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Bren cleared his throat and threw on the smile he always used whenever Mam needed buttering up.

“Hey there, Holly. It’s nice to meet you.”

Holly tilted her head but still didn’t say anything. Was shyness genetic?

He knew better from the disaster of Arlo’s first day in Glenbridge to keep hammering the same point, and changed tactics.

His eyes fell on the headphones around her neck—were those genetic too? Unlike Arlo’s, they were big enough that they would have covered her ears and then some. They were also bright purple and looked like they’d been coated in glue and thrown down the craft aisle of a particularly colourful Dealz.

“Those headphones look gas. Did you decorate them yourself?”

Holly kept staring as the hand that had been in her hair trailed down to the headphones. She ran her thumb along it while still maintaining unblinking eye contact.

Bren was about to try again when her pursed lips softened.

“You talk funny.”

“Holly!” Arlo’s mam looked horrified, but Bren laughed.

“It’s alright. Wouldn’t be Irish if I didn’t sound a bit mad, like.”

He’d expected Holly to at least smile at that. Instead, her brow furrowed and her lips twitched into something dangerously close to a frown.

Holly finally tore her unblinking gaze away to look back at Arlo.

“You know how Grandpa Bouchard talked kind of different because he grew up in Gravelbourg?”

Holly didn’t say anything, but she did shoot Bren another look that seemed less offended.

“Well, that’s an accent. Everyone has one, even us. So he sounds a bit funny to us, and we sound a bit funny to him.”

Holly considered Bren a while longer, then answered as if there hadn’t been an exchange between his last question. “A.J. helped me make them.”

“He do the ears?”

Holly slipped the headphones off and ran her thumbs along the purple and green triangles that had been glued to the top. The left one was crooked and had a bit of silver wire sticking out through the felt. When it didn’t look like she was going to reply, Arlo patted the top of her head.

“Holly loves kitty cats.”

She looked up at Arlo like she’d forgotten he was there and let out a soft meow. When it became obvious that was all she had to say, Arlo’s mam pulled Bren into a hug before he had time to react. His ears may as well have been smoking by the time she pulled away and fixed him with a watery smile.

“It’s so good to finally meet you in person. Arlo talked about you all summer.”

“Mom!”

He shot a glance at Holly. She was still running her thumbs along the back of the felt ears with an absent smile.

“Well, you did! Oh! Where’s the camera? I should get a picture of the two of you.”

Arlo groaned and pulled at Bren’s hand like he was going to head back downstairs.

“Oh, right, you’re seventeen. Way too cool to humor your mom in front of your boyfriend.”

“Katherine,” Arlo’s da said, running his hand along the edge of the table as he stepped towards her.

“Alright, alright.”

She leaned into her husband’s touch with a smile that told Bren she was running through the highlights of Arlo’s life.