“Not quite long enough,” Dex cracks.
“I think the last time all seven of us sat around this table at the same time was Liam’s college graduation,” Madden says.
Archer shakes his head. “I was in season. Didn’t make it.”
Madden tilts his head and nods as he thinks back. “Then maybe Archer’s college graduation? That would put it at…Jesus, like six years ago? That can’t be right.”
It probablyisright. Archer is in season when the rest of the pro athletes are out, so to get all of them gathered around this very table would’ve taken either a miracle or a catastrophic event…like losing their mother, for example.
“I think it is,” Ivy says quietly. “You all got busy once you went pro.”
Everyone glances at her. She would’ve been fifteen back then, and it wasmycollege graduation, too. I remember how boy crazy Ivy was back then, and I remember her trying to kiss one of Archer’s buddies who was a full seven years older than her.
I saw it all go down. I saw the rejection. I remember how distraught she was, and I remember talking to her—like she was my own little sister. I told her how it was just a crush for her, but for him, it was illegal.
Archer and I had been together for two years at that point. I thought we’d be together forever. And now I’m here engaged to a different member of the same family.
It feels weird. It feels like I don’t know my place.
So I sit quietly as I listen to the conversation around me. Ainsley and Ivy are close, and they bend their heads together every so often. Everleigh is next to me, and the man who just proposed to her is on her other side. I glance over at him. We’re sort of in the same boat along with Kennedy. We’re all engaged to siblings, but none of us are members. Yet.
And then there’s Archer, an outsider in his own right because he wanted it that way.
“Did anyone ever realize our first initials spell MED FAIL?” Liam asks out of the blue.
Everyone turns to look at him.
“Huh?” Dex asks.
“Madden, Everleigh, Dex, Ford, Archer, Ivy, Liam. MED FAIL,” he says. “I’m guessing that’s why none of us became doctors.”
“Or mathematicians,” Madden says. “It also spells FAILED M, and I figured M meant math. Or MAD LIFE, which is me. My life. The Mad Life.”
“You guys are weird,” Everleigh says. “Everyone knows it’s MAID ELF.”
Laughter erupts around the table, and it’s reminiscent of days gone by. Days when I was here for Monday night dinners and the brothers would tease each other while Everleigh bossed them around, when they’d all gang up on Liam because he was the youngest, when they’d prank each other with silly things like replacing the sugar with salt or hiding the best cookies and pretending like they ate the last one.
I wonder how many of those memories include Vivienne Bradley, or if she was just a shadow who was here but never really present. Sort of like Thomas Bradley now, whose head is bent closely to the man beside him as they partake in their own whispered conversation.
I glance across the table at Archer, and his eyes are on me. At the same moment, the man on my right reaches down to squeeze my knee.
I feel a bit torn. They all seem to be dealing with their mother’s death in much the same way—except for Ivy, who’s quiet as she picks at the food on her plate.
Madden brings up last weekend’s games, and the men gathered around the table—except for Archer—all join in on the conversation.
Everleigh is beside me on my left, and she leans in toward me. “It’s good to see you. How are you doing?”
I nod. “All right. You?”
“It’s weird being here, even weirder seeing you with Ford. But weird in a good way, you know?”
“Yeah. He told me he’s felt this way a while.”
“A long while, Tate. He and I are close, you know.”
“I know. I feel bad, though.” I’m whispering as I glance over at Archer again.
“About Arch?” she correctly guesses, and I twirl some spaghetti around my fork as I nod. “He’ll be okay.”
