Time spent with the siblings used to mean laughter and easy conversation. Even when she and Kori had been on the outs after the incident with their parents, Leah at least had still managed to put aside some of her resentment in order to enjoy time with the remaining family.
Now? Now, each of the Stones had his or her own thing going on. It was harder to set aside time to spend together, and harder still, at least from Leah’s point of view, to find something easy to talk about. It should’ve been easier to talk to her brother and sisters. They weren’t struggling to make ends meet, but two out of the four were dealing with grief, one (Lilah) was doing her best to avoid the situation altogether, and Leah was in a tug-o-war between wanting to give support and wanting to let Kori and Brandon deal with things in the way that worked for them.
Uncertainty made her late. She was almost always on time to whatever it was she’d agreed to, but this evening… Leah just wasn’t sure she wanted to spend time with the brother who barely spoke to her anymore.
In the end, though, Leah decided that, if nothing else, she’d do this for Kori.
Leah heard two voices talking when she arrived at Lilah’s room. Yeah, she was late. Or, rather, the last one to arrive. Shrugging, she paused in the doorway and forced herself to smile. “Sorry I’m late. Mari wanted me to read her a story before I left.” At least the excuse wasn’t a lie. “Did I miss anything?”