CHAPTER 38

ELLIS

I’m not the least bit surprised to see that my siblings, along with Fisher and Indy, are all at my place when we pull down the driveway. I’d only texted Micah to give him a heads-up that we were coming back early, but I figured he’d tell the rest. Wren and I share a look, then unload ourselves from the truck, moving like our limbs are lead. We school our faces into flat, regretful expressions when they start approaching us.

“Heyyyy,” Sage calls. “So happy you’re home?” She says it like it’s a question. I almost cave when she gets closer, and I can see the disappointment in her eyes. She hugs Wren first, then makes her way over to me. “Drive go okay?” she asks in a strained voice.

Micah has already crossed the front lawn, too. Only Silas hangs back on the porch with Indy and Fisher.

“So, did you have a good trip or not?” Micah asks.

“ Micah ,” Sage growls.

“What?! Let’s just get it over with now, all right? They came home a day early, so clearly it didn’t work out, and that’s fine. They need to know we still love them, right?” he asks, crushing Wren to his chest in a hug. “We can all move on with our lives.”

I catch Wren’s eye from where she’s being suffocated in Micah’s arms. When he steps away, we study one another from our opposite sides of the gravel.

I cross my arms and kick at a loose pebble with my boot. She lets out a sad sigh.

And then we take a step toward each other.

I let my arms fall before we take another.

And another.

And another.

“I think we nailed it,” she says just before she bumps into me, and I turn her in my arms and lower her into a deep dip, crushing my mouth to hers.

I’m not sure who screams, who whistles, or who claps, but for a crowd of four, they’re all loud as hell.

I disappear into the feel of her lips, the scent of her mixed with all the smells of home, and it’s like I’ve finally come alive under my own skin again. The version of me I was meant to be, misshapen heart finding its matching piece. By the time we come back up for air, we’re being circled in a hug by everybody.

Everybody but one.

“Where’s Silas?” I ask.

Wren and I walk hand in hand around the side of the house until we meet the backyard. Silas is sitting in a lawn chair with his face in his hands, a beer bottle dangling from a finger he’s got curled around the neck.

“Si?” says Wren softly.

He shakes his head at the sound of her voice, and now I get it. He’s overwhelmed. I know what it is to feel too much, even when it’s happy.

Suddenly, he jerks up from the chair and a sob wrenches out of him, and his arms are stretching to hug us both. He cries into my shoulder, and I laugh and cry with him.

“I knew you wouldn’t fuck this up,” he says, muffled in my shirt.

“I’m glad I made you proud, brother,” I say.

“It’s about fucking time!! Dammit!”

Wren makes a soothing noise and pets the back of his head.

“Hey, Si?” I ask.

He lifts up and steps back, sniffing aggressively and wiping his face. “Yeah?”

“Will you be my best man?”

He points the hand holding the beer at me. “Now you’re just being an asshole,” he says with a violently wobbling chin, just before he hugs me once more. “But no, actually, I won’t,” he adds. He moves away again and bares us one of his shit-eating grins. “Because I’m ordained now!”

“Oh, Jesus, Silas. That was a little presumptuous, don’t you think?” Wren scolds.

“I am bored out of my damned mind most days, anyway, right now, so no, I don’t,” he says. “I can’t wait to have a sister again!”

“What the hell?” says Sage. Micah tugs her into a sideways hug.

“I mean another one,” Silas says, shrugging her off with an eye roll.

“Did you guys tell Sam?” asks Indy from a few yards away, Fisher’s arm slung over her shoulders.

“Yeah,” Wren says, smiling broadly at me. “Yeah, we did.”

As soon as we decided earlier, we FaceTimed Sam right then and there from the side of the highway.

“Hey, Mama,” he’d said when he picked up after a ring.

“Hey, son. How’s it going?” Wren said.

“Uh, it’s going pretty good. Having roommates after being an only child is a little weird, but I don’t hate it, I guess,” he said. “So how’s your trip? How was the cooking class? It looked fun online.”

Wren cut me a glance, and I lifted a brow. “It was a lot of fun, bub,” she said with a smirk. “Dad’s here, too.” She adjusted the phone so he could see us both. “We want to talk to you about something.”

Sam went completely still, his face changing and looking at us in a way that felt eerily like looking into a mirror. “Yeah?” said Sam. “Is everyone okay?”

“Everyone is good, son,” I said.

His eyes darted between us. “Everyone is good?” he asked quietly, and his expression was so hopeful that my vocal cords felt raw when I replied.

“Yeah, son. Better than good.”

He’d started nodding quickly, his lips closed tight on a smile.

“Dad and I want to get back together,” said Wren. “Would you feel okay about that? If that’s weird for you, it’s okay to tell us.”

“Yes, Mom. I’d…” He put his forefinger and his thumb into each eye, trying to jam back his tears. “Yeah, I would feel okay about that,” he’d said.

Back at home, I pull Wren into me again and whisper in her ear, “Want me to get rid of them so we can go sleep in our bed?”

She hooks her arms around my middle and looks over everyone making themselves at home in ours. “No. We’ll just slip away when we’re ready.” Her chin tips up against my chest, and our eyes catch. “We have whatever’s left of forever, you and me.”

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