Honor: a novella by Chasie Noble Page B

hand. I unbuckled, pushed his console up into its seat position, and scooted next to him. He laughed as I buckled back up and leaned my head on his shoulder.  
    I woke to Osric touching my face and moving my hair from my eyes. “You fell asleep on me,” he said. “This is your parent’s place, right?” he asked.  
    I looked out the passenger window to see the house I grew up in. “It is…sorry you had to go by my terrible directions. You found it though.”  
    He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “You snore,” he said laughing.  
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “I do believe there was a large fellow who passed out on my living room floor that snored pretty loud also.”  
    He raised one of his eyebrows. “He should probably do something about that.”  
    I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at him. He got out of the truck and then helped me out of the passenger side. We trudged up to the porch hand in hand as the front door opened, pushing snow off to the steps. My mother stood there smiling at us. She had a look on her face l had not seen before as she stared at Osric.  
    “Mom, this is Osric Tekton. Osric, this is my mom, Carol.” Osric stretched out his hand to shake my mother’s, but she went in for a hug; I shook my head in my hands.  
    “It is so nice to meet you Osric. You are all my Honor talks about.” His large frame swallowed her as he hugged her back. She laughed and said, “She didn’t tell me how tall you were. You two come inside, it is freezing out here.” She motioned us inside.    
    “Thank you for inviting me,” Osric told her.  
    She squeezed his large arm. “Thank you for joining us.”  
    We heard a high-pitched bark coming our way as my dog Muffin came running up. “Muffin! Hey girl, I have missed you,” I said as I picked her up. Muffin was a poodle mix and had a ton of hair. I noticed she had bows on both of her ears that looked like turkeys. “Mother, really? Turkeys?” I said laughing. Muffin was licking my hands.  
    “Oh, she likes them,” my mother said while petting Muffin’s head.  
    I put the dog down and she just sat where she was and stared up at Osric not moving. “This is my dog. She doesn’t normally do that. Go away Muffin,” I said.  
    “It’s fine,” Osric said.  
    We walked down the hall and my aunt came from the kitchen. “Honor, you’re here,” she said while hugging me. “Who is the handsome guy?” she asked. I introduced them to one another. Sunny smiled as she gazed at both of us.
    “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