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“They’ll be fine,” Brinley promised from behind, no doubt trying to reassure herself too.

I swiveled on my heel, blew out the heaviest gush of air, and pinned a smile onto my face. “They will be. They’ve gone on a thousand of these. They know what they’re doing.”

We could say it, but that didn’t mean we’d ever get used to it, and I knew it was the hardest part for Brinley since she was so new to all of this.

She stretched out her hand, the light brown curls tinged with red bouncing on her bare shoulders. “Come inside, it’s almost time to eat.”

She didn’t have to ask me twice.

I scurried up the steps and across the porch, hugged her tight, murmured, “I missed you a ton.”

She rocked me back and forth. “Why do I think you’re lying, and you’ve gladly traded me for a burly mountain man?”

“Don’t feel too bad. He’s the worst roommate ever.”

It was only half a lie.

Bliss and agonizing torment.

“Oh God. Tell me he doesn’t do something vile like walk around naked.”

It was pure sarcasm, and I giggled into our hug.

“He does not.” I’d only seen him shirtless that once and it had nearly been enough to bring me to my death.

“There’s the real travesty, right there,” she said.

“You’re ridiculous.”

Brinley edged back. Wryness flashed across her pretty face. “Am I, though?”

“Are you out there hogging our Elena, Brinley?” Meems’ voice echoed from inside, and my chest fluttered. Excitement butting up against the worry that would hold all of us hostage tonight.

“Nope. Not me. You know I share everything,” she shouted back, giving me a wink before she hauled me inside.

The house was the same as it’d been two days ago.

Cluttered with trinkets and old photos of us when we were kids. The living room off to the right with a worn brown sofa and a big La-Z-Boy.

A coffee table in the middle and a bunch of Kai’s toys strewn all over the floor.

We headed through the archway to the left.

Meems was there, on the other side of the long counter that segmented the kitchen from the dining area.

The counters made a large, squared horseshoe, the stove on the far left with a window overlooking the porch above it.

On this side of the counter, there was a round table to the right.

Kai was there, in his highchair, shoveling little morsels of fruit into his mouth.

My spirit quaked, and the speck of loss that had whittled itself into the most secret place inside me throbbed. The loss I felt whenever I looked at the little baby. The history there was so complicated that I still had a hard time processing it. The way I thought I was going to have an intrinsic part in raising him, then Brinley had come to the compound and changed everything.

I didn’t resent it. I knew it’d worked out exactly as it was supposed to. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

“Wena! You come see me?” He scrunched up his button nose.

“Of course, I came to see you. I’ve been missing you like crazy.”