stopped doing it when you...” Lincoln starts, sitting up. He kicks Liam’s arm and shakes Lachlan’s shoulder.
A second later, the scene is a complete contrast to the one we walked in to. Dad’s hugging Mia and Benny, and then Mia goes over to hug the twins, greeting them with what I’m positive is a whispered, “What’s up, you little shits?” Lachlan high-fives her and Benny, and then takes Benny out to the porch to collect his blue bucket. They’re off on an adventure together, while Dad gets dressed, and I ask the twins, “Where is everyone?”
“We stopped Sunday Family Breakfast when you stopped talking to us,” Linc answers.
Liam adds, shrugging, “Yeah. It didn’t seem right.”
Then both of them, at the same time: “If you tell them to come, they will!”
Mia side-eyes me, her hand loose in mine. “How do they do that?” she whispers.
I shake my head, take my phone from my pocket, and answer, “I’ve spent many years trying to figure it out, and it’s futile. We’ll never understand.”
Tapping at my phone, I open the family group chat, ignoring all the unread messages.
Leo: Sunday Family Breakfast, you fuckers. If my girl can be here, you all can too!
Less than a minute later, Dad’s back downstairs, and Logan’s bursting through the door. “Shut. Up!” he shouts, lifting Mia off her feet and spinning her in a circle. She giggles, grasping on to his shoulders.
“Okay,” I say, pulling Logan off of her. “That’s enough of that.” I push Mia behind me, my eyes narrowed, arms crossed as I face my younger brother. “Dibs.”
“How many times do I have to tell you this?” Red says, walking through the door. “You can’t call dibs on people.”
“Babe!” Logan shouts. “Look.” He’s pointing between Mia and me. “The band is back together, bitches!”
“You have a band?” Mia squeals, her eyes so wide it almost kills me to disappoint her.
“No.” I chuckle. “It’s just an expression.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders drop, her gaze lowering. “Wait!” And then she laughs. Like, all out, uncontrollable, eyes watering laughter. And no one has a single clue why. When she’s calmed down enough to actually speak, she notices that we’re all staring at her. “You already have a cop,” she struggles to say. “And a construction worker…”
I have no idea where this is going, and judging by the looks of confusion on my brothers’ faces, they don’t know either.
Mia’s shaking her head as if she cannot understand why we don’t get it.
She adds, “So you just need—”
Dad’s sudden bark of laughter scares us all.
Now they’re both laughing, and what the fuck?
Mia starts moving her arms all over the place. “Why Em See…” she starts to sing. “The Village People?” Her eyes shift from one person to the next, her smile fading. “No. You don’t…”
We’re all shaking our heads.
I say, patting her head, “You’re such an odd, little thing.”
Sighing, she mumbles, “No. I was just born in the wrong generation.”
An hour later, the kitchen table is filled with enough food to feed an army, which is basically what we are. There was no food to cook here, so Lucas and Laney went to the diner and basically ordered five of everything on the breakfast menu. Going by the way Mia’s giggling, I don’t think she’s ever seen the level of food intake she’s witnessing right now. There weren’t enough chairs for everyone to sit, so Lucas, Logan, and the twins opt to stand. Lucy’s here, too, along with Cameron. Benny’s spent most of the time ducking all the food Katie throws at him. Every time Lucy goes to scold her, his little eyebrows furrow at her, then he wipes it clean as he smiles at Katie. “It’s okay, Princess,” he soothes.
“We’re going to need a bigger table,” Dad muses.
“And more room,” Logan says, elbowing Lincoln’s side.
Around a mouthful of eggs, I mumble, “You should just knock down the wall to the formal dining room. No one uses it. When was the last time anyone even went in there?”
Dad nods. “Good plan.”
I continue to stuff my face while Mia talks to Aubrey about girly shit. And then there’s a hammer right beside my head. I almost choke on my food, but I follow the arm holding on to the hammer to see Dad looking down at Benny. “Feel like putting a hole in a wall, Benny?”
Benny’s eyes are huge. “Really?” he asks, jumping out of his chair.
“Sure,” Dad says, and we all go quiet, turn in our seats, and watch them move toward the