And this time Flora didn’t resist. She clung to him as if he was a lifeboat. There was so much water in the place that had there been an actual real lifeboat Izzy might have jumped in, too.

The tightening of her father’s mouth was a blow to the gut. When her father wore that look he always won whatever fight he and her mother were having. Her mother would shriek hysterically and wave her arms like the original drama queen and her father would stand strong and steady and wait until she’d finished to make his point.

“You’re staying with us. No arguments.”

I have arguments, Izzy thought. I have a ton of arguments.

Flora shook her head. “That would be too much of an imposition.”

Yes. It would.

A few hours ago she’d been alarmed at the thought of Flora coming over for lunch, and now she was moving in. And Izzy couldn’t even accuse her of engineering it. Even she didn’t believe Flora had somehow sneaked into the apartment upstairs and flooded it.

“But where will you go? You can’t stay with your family,” Molly said, round-eyed, “because you don’t have family.”

Izzy made a mental note to talk to her sister about tact and diplomacy at some point, but right now she had other priorities.

“Don’t you have friends?” The words burst from her mouth before she could stop them. “Can’t they help you?” Her friends had been pretty crap, but it didn’t stop her from hoping that there were better versions out there somewhere.

Flora gave another one of her brave smiles. “My closest friend is Julia.”

Izzy breathed a sigh of relief. Flora had a friend called Julia. She was going to stay with Julia. She didn’t have to live with them. “You should call her right away. We can help you move there.”

“I can’t stay with her, even for a few nights.” Flora extracted herself from the circle of Jack’s arm and seemed to pull herself together. “She has three kids and their apartment is tiny.”

Izzy was about to say that if they were used to feeling cramped then one more wouldn’t make a difference, but her dad was shaking his head.

“And we’re not talking about a couple of nights, honey. This is going to take a while to fix.”

Honey? Honey? He called her honey.

“I know. And I’ve already decided to find a new apartment. I should have done it a while ago.” Flora looked a little stunned as she looked around her. “The place was supposed to be my dream, but—” She broke off and Izzy waited for the end of the sentence.

But what?

She opened her mouth to say If this was your dream, what do your nightmares look like, and then realized that would simply emphasize the fact that Flora needed alternate accommodation.