This was supposed to be chapter four.  If you'd like to read in order, skip ahead one and then go back to this one.  Thankyou.

Penelope stared across the table at Logan.  He threw a tiny piece of bread at her.  Kelley elbowed him in the sides.  He let out a quiet ouch.  Cleo frowned at the casserole cooling on the table.

“Where could that boy be?  ‘I’ll be home in an hour Mom, no later.’”  She imitated her son.  “I swear, I go through the trouble of having dinner on the table the moment he walks in, and he ends up late?  This is so typical of him.”  She shook her head in disbelief.  Penelope giggled silently.  She loved the way that Mrs. Manson fretted over her children and by extension her.  Her father didn’t care where she was or when she got back.  All he’d ask is “can you get a free dinner?”   Not Lady Manson.  She cared where you were, when you got back, who you were with, and what you did.  It was something that Penelope found both endearing and annoying about her.

“Maybe if you had told him you were putting dinner on the table, then he’d be here.”  Ben Manson beamed a loving smile at his wife.  His once black hair was pulled back into a gray ponytail, showing the small wrinkles around his eyes, the same way that the other two Manson boys’ did when they smiled.  Penelope couldn’t help but smile as she took a bite out of her role.  This was more of a home to her than her actual home was.  Its high ceilings and bright colors made her feel like she was in a church, while not having to act like a saint.

They all became silent as the sound of the front door opening and closing filled the room.  Penelope could hear Mrs. Manson holding her breath.  She listened as the sound of heavy boots falling repeatedly to the ground filled the space behind her.  The entrance to the dining room was right behind her, so she knew that if she wanted to she could get the first glace at him if she turned around, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Cleo’s loving hopeful face.  She wanted more than anything for someone to want to see her that much.  Anyone. 

“My baby!”  Cleo cried as a marvelous smile broke out over her face.  “My baby’s home!”  She hopped up from her chair and ran to hug Ryan.  I heard him chuckle.  It was a dark heavy chuckle, but it was full of love.  She turned in her chair to watch them.  His head was buried in her shoulder.

“Hi Mom.”  His muffled voice told Penelope that he was smiling.  As she watched a smile spread across her face.  Lady Manson reminded her of what her mother would have been like after not seeing her or her sister for a long time.  She missed the purity of the maternal instinct.  Her father didn’t have that.

As he unhooked himself from his mother, he looked around the table, and Penelope froze.  “I see we have company,” He said in his rough voice, smiling.  Penelope fell from her chair.  He was extremely hansom.  He had sort black hair that was sort enough that it stuck straight up.  He was very muscular but not disgustingly so, and his strong jaw was covered in stubble.  Yes, he was extremely hansom, but that wasn’t what had made her fall.  It was his eyes.  They had no pupils, no irises.  Where they should have been there was nothing but the continuation of the milky white that covered the rest of the eye.  Penelope quickly searched her brain for an explanation

Maybe he was blind, but that wouldn’t cause the pupils and irises to disappear, they would just be glazed over.  Maybe it was a birth defect, or maybe contacts.  Maybe she was just crazy.  Maybe she hadn’t seen what she thought she had saw.  But she had… Penelope decided to just ignore it.  It was probably something that he didn’t want called to attention anyway. 

She sighed and took one of the hands that were extended to her.  “Thank you!”  She said as Ryan pulled her up.  “I sorry, I’m a little clums…”  She stopped.  She grabbed his face and pulled it toward hers for a closer look.  “Your eyes…”  She whispered, but this time it wasn’t because they were odd, but because they were perfectly normal.  A pair of beautiful green eyes sat on his face where different eyes sat just a second ago.  “How?”  She whispered.