opened and my dad and Osric came through. Osric excused himself to the bathroom after my mom showed him where it was. My dad took a seat at the table and turned to me. “You have a good one Honor. I like him and he knows his stuff when it comes to construction.” My mom smiled over at me and winked after hearing what my dad had said.
 

Osric came and sat by me. Once everyone was seated my dad blessed the meal. We ate while my parents told embarrassing stories about me when I was younger. Osric was laughing harder than I had ever seen before. When everyone had finished, Osric and I cleared the table while my parents and aunt went into the living room.
 

“Your family is nice,” he told me as we loaded the dishwasher.
 

“Well, they think your pretty great.”
 

We cleaned up the rest of the kitchen and then joined everyone in the living room. I was mortified when my mom called Osric over to the couch to sit next to her while she showed him photo albums from my younger days. Dad had fallen asleep in the recliner again, and Sunny was reading in the other recliner.
 

“Osric, you don’t have to look at all of those awful things,” I told him.
 

He laughed. “I am enjoying this.” Mom laughed along with him as they passed the albums back and forth. I watched Muffin sit at Osric’s feet and stare up at him. She was acting so strange.
 

I went to the window and saw the snow was coming down harder than earlier. The TV was on in the background, but no one was paying much attention to it until the weatherman came on and said a severe winter storm was headed our way.
 

Sunny made a ticking sound with her mouth. “Glad I am staying here for a couple days. It would be awful to be out in that.”
 

I looked over at Osric as he looked up from the photo albums. “Maybe we should go if it’s going to get worse soon.”
 

Mom frowned at what I had said. “I haven’t seen you in months and now the weather is going to ruin it for me.”
 

Sunny giggled. “Goodness Carol, the girl just lives an hour away.”
 

Dad had woken and was watching the TV. “You kids better go before it gets bad.”
 

My mother stood and went to look out the window. “The snow is really coming down now. I guess you all are right.” She pouted.

Osric rose from the couch with Muffin at his feet still watching him in some sort of trance. My mother hurried to pack us a ton of leftovers to take with us.
 

A short while later, I hugged my parents and aunt goodbye. Osric shook my dad’s hand and thanked everyone once again. Before we could make it to the door, my mom hugged him. He was polite and hugged her back as she told him, “Osric, make this young lady come home more often please.” I shook my head and looked up at the ceiling trying to bite my tongue.
 

“I will do that,” he told her.
 

Sunny gave us the large bag of leftovers as we walked out the door waving and calling our goodbyes. We walked as quickly as the snow would allow back to the truck. He started the truck and it roared to life.
 

“I am sorry about my mother. She can be a bit much at times,” I said buckling my seat belt.
 

He stared at me for a moment, “She is your mother, she just loves you.”
 

I instantly thought back to when he had told me his mother had passed away a long time ago. “You’re right.” I felt bad for saying what I had. “What was your mother like?” I asked.
 

He smiled while watching the road. “She was very sweet and giving. She was beautiful. She gave up so much for me. I wish I had told her thank you more often,” he said sadly.
 

I reached over and rubbed his arm. “I am sure she knew, Osric.” I wanted so badly to ask how she died, but I couldn’t.

Chapter 14

We watched the snow come down along the truck as we drove. “So, you have this huge red truck, I am guessing you like the color red?” I laughed.
 

“Actually, this truck just had everything I was wanting, and it just happened to be red,” he stated.

“So what if this truck just happened to be pink? Would you still have bought it?”
 

“They don’t make pink trucks—but, no, pink isn’t my color.” He smirked.
 

I snickered at him. “So what is your color?”
 

“I would say blue.”
 

As he said that, I noticed I had my blue sweater on. “Blue is my favorite color,” I told him.
 

“I noticed.” He was looking at my sweater. “Blue looks good on you,” he said.
 

“Thank you.” I was blushing.
 

We were getting closer to home, but traffic was slowing down and you could barely see out of the windshield because of the snow. My phone beeped and I pulled it from my purse. It was a picture of Lilly’s left hand with a huge diamond on her ring finger. I knew instantly what it meant. My phone beeped again:

Ryan popped the question!! I am getting married!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!! The ring is gorgeous!! I am so happy for you guys!!

Osric turned to me. “Is everything all right?”
 

I showed him the picture I had just received. “Ryan asked Lilly to marry him.”
 

He looked at the picture and turned back to the road. “They seem very happy with each other. That’s good for them,” he said. You could tell he truly meant it.
   

“She is happy, and Ryan seems to adore her. She just tends to jump into things quickly. She hadn’t been with him long before they…” I stopped myself before I said something I shouldn’t. I didn’t want to talk about sex. When things seemed to be leading that way for us it never ended the way I hoped.
 

“Before they what…had sex?” he said, interrupting my thoughts.
 

I laughed uncomfortably. “Yes, before they slept together.” My face felt like it might burst into flames. If it were possible, I would have crawled under the truck seat.
 

“Honor, can I ask you a question?” I knew what was about to come, but I shook my head
yes
anyway. “Have you ever been with anyone?” he asked.
 

At this point, I briefly considered jumping out of the truck! I couldn’t muster the words. I tried but nothing came out so I just shook my head
no
.
 

He stared at me for a moment then looked back at the road. “That morning in my kitchen, with us, would you have told me if things had gone further?”

My ears burned. “I suppose. To be honest, though, I really didn’t think about it until we stopped.” My embarrassment was starting to ease now and I was growing curious. “Since we are on the subject…” He looked over at me, and the answer was already there in his expression. “How many women have you been with?”
 

He took one hand from the wheel and ran it through his hair. “It wouldn’t be very gentlemanly of me to say.”
 

I felt jealousy rising up. “That many, huh?”
 

He kept his eyes on the road. “No, Honor, it wasn’t a lot of women.”

I looked down at my feet, unsure if I could handle the answer to my next question. “Did you love any of them?”
 

As he turned to me, his expression softened. “No.”
 

I let out my breath; I hadn’t realized that I had been holding it while waiting for his answer.
 

We pulled down his street and then into his driveway. He opened the truck door for me and we carefully walked up his snowy back steps. He unlocked the back door for me and went to get firewood from the far end of the porch. I set the food in the fridge and went out to help him. He had a fire going shortly after as I sat on his couch and watched.
 

“I think the snow has finally let up out there.” He motioned toward the window. It had stopped, but the snow covered everything in sight.
 

“You mind if I take a shower?” I asked him.
 

“No, let me get you a towel,” he said.
 

I went to the bathroom and started the shower. He came into the doorway holding a towel and one of his shirts. “I thought you might need this to change into afterwards.”
 

“Thank you,” I said taking them from him.
 

He stood there leaning against the doorway, staring at me as if he were about to say something and didn’t. “I will let you shower now,” he finally spoke up. He quietly closed the door between us.
 

I undressed and hopped in. His shower was much larger than mine, but I was sure he had built it that way because of his size. I stood under the hot water and scrubbed my hair with my eyes closed tightly, thinking of how embarrassed I had been on the ride home with our conversation. I began to wonder as I showered just how many women he had slept with. I didn’t like the idea of him with anyone else. I decided I just needed to let it go. I got out of the shower and dried off as quickly as I could because it was freezing. I put on the shirt he had given me. It totally swallowed me, but it did smell like him, so I was still willing to wear it. I combed my hair out and walked out into the hallway.
 

Osric stood there staring at me. “Nice shirt,” he said. He was shirtless with just his jeans on and I couldn’t help but stare back at him. “I am going to shower,” he informed me as he walked past me into the bathroom. I noticed he had left the door cracked as I walked away. I heard the shower turn on as I went to put my things in the living room.

 
I noticed that he had taken the plastic covering off the library doorway. I walked into the room and saw he had started filling some of the shelves with books. The books were extremely old, older than any I had ever seen. I looked a few of them over and they all seemed to be first edition books.
 

I heard Osric walk up from behind me; I hadn’t even noticed the shower cut off. I turned to him with one of the books in my hand. “Where did you get these books?” I asked as he walked closer.
 

“I bought them. I started collecting them a long time ago.”
 

I put one back on the shelf. “I like what you have done in here.” I motioned to the finished bookshelves.
 

His hair was wet and he only wore flannel pajama pants. “Thank you.” He ran his hand through his hair. The room was drafty and I wrapped my arms around myself. “You’re cold, let’s go sit by the fire,” he said while taking my hand and leading me into the living room.