In the kitchen, she found them already settled in like they'd never left. Tom had commandeered one end of the table, his laptop open, legal pad beside it, coffee cup already in place. He was wearing his weekend casual uniform, khakis and a button-down that probably cost more than Kate spent on clothes in a year, but something was off. The shirt wasn't properly pressed. Tom never wore anything that wasn't properly pressed.
James sat across from him, two phones and a tablet arranged precisely, his fingers flying across one screen while his eyes tracked another.
Marcy moved around them with practiced ease, as if lawyers and tech executives regularly invaded her morning routine. She caught Kate's eye and raised an eyebrow, a silent question that Kate couldn't answer.
“Katie!” James looked up first, his face brightening with what seemed like genuine pleasure mixed with something else, relief maybe. He got out of his chair and crossed to hug her, lifting her off her feet like he used to when they were kids. But up close, she could smell stale coffee on his clothes, see the telltale signs of someone who'd driven through the night. “You look tired.”
“I look exactly how someone should look at 6:45 in the morning when they're not expecting an invasion.” She extricated herself from his embrace. “What are you both doing here?”
“Wanted to see how the renovations are progressing,” Tom said, but he didn't look up from his laptop, and his fingers had stilled over the keyboard. A message popped up that he quickly minimized, but not before Kate caught a glimpse of capital letters, the kind people used when they were angry.
“Since when do you care about renovations?”
“Since we're family,” James said, but his usual easy smile flickered like a bad connection. “Thought we'd stay for a bit, help out with everything.”
“Help out.” Kate's voice was flat. She noticed how Tom flinched when his phone buzzed, how he turned it face down without even glancing at the screen. That wasn't like him. Tom lived by his phone, treated it like an extension of his hand. “And you both just happen to have time to help out? Tom, don't you have that big merger thing? James, isn't your company launching something revolutionary that's going to change how we all interact with technology?”
The brothers exchanged glances, one of those wordless communications they'd perfected growing up. Kate knew that look. It meant they were coordinating their story, making sure they didn't contradict each other. She'd seen it a thousand times when they were teenagers, coming home after curfew, explaining broken windows or missing liquor.
“Things are flexible right now,” Tom said carefully, still not meeting her eyes.
“Very flexible,” James agreed too quickly, with the kind of enthusiasm that meant he was covering something.
Before Kate could interrogate further, the back door opened and Dani rushed in from the garden entrance, wearing what looked like pajamas and a pair of furry UGG boots. Her red hair pulled back in a messy bun suggested she'd slept with it like that.
“You made it!” She beamed at the brothers with the satisfaction of someone whose plan was working. “I wasn't sure you'd actually come this early, but I'm so glad you took my advice.”
“You told them to come,” Kate said. It wasn't a question.
Dani had the grace to look slightly guilty as she poured herself coffee, adding the three sugars she'd always preferreddespite pretending to drink it black in New York. “I suggested they might want to be more involved. With everything happening, Lillian's plans, the changes to the inn, Pop's condition.” She leaned against the counter, trying for casual but Kate could see the calculation in her eyes, the same look she'd had as a kid when she was orchestrating something. “We're all part of this family. We should all be part of the decisions.”
“We already made the decisions. We signed the papers. The money is in place.”
“But the implementation,” Tom said, finally looking up from his screen, and Kate noticed the shadows under his eyes that expensive concealer couldn't quite hide. “That's ongoing. And we want to be here for it.”
“Why?” Kate looked between her brothers, cataloging the signs of stress they were trying to hide. Tom's wedding ring was gone, just a pale indent where it used to be. James kept rubbing his temple, a gesture that only emerged during his worst periods of stress. “Why now? You haven't wanted to be here for the last three years.”
“That's not entirely true,” James said quietly, and something in his voice, a rawness she hadn't heard before, made Kate pause.
“Isn't it? When Pop had his first fall two years ago, you were too busy with a product launch. When the roof started leaking last winter, Tom was in court. When I had to put him on medication because he kept wandering, where were you?”
“We were building our careers,” Tom said defensively, but the word 'careers' came out bitter, like something that had turned sour in his mouth.
“And those careers are suddenly so unimportant that you can drop everything and come to Maine indefinitely?”
Another shared glance. Tom's phone buzzed again, and this time Kate saw him actually turn it completely off, something she'd never seen him do voluntarily.
Amy appeared in the doorway with Pop, who was having one of his increasingly rare good mornings. His face transformed when he saw his sons, years falling away from his expression, and Kate felt her anger soften slightly at his obvious joy.
“Tom! James! Nobody told me you boys were visiting.”
“More than visiting, Pop,” James said, crossing to hug him carefully. Kate noticed how he held on longer than usual, his face buried in Pop's shoulder for a moment like he was a child again seeking comfort. “We're staying for a while.”
Pop looked confused but pleased, his eyes bright with something Kate hadn't seen in months. “Like when you were kids? All of you home for summer?”
“Something like that,” Tom said, and his voice cracked slightly on the last word, though he covered it with a cough.
“That's wonderful. Elizabeth will be so pleased. Where is she?” Pop looked around expectantly, his face expectant. “She must be getting ready. She always makes something special when the boys come home.”
