For Her Honor

Chapter 24

Now when Marco told me that my mother was coming home, I honestly thought he meant at that very moment. But no, she wasn't coming back for at least another two weeks. And yet, I found myself packing up my things and getting ready to travel back to Croft Academy. Honestly, I would have been fine staying at Ryder's house in North Carolina until she showed up but of course, I never actually had a say in anything that we did.

    But I was too preoccupied to be upset over moving back to the academy.

    My mother.

    I hadn't seen her since I was seven, back when she had been kidnapped and almost killed. As I've said before, I've always gotten birthday cards from her and just letters in general but the last time I saw her was the morning before she went into hiding. She had been making me pancakes as always and took the time to put my hair up to keep it out of my face.

    I remembered her so clearly, and yet, there were certain characteristics that seemed to be fading. Did she had brown eyes like me or were they more of a green color? Was her hair as dark as mine or lighter? How tall was she? I had a basic image of what my mother looked like but not enough to last me for the rest of my life. What if she wasn't like I remembered at all? What if all these years of hiding had left her pale and withered away like some malnourished animal of the deep sea.

    What if she wasn't my mother anymore?

    There were so many questions swimming through my mind that I hadn't even noticed that Marco was attempting to grab the bag I was packing, "Harmony, let go of it. Jeez."

    I blinked rapidly to clear my head of the thoughts dulling my senses and looked down to find my fingers clutching at my bag so hard that my knuckles were white. I instantly loosened my death grip, running my hands through my hair to calm my nerves.

    Marco let the bags he was holding fall to the floor as he knelt down next to me, "Hey,what's wrong princess?"

    I sighed and placed a hand to my forehead, "I'm just nervous to see her again.What if she's changed? What if I don't meet her expectations? What if...what if..."

    Marco sat down next to me and wrapped an arm over my shaking shoulders. He let his head fall against mine and enclosed me in a tight embrace, "Listen Harmony, it's been - what - eleven years since you've seen your mom, of course things are probably going to be a little different than what you remember. And I'm sure you're different than what she remembers but you've grown into an independent woman that is funny and strong and sexy as hell. And you've already accomplished so much, she'll be proud of you. I promise."

    His words quite literally lifted the weight within my chest and I looked up, smiling at him, "When did you get so smart?"

    He laughed, "I don't know what you're talking about, I've always been smart. I just never wanted to share my wisdom with you until you started sleeping with me I guess."

    I rolled my eyes at him and slapped his chest playfully, "Fucking asshole."

    "The real question is, do you think your mother will approve of me?" Marco smiled,twirling a piece of my long hair between his fingers, "And more importantly, how do you think your dad is going to react? I mean he nearly kicked my ass when he caught me in the bathroom with you, what do you think he'll do when he finds out that we are participating in the horizontal hula?"

    It was a solid five minutes before I was able to answer his ridiculously worded question, "I think he'll be fine with it. And I can't really speak for my mother because I have no idea what her personality is like now a days. But if she's the same as I remember, she'll be fine too."