“I don’t have an emergency.”
"Your girlfriend's first major research presentation is an emergency worth celebrating." Riley bounces over to me and grabs my hands. "Declan told us about your findings."
Warmth floods through me. "He did?"
"Are you kidding? He won't shut up about it." She pulls me toward the kitchen island, where Rowan has set up the takeout containers and plastic champagne flutes. "It's 'Ivy discovered this' and 'Ivy's methodology is brilliant' and 'did you know Ivy earned her doctorate at twenty-six?'"
"Riley..." Declan's voice carries a warning, but his ears are slightly pink.
"It's adorable," Rowan adds, pouring champagne. "We've never seen him like this."
"Like what?" I ask, accepting a glass.
The twins exchange knowing looks. Riley grins.
"Whipped."
Declan flips her off, but he's smiling. It gives him a boyish look that makes him look younger than twenty-eight.
Rowan gives the others cups.
"To Ivy. For being brilliant and putting up with our emotionally constipated brother,” Riley announces, raising hers.
Declan frowns. "I'm not..."
"You are," Rowan confirms. "But she's helping."
We toast. The champagne is too sweet and slightly flat, but it doesn’t matter—it feels right. Like being surrounded by people who see me, accept me, and are proud of me.
Crowded around the kitchen island, we eat straight from the containers. Riley tells stories about Declan trying to braid her hair for a school dance when she was fourteen.
"It looked like a bird's nest," she says through laughter. "My date took one look at my hair and asked if I'd been in a fight."
"I tried," Declan protests. "YouTube tutorials are useless."
"You watched YouTube tutorials?" I say, grinning and shaking my head.
"Three hours' worth but still couldn't figure it out. The next school dance, I paid a neighbor to do it properly."
"What about the bully incident?" Rowan prompts.
Riley's eyes light up. "Oh! When Dec was twenty and I was fifteen, this kid at hockey practice kept shoving Rowan during drills. You know, typical asshole teenager stuff."
"I could handle it," Rowan says mildly.
"But Declan showed up to watch practice one day and saw it happen," Riley continues. "The idiot kid didn't know he was messing with Declan Hawthorne's little brother."
"What did you do?" I ask Declan.
He shifts uncomfortably. "Just had a conversation."
"He scared the kid badly," Rowan says.
"The kid literally pissed himself," Riley adds gleefully.
"He did not..."
"He did! I saw it."
