Across from me, Ethan and Cas, who are laughing like damn teenagers, do the same.
“Sorry, Mama,” I say. “Your idiot sons created a group chat, and they’re harassing me.” I smirk at them.
They laugh harder.
Mama’s eyes slide slowly toward them. Her eyebrow lifts.
Silence follows.
Lexy shifts slightly beside me, and I glance at her again. She’s listening to everything like she’s trying to memorize how families work.
Like this is new.
Dad clears his throat.
“Well,” he says, folding his napkin beside his plate, “your mother and I actually have something we wanted to tell everyone.”
Mama’s smile turns bright immediately.
“Dessert first,” she says. “You, video call Jace and Grace!” she tells my father.
That should’ve been my warning.
Mama disappears into the kitchen and comes back carrying a bottle of champagne like she’s about to host the Fourth of July.
“Alright,” she says, setting it on the table. “Now you can tell them.”
Dad leans back slightly, smiling at her like he did thirty years ago.
“In April,” he says, “your mother and I will have been married thirty years.”
The table explodes.
“No way.”
“Thirty?”
“That’s insane.”
Mama laughs. “So,” she continues, pulling the phone out of my father’s hands, “we’re having a spring party here at the ranch. And we expect all of our children to be there.” She taps the screen, and suddenly Grace’s face appears.
“Is this it?” Grace asks immediately. “Are we celebrating something?”
Jace’s voice follows from somewhere loud and echoing. “Why am I on speaker?”
“Because you never answer your messages,” Mama says sweetly.
Dad shakes his head.
“Thirty years of marriage,” he repeats.
Grace gasps. “No way.”
“We’re throwing a party,” Mama confirms. “And you’re both coming home.”
“I’ll be there,” Grace says immediately.
Jace whistles through the phone. “I’ll make it work.”
