“Dad, just let them play,” I said for the fourth time in a row.

Dad, Mariah, and Harrison had come to the cottage for the day, and my dad just couldn’t let the kid run around like a normal twelve-year-old. He kept worrying he’d get hurt.

“He will get hurt,” I said. “You know that, right?”

Dad sighed heavily. “I’m too old for this.”

I laughed. “As someone who grew up with you as my father, I’m going to have to disagree. You seem to be the perfect age for this.”

He really was. He was attentive with both Mariah and Harrison. Samson and I still thought it was a little weird that we had a twelve-year-old brother, but we loved him and treated him like he was one of us, because he was. Mom was still living in London, but she visited once in a while. She said she didn’t want her grandkids not to know her. The environment seemed to quiet down when she was around, though, despite the fact that she’d remarried and seemed extremely happy with Harold.

I watched Mom as she talked to Tessa, who was holding our one-year-old daughter, Luna, in her arms. The moment Mom glanced away, Tessa’s eyes found mine and widened.

Get me out of here, she mouthed.

I chuckled. It wasn’t that Tessa and my mom didn’t get along, it was that they didn’t agree on anything, but Mom loved Tessa. She’d said as much at our wedding. She also said she didn’t remember saying such horrible things to her in the past. She said it was too long ago and her memory was awful, but she admitted that she’d been wrong. We didn’t care. Camryn’s name was never brought up—ever. I didn’t know how she was doing and didn’t care. The only people who mattered to me were Miles, Luna, and Tessa. They were my world. Everything else could wait. My brother jogged over with a beer in each hand and handed one to me.

“Freddie’s here,” he said. “Which means these will be gone in ten minutes.”

I chuckled, taking a sip. “He said he stopped drinking because it was giving him a beer gut and he needed to have abs by June.”

“Well, it’s July,” Sam said, raising an eyebrow. “And here we are.”

“Fuck you.” I scowled. “My abs are fine.”

Sam laughed, taking a sip of his beer. “So, what’s going on? Is Tessa going to leave Prim and come work with us full time?”

“I think so.” I exhaled.

I fucking hoped so. After our socks launched three years ago, we’d expanded RHS Designs and added winter hats and then gloves. I wanted to add a children’s clothing line to bring Tessa’s Mommy and Me and Daddy and Me idea to fruition. Problem was that she liked Prim. The sky-rise and the pay and the demand. We worked together pretty often anyway, this would just mean we’d work together ninety percent of the time instead of just fifty.

“I’ll have to keep trying to convince her,” I said. “We’re finally done remodeling the house. That was step one. If she does come on board for this, I would want to open a boutique to sell everything in. Nothing big.”

“That can work.” Sam nodded. “She’d like that.”

“I think so.”

“Chloe would probably want to leave with her,” he added. “Tessa was trying to get her promoted, but she seems to like working side by side with her.”

I smiled. “Well, in that case, we’d have to make room for her.”

“What in the world are you looking at?” he asked, looking at my phone. I pushed the side button quickly.

“Nothing.”

Samson chuckled loudly. “Tessa!”

She glanced up, shot daggers at me, and then smiled at my brother for rescuing her from the conversation with my mom. She shifted Luna into my mom’s arms and headed our way.

“Thanks for nothing,” she said to me and then looked at Sam. “What’s up?”

“I think Rowan has a problem.”

“What?”

“He’s obsessed with mommy boards.”

Tessa’s eyes glimmered in amusement. She already knew this. We talked about it all the time because one freaking time we got into an argument, and I’d used the mommy board as my source of relief for teething.

“Don’t start,” I said before she could say anything and of course, that only made her laugh and look at my brother, who was also laughing.

“I keep telling him Luna’s fine. He’s worried that she isn’t speaking enough,” she said. “Guess why? Because the moms—”

“What moms?” Freddie asked, joining us. “By the way, Celia’s on her way with Ben.”

“You’re kidding.” Tessa’s eyes widened. “She has so much explaining to do.”

Freddie nodded and then looked at me. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, you know, Ro and his obsession with mommy boards,” Sam said.

Tessa held her stomach as she laughed. If it weren’t for the fact that the sound was one of my favorite things in the world and seeing her eyes light up made me feel warm all over, I would have been upset. Since it was and they did, I spent the rest of the afternoon fending off their stupid jokes. When everyone was gone and the kids were both sleeping peacefully in their rooms, I found her standing by the window that overlooked the lake. I walked up, wrapped my arms around her, and took a deep breath. Every morning, I asked myself how I had gotten as lucky as I had, and every morning I was left without an answer. Every night, I thanked the stars for bringing her into my life on more than one occasion.

“I love you, Sprite.”

She glanced up at me. “I love you. Always.”