out loud, fearing I’d sound stupid. But he does.
He’s dressed in a pair of sweats and my favorite sweatshirt from college he borrowed once and conveniently forgot to return. It fits him better anyway. Kai’s an inch shorter than my six feet, and he has this sinewy strength about him.
I’m suddenly hit by how much I’ve missed him, and since I don’t want to act like an idiot and start hugging him for no apparent reason—done that one already, after all—I concentrate back on the task at hand. Moving. That’s why we’re here.
“How’s it going?” I ask.
Kai looks up at me, scowling so hard that it looks like he has a unibrow.
“I’m tempted to burn this place down.”
“Cool. Arson charges. I don’t get a lot of those, so at least it’ll be interesting to find a way to spin this.”
“Can I just dump everything?” Kai whines.
“It can’t be that bad. You’ve been traveling for the last decade. How much crap can you possibly have accumulated?”
“Apparently a lot.” He lowers his voice and glances toward the garage entrance. “I don’t think it’s all mine. I think Mon has been sneaking her own stuff here just to mess with me, so I’ve been hiding some of this shit in her closets and shelves. Do not open the door of that closet.” He points to the corner. “In fact, don’t even walk past it. You’ll cause an avalanche.”
I’m not going to touch that hornet’s nest. I want to be able to plead ignorance once Monica, inevitably, goes to get her revenge.
Kai, on his part, looks extremely proud of himself. Yeah, still not going there. I roll up my sleeves and grab one of the boxes. “Come on. Let’s get this over with so we can go home.”
Kai grins.
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing.” He looks down at his feet for a second like he’s embarrassed. “I just like the sound of that. Home.”
There’s a strange jolt in my stomach. I ignore it as I push another box his way. “Get to work, then.”
Monica and Ivo stand next to the van as Kai pushes the last of his belongings in and slams the sliding door shut with a loud thud. We made good progress, and now the boxes that we take with us only contain necessary items.
Ivo pretends to wipe a tear from his eye. “It feels like we’re sending our only son off to college. They grow up so fast.”
“It kind of does,” Monica muses. “Did you have the sex talk with him and slip the condoms in his bag?”
“Right after I gave him his first sip of beer after I was done telling him he was a man now.”
Monica pats her husband’s cheek. “You’re a good father.”
“I mean, I don’t disagree,” Ivo says with pretend modesty. “Also, we should have more kids now that we got the first one out of the house. Look at our little boy, all grown up. I think he turned out… adequate. Right?” Monica nods as Ivo continues. “Sure, he’s a bit screwed up, but he’s the first one. You know, like the first pancake. You always mess that up. The next ones will be better.”
Kai looks affronted. “Excuse me. I’m at least a third pancake. If anyone’s the first, crappy pancake, it’s Monica.”
Monica ignores Kai as she taps her finger against her chin and looks at Ivo. “You know, now that I think about it, it was really clever of us to test our parenting out on this one.” She flicks her thumb at Kai. “Now when we have kids of our own, they can just flourish because we’ve already committed all the grave faux pas of childrearing.”
They high-five as Kai steps forward and says, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean faux pas? I’m perfect. Besides, I thought we agreed that Monica is the first pancake?”
I lean back against the door of the car. This is going to take a while. I’ve always envied the Morgan siblings. They have lost a lot in their lives, but somehow they’ve come out on the other side without any visible dents, and they have their ability to laugh at themselves intact.
“I may have some burnt edges, but I’m still edible,” Monica says with a shrug.
Ivo slides his arm around Monica and waggles his brows. “You’re delicious.” He leans closer and murmurs into her ear. “Especially with a bit of whipped cream on top.”
I imagine I have the same horrified expression on my face I can see on Kai’s.
“Is this what it