“Hey.” Holly's voice cuts through the spiral. “Come back. You're catastrophizing—I can see it on your face.”
“I'm not?—”
“You are. You've got that look like you're mentally burning down both your lives and salting the earth.” She squeezes my hand harder. “Stop it. You don't have to solve every future tonight. You just have to survive the next few hours.”
“One crisis at a time,” Charlie agrees. “That's my pregnancy mantra. Also my life mantra. Also the only reason I'm not currently sobbing into this thermos.”
“Hormones?” Eve asks.
“Hormones, exhaustion, and the fact that Sierra's love story is somehow more stressful than my nesting list.” Charlie points her thermos at me. “Get your shit together, Barrett. Some of us are emotionally invested now.”
A wet laugh escapes me. “No pressure.”
“All the pressure,” Dixie corrects. “We're literally going to watch you like a reality show. This is the most entertainment I've had since Roman—” She stops. Clears her throat. “Since the festival started.”
“Nice save,” Holly says dryly.
“Shut up.”
But I'm laughing now. Actually laughing. And somewhere beneath the terror and the doubt and the eleven years of carefully constructedwalls...
Something shifts.
I don't have an answer.
But for the first time, I'm not sure the answer is automatic.
The sliding door bangs open. My brothers pour onto the deck like a pack of overgrown retrievers who heard the word “walk”—all energy and noise and complete inability to read a room.
“Hot tub time!” Caleb announces, because Caleb has never made a subtle entrance in his entire life.
Roman and Nolan follow right behind him—and Everett.
Our eyes meet across the steam.
This isn't over.
His words from earlier echo through me like a promise. Or a threat. At this point, the distinction feels academic.
“Sierra!” Roman waves toward the men's tub on the other side of the deck. “Get over here. Partner meeting.”
“I'm good here.”
“It's about the festival. Lodge business.” Caleb's already stripping off his shirt with zero self-consciousness. “Come on, Shutterbug. When's the last time we all hung out? Just the five of us?”
The five of us. The Barrett siblings plus Everett. The configuration that's existed since we were kids, back when he was just my brothers' friend and I was just the tag-along baby sister.
“I know exactly how you guys make the bubbles inyour hot tub.” I wrinkle my nose. “Why the hell would I get in with you?”
“We're grown now!” Caleb looks genuinely wounded. “We use the jets. Like civilized adults.”
“The whole time?”
“The whole time.”
“Swear it.”
“Cross my heart.” He makes an exaggerated X over his chest. “Jets only. No biological warfare.”
