"Aw, Max."
"It's true."
"...I'm so glad."
"Yeah."
Richard sets his mail down. "For what it's worth," he says, mild, "the boys had a real good time too. Atlas told me yesterday it was the best vacation he could remember.Best he could remember, his words. For a second I thought I was hallucinating."
"He said that?" I ask, licking my bottom lip after taking another sip of the too-sweet lemonade.
"Mm. And Zero was actually civil that night we got back from our beach walk, remember Margot? Voluntarily."
“It was lovely.” Margot smiles.
"Thatisrare,” I murmur.
"It is exceptionally rare. He’s a prickly one. I told Margot that from day one, didn’t I?"
Margot hides a smile behind a long sip of lemonade and I can’t help but smile too.
He’s right. Zero is quite prickly. The bond hums like a response–a little shiver down my spine.
The kitchen settles a degree warmer.
Margot reaches across and squeezes my wrist.
"This is what I always wanted, you know," she says. Quiet. "You and the boys. A real family. All of us at one table."
"I know, Mom."
"I worried it wouldn't take. Boys with grown lives, a son just starting one, all of you at different speeds—"
"Honey,” Richard says, as if he doesn’t want her to get all sappy.
She does anyway.
"It took," she says. To me. Steady. "That's all. Ittook. I'm grateful every day."
"Me too."
I mean it. Definitely not in the same way she does, but I’m grateful for how things have turned out anyway.
Richard, still holding Margot's hand, lifts his glass with the other.
"To the trip."
We clink. Lemonade against lemonade against lemonade. Margot's eyes are full but not running over and Richard is seconds from cracking up at how sentimental she is. She always has been, it’s one of her greatest strengths.
Richard takes a slow sip. Sets his glass down. He has gone back to his mail-pile but I can tell he isn't reading it.
"It was a real surprise to me, you know," he says. Mild. Into the table. "That all three of them came."
I take a long, long drink.
"Yeah?"
"I thought we'd see Atlas. Atlas always shows up to family things whether it’s convenient for him or not." He turns the glass between his fingers. "Bane I figured we'd see for a Saturday and lose to a bottle of bourbon by Sunday morning. Zero I had at twenty percent."
