“I would wear the vest with honor.”
Mom laughed quietly, then held out her hand. Bliss placed a pale green marble in her palm without asking. Mom stared at it for a long moment, her thumb moving across the smooth glass.
“For our dad?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Her smile didn’t break, but it changed. “For one of the many things he’s being rude enough to miss.”
Vivi looked at the marble. “He would have come to the game.”
“He would’ve been insufferable about the game,” Mom said. “He would have told every stranger in the stands that his son was captain until someone begged him to stop.”
My throat tightened hard.
Skylar looked down at her plate and stabbed a piece of waffle with unnecessary violence. “He would’ve bought the expensive hoodie too.”
“He would’ve bought two,” Mom said.
I looked toward the window because the parking lot was safer than my family’s faces.
Bliss slid another marble toward Vivi. “You can have one if you want. You don’t have to know what it’s for right now.”
Vivi chose a purple one because she was Vivi and some things in the world made sense. She held it in her sleeve-covered hand. “Can mine be for the things Dad missed and for Easton being captain?”
My chest cracked, and Mom’s hand found mine beneath the table and squeezed once, hard enough to hurt.
“Yeah, Vivi,” I said, my voice rough. “It can be for both.”
Briggs made a strangled sound and shoved a forkful of hash browns into his mouth like carbohydrates could save his dignity. Rider looked down. Ryan’s jaw flexed. Cade watched me with that quiet, seeing-too-much expression that made me want to tell him to stop being Cade before noon.
Vivi tucked the marble into her hoodie pocket with the hotel sugar packets and looked around the table. “Are Aura and Charm coming?”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Mom’s gaze lifted from her coffee and landed on my face with the precision of a woman catching the exact moment a lie became tempting.
Skylar, apparently born without survival instincts, looked between all of us. “Who are Aura and Charm?”
“Bliss’s friends. The ones who bought the Never marbles,” Briggs said carefully.
“Charm is the one Ryan likes. I heard Easton talking about it once on the phone,” Vivi added.
Ryan closed his eyes. “We were doing so well.”
Briggs brightened. “I’m back emotionally.”
Bliss choked on a laugh and covered it with her napkin. Even Cade’s mouth shifted like he wanted to smile and hated the timing. Skylar immediately turned in her seat to stare at Ryan.
“You have a crush?”
Ryan looked at Rider. “I blame your paper hockey stick for opening the portal.”
Rider sipped his coffee. “Reasonable.”
Skylar leaned closer. “Is Charm pretty?”
Briggs made a sound of disbelief. “Charm Harlen looks like expensive perfume learned how to be a person.”
Ryan’s gaze cut toward him. “Will you stop with the rich jokes?”
