Page 84 of Plain Sight

And then I take Lily—and all of us—on a tour of the house.

I keep saying this is where we. This is where Gabriel and I got in a water gun fight and Mason slipped in the puddle. This is where Remy almost saw Dad being Santa. This is where Mom kept—where Dad kept—where we—where we—where we.

It feels so fucking good.

I know houses aren’t everything. I know things aren’t everything. But when I take Lily into the main bedroom—not exactly the same, new bed, new carpet, new paint, a room I’m proud to offer to my wife—and drop down onto the edge of the bed, I have to focus on not passing out.

“I wanted this,” I admit to her. Mason’s showing everybody how he had the walk-in closet redone. “I would have—” A laugh falls out of my mouth. “I would have torn the house down to keep anyone else from having it, but I didn’t have time. And now I have it.”

“Now you have it.” Lily kisses my cheek. “That has to feel good.”

“It does,” I tell her, and burst into tears.

Obviously, Mason didn’t give me an unfurnished house. He and Sunshine and Dev did a conspiracy to choose new furniture that I’d like while remaining in the spirit of the home, which was where a goofball who was obsessed with his wife had four kids and a great life right up until it was over.

I’d forgotten—until that dream—how funny my dad was.

Surprise! I grew up in his image after all.

When we’ve thoroughly toured the upstairs—no, I do not mean that Lily and I fuck, although we will later—Mason leads us down to the kitchen.

There’s a new nook for Snowball in the kitchen. The cabinets are full of dishes and stuff that Sunshine picked out. There’s a whole row of mugs, same as at Mason’s.

“We should all have them. For the rotating brunches,” he says, his cheeks red.

“Hell yes we should.”

The kitchen is sunny and warm and I cannot fucking wait to eat off the fancy china Sunshine picked. I cannot wait to stand here and see my family in the backyard.

“I can’t fucking wait to host brunch,” I announce. “Who have I become?”

“Our little baby is all grown up,” Nate says, fanning away fake tears.

“Just you wait,” I tell him, as menacingly as possible. “One day, it’ll be your turn to host brunch.”

His eyes go wide, and then his face turns red, and Gabriel steps in to put an arm around his shoulders.

“Hey, Mase,” Gabriel says, exceptionally casually. “Did you happen to bring those papers?”

“These?” Mason pulls a slim packet out of his back pocket, opens it, and shakes out the papers inside. “Yeah. I brought them.”

I gasp. “Did Nate get a wedding present, too?”

Gabriel considers. “More of a birthday, I think.”

Mason hands the papers to Gabriel, who gives them to Nate. He reads them, tears welling in his eyes.

“I thought—” He swallows. “I thought there was some court thing, like—you had to go to court.”

“I paid off the judge,” Mason says, and we all have a hearty laugh. “Did you want to do the court thing? We can, if you need a gavel.”

Nate shakes his head so fast that his hair ruffles. “No. No. I’m—that’s fine. I don’t like—I don’t need that. This is it? This is done?”

“Mason is your dad now,” Gabriel intones. “Just like he’s our—no. He’s not our dad. That’s too weird. He’s your legal guardian now. Elise and I are, too, but Mason’s the main one.”

Nate looks from Mason to Gabriel like he’s expecting to wake up from a dream any second. “Main?”

Gabriel nods. “When our parents died, Mason was the only one who was eighteen. So he was our legal guardian—Remy and Jamie and me. We thought it made more sense to add a brother. That way, the will is less complicated.”