Page 74 of Left of Forever

“Si?” says Wren softly.

He shakes his head at the sound of her voice, and now I getit. He’s overwhelmed. I know what it is to feel too much, even when it’s happy.

Suddenly, he jerks up from the chair and a sob wrenches out of him, and his arms are stretching to hug us both. He cries into my shoulder, and I laugh and cry with him.

“I knew you wouldn’t fuck this up,” he says, muffled in my shirt.

“I’m glad I made you proud, brother,” I say.

“It’s about fucking time!! Dammit!”

Wren makes a soothing noise and pets the back of his head.

“Hey, Si?” I ask.

He lifts up and steps back, sniffing aggressively and wiping his face. “Yeah?”

“Will you be my best man?”

He points the hand holding the beer at me. “Now you’re just being an asshole,” he says with a violently wobbling chin, just before he hugs me once more. “But no, actually, I won’t,” he adds. He moves away again and bares us one of his shit-eating grins. “Because I’mordainednow!”

“Oh, Jesus, Silas. That was a little presumptuous, don’t you think?” Wren scolds.

“I am bored out of my damned mind most days, anyway, right now, so no, I don’t,” he says. “I can’t wait to have a sister again!”

“What the hell?” says Sage. Micah tugs her into a sideways hug.

“I mean another one,” Silas says, shrugging her off with an eye roll.

“Did you guys tell Sam?” asks Indy from a few yards away, Fisher’s arm slung over her shoulders.

“Yeah,” Wren says, smiling broadly at me. “Yeah, we did.”

As soon as we decided earlier, we FaceTimed Sam right then and there from the side of the highway.

“Hey, Mama,” he’d said when he picked up after a ring.

“Hey, son. How’s it going?” Wren said.

“Uh, it’s going pretty good. Having roommates after being an only child is a little weird, but I don’t hate it, I guess,” he said. “So how’s your trip? How was the cooking class? It looked fun online.”

Wren cut me a glance, and I lifted a brow. “It was a lot of fun, bub,” she said with a smirk. “Dad’s here, too.” She adjusted the phone so he could see us both. “We want to talk to you about something.”

Sam went completely still, his face changing and looking at us in a way that felt eerily like looking into a mirror. “Yeah?” said Sam. “Is everyone okay?”

“Everyone is good, son,” I said.

His eyes darted between us. “Everyone is good?” he asked quietly, and his expression was so hopeful that my vocal cords felt raw when I replied.

“Yeah, son. Better than good.”

He’d started nodding quickly, his lips closed tight on a smile.

“Dad and I want to get back together,” said Wren. “Would you feel okay about that? If that’s weird for you, it’s okay to tell us.”

“Yes, Mom. I’d…” He put his forefinger and his thumb into each eye, trying to jam back his tears. “Yeah, I would feel okay about that,” he’d said.

Back at home, I pull Wren into me again and whisper in her ear, “Want me to get rid of them so we can go sleep in our bed?”