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Since she left half her wardrobe here when she decided to break up with me, she had something to change into after we got out of the shower ten minutes ago.
“Good to know that, for you two, five minutes actually means almost an hour,” Kai says with a smirk from his spot at the table.
“Did we plan to have breakfast here today and I forgot?” I ask, deliberately ignoring him.
I don’t mind their teasing or the obvious implications behind it, but Selene’s cheeks are already burning with embarrassment. If I let the conversation drift anywhere near the reason it took us so long to come downstairs, she’ll probably want the floor to swallow her whole.
Nobody says anything.
“Ethan, weren’t you supposed to be at the office at 7 a.m., or even earlier?” I ask the CEO who is usually the first one in and the last one out.
Now he’s sitting back in his chair, perfectly relaxed, Thalia’s head resting on his shoulder as he watches me with amusement gleaming in his eyes.
“I tried,” he says honestly. “But apparently, it was mandatory for all of us to be here to see whether you two got back together or not,” he continues without the slightest hesitation.
“Ethan…” Thalia scolds softly, but he remains unfazed.
“And judging by the way you two look, how long you took, and the fact that you haven’t stopped holding hands…” he adds just as bluntly. “It’s pretty obvious you did, so I’m not sure what else we’re waiting for.”
The last part is directed at the others, who are staring at us like children waiting to find out whether someone finally bought them their favorite toy.
I lean back against the kitchen island, pulling Selene in front of me and sliding my arms around her waist.
Apparently, that’s all the proof they needed, because the second I pull Selene into my arms, everyone erupts into loud cheers and applause.
All I can do is stand there, happiness settling deep in my chest as I watch how genuinely excited they are for us.
With Nick and Sierra, then Ethan and Thalia, I’d been part of these moments. I’d helped with every attempt to push them together, every carefully laid plan meant to make them realize they belong with each other.
But being on the other side of it—standing here as everyone congratulates you—is a thousand times more fulfilling.
“Finally,” Sierra says, grinning so widely it looks like her cheeks might actually hurt.
She slips out of Nick’s arms and walks toward us, her arms already open. Stopping right in front of Selene, she adds, “Although I should warn you, we haven’t run out of ideas yet.”
Laughing, she hugs my girlfriend—who clearly has no idea what my sister is talking about—and I wrap my arms around both of them.
“Yeah… okay, this definitely needs to be a group hug,” I hear Aiden say, and less than three seconds later, the rest of them pile in around us.
“We’re really happy for you, family,” Colt says in his usual calm tone.
“We were literally making plans for more reconciliation attempts,” Noah adds with a laugh.
“I was convinced this one would work,” Liam announces proudly.
“They got back together faster than Ethan and Thalia,” Theo says, and somewhere in the middle of the group, Ethan groans.
“That’s because Ethan spent half that time away,” Sierra chuckles, clearly amused.
“What are you all talking about?” Selene asks, struggling to breathe in the middle of the crowd. “What attempts?”
I grin, far too satisfied by the fact that she never realized any of it.
That Serena’s room suddenly had to be renovated right now.
That Theo suddenly had to renovate the new hotels right now.
That she conveniently stayed to help with Serena, and I conveniently ended up helping too.
