“Why?”
Levi and I laugh. Lily covers her eyes with a hand.
“My mom was a poet, and she really liked a set of poems about bees.”
Penny nods. Apparently, it makes as much sense to her as it did to Maria DeLuca-K?nigswasser. “Where’s your mom?”
“Gone, now.”
“Oh. My daddy’s gone, too.” I can feel the tension in the adults, but there’s something matter-of-fact about the way Penny talks. “What’s your favorite animal?”
“Will you be disappointed if I don’t say bees?”
She mulls it over. “Depends. Not if it’s a good one.”
“Okay. Are cats good?”
“Yes! They’re Levi’s favorite, too. He has a black kitty!”
“That’s right,” Levi interjects. “And Bee has a kitty, too. A see-through one.”
I glare at him.
“My favorite animals are spiders,” Penny informs me.
“Oh, spiders are, um”—I suppress a shudder—“cool, too. My sister’s favorite animals are blobfish. Have you ever seen one?”
Her eyes widen, and she climbs on my lap to look at the picture I’m pulling up on my phone. God, I love children. I love this child. I look up and notice the way Levi’s staring at me with an odd light in his eyes.
“Is your sister a child?” Penny asks after making a face at the blobfish.
“She’s my twin.”
“Really? Does she look like you?”
“Yep.” I scroll to my favorites and tap on a picture of the two of us at fifteen, before I started what Reike calls my “journey of soft-core body modification.” “Wow! Which one is you?”
“On the right.”
“Do you get along?”
“Yeah. Well, we insult each other a lot, too. But yeah.”
“Do you live together?”
I shake my head. “I actually don’t see her in person much. She travels a lot.”
“Are you mad that she’s gone?”
Ah, children. And their loaded questions. “I used to be. But now I’m just a bit . . . sad. But it’s okay. She needs to travel just as much as I need to stay put.”
“My friend said that if you’re a twin, your children will be twins, too.”
“You have a higher probability, yes.”
“Do you want twins?”
“Penny,” Lily reprimands her gently, “no grilling guests on family planning before lunch.”
“Oh, that’s fine. I would love to have twins.” I used to dream of it, actually. Even though at this point I probably won’t. For obvious reasons. That I won’t bother Penny with.
She smiles. “That’s good, because so does Levi.”
“Oh. Oh, I—” I feel myself go crimson and look at Levi, expecting to find him just as embarrassed, but he’s staring at me with the same expression from before, only about twenty times more intense, and—
“Does anyone want sherbet?” Lily asks, clearly picking up on the weirdness.
“Mother,” Penny says darkly, “must you torture me?”
“I got special ice cream at the store for you.” Penny’s eyes widen and she runs inside the house. “Poor girl,” Lily mutters as we follow her inside. “Keto ice cream’s probably disgusting.”
“You underestimate how desperate she might be,” I tell her. “There are things I used to find appalling after going vegan that I started loving out of—”
“Bee! Bee! Look, I want to show you something!”
“What’s that?” I smile and crouch to her height.
“This is Shaggy, my—”
My eyes fall on the stuffed tarantula plush toy in her hands, and sound recedes. My vision fogs. I’m hot and cold at the same time, and all of a sudden, everything goes dark.
* * *
? ? ?
“THAT WAS SO cool! Levi, I love your girlfriend soooo much!”
“I know the feeling.”
“Goodness. Should I call 911?”
“Nah, she’s fine.” Everything’s foggy, but I think I’m in Levi’s arms. He’s patiently holding my head up, no concern in his tone. In fact, he sounds weirdly charmed. “This happens to her every other day.”
“Slander,” I mumble, fighting to open my eyes. “Lies.”
He smiles down at me and—he’s so handsome. I love his face. “Look who’s gracing us with her presence.”
“Is it low blood sugar?” Lily asks apprehensively. “Can I get you anything to—？”