Charli’s eyes flick between us. “Excuse me?”
“Um,” Harleigh says.
Matty, Harleigh, and I share a look. The kind that comes from years of scheming, surviving, and sometimes being terrible together.
Charli’s mouth drops open. “Are you kidding me right now?”
“What’s happening?” Daddy asks warily as he enters the kitchen. “Why does Charli look like she’s about to flip a table?”
“They’re in a group chat without me,” Charli says, pointing at us like we’ve committed treason.
“A what?” Daddy asks.
“A group chat,” Charli repeats.
Daddy’s face goes blank.
“It’s where they text message each other all at once,” Grandma clarifies.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what that is,” he says, shaking his head. “You girls’ fights were a lot easier to understand and referee when you were little.”
Harleigh holds up her hands. “In our defense, we had to start a group without Charli last year.”
Charli stiffens. “Had to? Why?”
“To talk about you and Bryce, duh,” Harleigh says gently. “They kept me in the loop.”
The kitchen goes silent.
Then Matty snorts. “Oh. My. God. She’s the mastermind,” she says, pointing at our baby sister.
Charli spins on Harleigh. “She’s right. You’re the only one in every chat.”
Harleigh grins. “Caught.”
The next thing I know, all three of us are on Harleigh—poking, accusing, laughing—as Grandma and Daddy look on, shaking their heads. She throws her hands up, laughing so hard that she nearly drops her drink.
“I regret nothing!” she declares.
By the time supper’s ready, Bryce has shown up, too, duffel bag slung over his shoulder, grin easy and familiar.
Charli runs to him, and he catches her midair.
“Hey, cowboy,” she says, removing his hat and placing it on her head. “How was Boulder?”
“Eight seconds on Optimus Prime,” he says.
She squeals and slides to her feet to admire the new hardware on his belt.
“That’s not all I picked up in Colorado,” he says as Cabe’s brothers, Royce and Axle, come barreling in the door.
Aunt Irene lets out a sob as she hurries over to embrace her two rodeo-chasing sons.
“And what about you two? How’d you fare this past weekend?” Uncle Boone asks.
“Fair to middle,” Royce says.
“Yeah, it’s hard to get in the money with this beast on the roster,” Axle says, thumping Bryce’s chest.
