Page 123 of Dissonance

“Honey, you were so excited to show him this morning,” Thea says, reaching over and smoothing down the tuft of hair sticking up at the back of Callie’s head. Our daughter has her mother’s hair and her mother’s precise opinion on how things should be done, which at five, manifests as a scowl and a pouted lip that could stop traffic. “You can share.”

“No.” The scowl deepens. “Ziggy always breaks my things.”

“I do not!” Ziggy yells from somewhere out back.

Callie twists to shout over my shoulder, her high-pitched voice ringing in my ear. “You do!”

“Alright,” I say, adjusting my grip before she launches herself out of my arms entirely. “Use your inside voices, you two.”

“He started it,” she informs me, gone before I can say another word, her small feet thundering down the hallway.

“Swear those two will end up married when they’re older,” Cooper says, a sound that might be laughter disguised as a cough escaping as I glare at him. “I think I liked it better when your face barely moved.”

Thea snorts, leaning past me to grab a bottle of wine. “And that’s my cue.”

She heads toward the back door, and I watch her go before turning to the window. The space outside is loud, the chaos of a children’s birthday party in full swing. Ed and Jess sit at the table, fully absorbed in whatever Izzy’s showing them. Thea’s mom and mine are on the deck chairs, champagne in hand, deep in a conversation that seems to have started the moment they arrived. Our dads are near the barbecue in comfortable silence, the two men having found over the past five years, they have more in common than either expected. Mae’s in the far corner, feet up on the chair in front of her, one hand resting on the curve of her stomach, Jackson beside her, laughing at something on his phone he keeps trying to show her.

“Where are Paige and Maddox?” Declan asks, coming in and handing Cooper a fresh beer.

“Last I saw, near the bounce house—” I pause, catching movement through the glass. “There. With Beau and Eli.”

Cooper glances down at Freddie, tilting him slightly and waiting, frowning when nothing happens. “Come on, buddy, work with me here.”

“Try patting a bit lower,” Declan says.

“I know how to burp my own son.”

“I know you do, baby. I’m just saying.”

Cooper adjusts him anyway, their four-month-old belching immediately. Declan smiles, leaning in and kissing the side of his husband’s head.

“How’s the company coming along?” he asks, settling against the counter.

“Slow and steady,” I say. “Five guys on the books now. Two anchoring the West Coast, another pair working out of Texas, and a new guy starting in the East in a few weeks.”

“Not finding your feet anymore with it, eh?” Declan says, pointing at me with his beer.

Cooper grins. “Before you know it, you’ll have an empire, and I’ll have to actually pay for my security.”

“You already do,” I deadpan, then leave them to it as I head out into the mid-afternoon heat.

Callie and Ziggy have apparently forgotten their feud over the drum set and are now shrieking and laughing as Izzy chases them around the garden. Balloons line every fence post in varying shades of pink and purple, banners and streamers floating on the breeze.

On the far side, Paige and Maddox stand slightly apart from everyone else, and whatever she’s saying changes his entire expression. He goes completely still, a slow grin spreading over his face, and then he’s grabbing her hand, tugging her after him.

“—we can’t go now,” she laughs, trying to pull out of his grip. “I said I think I’m ready. That doesn’t mean we need to try right this second.”

“We’re absolutely leaving.”

“It’s Callie’s birthday party, we can’t—”

“You’re leaving?” my daughter asks, her attention whipping around at the sound of her name.

Maddox crouches down to her level, taking her small hands in his. “Me and your Aunt Paige have to go do something very important.”

“What?”

“Uh— Grown-up stuff.”