I drink.
Seth keeps me tucked against him on the chaise, one hand tracing lazy patterns on my hip. He likes staying close after—says it helps him believe it really happened. I used to think that was sad. Now I just settle into it, let him have what he needs.
“Theo really did a number on you,” Seth observes, pressing a kiss to my hair.
“He does that.”
“I know. I’m not complaining.” His arms tighten around me. “I like it. Getting you after you’ve already fallen apart once. You’re so much more… open.”
“Is that your way of saying I have control issues?”
“That’s my way of saying I love you.”
Eventually, we migrate to the bedroom.
The massive bed that cost more than my old apartment’s yearly rent—custom-made to fit everyone, because apparently that’s a thing you can just order—is a mess of bodies and blankets within minutes.
I end up in the middle. Not because I put myself there; because they arrange around me, the same way they always do, like I’m the point everything orients toward.
But it doesn’t feel like pressure anymore. Doesn’t feel like responsibility.
It just feels like home.
“Mira’s going to want pancakes,” Jace mumbles, face smushed into someone’s shoulder. “I’m calling it now.”
“It’s three in the morning,” Wes points out.
“She doesn’t care. She’s three. Time is meaningless.”
“You’re making them, then.”
“Obviously I’m making them. I always make them.” Jace yawns. “Holy-shit-we’re-alive pancakes. It’s tradition at this point.”
Something warm blooms in my chest. He’s been making those pancakes since the beginning—since that first impossible night when everything changed and he stood at a stove at dawn, cracking eggs like the world hadn’t just turned inside out.
“I’ll help,” Rhett offers from the outer edge of the pile.
“You’ll eat them before they hit the plate.”
“That’s helping. Quality control.”
“That’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Shut up and go to sleep.”
Thane makes a sound that might be a sigh or might be an exhausted laugh. “Four years,” he says, to no one in particular. “I’ve survived four years of this.”
“Survived?” Stellan’s voice is dry. “You love it.”
“I tolerate it.”
“You made water appear out of nowhere to make sure everyone stayed hydrated.”
“Basic caretaking. Don’t read into it.”
Seth snorts against my hair. “He’s such a soft touch.”
“I will end you.”
