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Will.
My mind goes to him without hesitating. Will with his hands in his pockets and bruises on his face. Will with flowers and an apology. Will begging me to come back.
I hop up from the couch, pushing all those thoughts away.That’sliving in a dream world. He’s not coming back. My heart helpfully ignores the truth and beats hard on the way to check the peephole. A quick lift on tiptoe, and—
It’s not Will.
It’s my brother.
“Sean!” I open the door and throw my arms around him. He’s wearing military fatigues and a black T-shirt, and he has a backpack slung over his shoulder. My older brother hugs me tight. He smells like sturdy cotton and a fall breeze. “Where’s your coat?”
“In the backpack.” He rubs my back with his palm. “Driver had the heat cranked in the car. Must’ve been freezing.”
“Sean!” My younger siblings barrel into us in a coordinated attack. Mia shoves me out of the way and leaps into Sean’s arms. Ben tries to be more manly about it, but ends up hugging Sean fiercely around the waist.
Sean ruffles Ben’s hair. “Who are you, and what have you done with Mia and Ben? Say the code and prove your identities.”
Ben doesn’t miss a beat. “I hate math.”
“I never want to read a book again.” Mia can’t say it without laughing.
Sean bundles them all in through the door, and I close it behind us. “I can’t believe you got taller without my permission. Is your hair redder, Mia? I didn’t tell you to do that, either.”
Mia hops down. “I didn’t tell you to get bigger muscles.”
He shrugs, eyes bright. “Hazard of the job.” Sean runs his hand through dark hair the same color as mine and glances around. “Hey, nice place.”
“Itisnice.” Ben sticks his hands in his pockets. “How long are you staying?”
“A week, unless I get called back earlier, and the odds of that are—”
“Excellent,” Mia sighs.
Sean meets my eyes over their heads with a look that sayswho the hell paid for this?
“We can give you a tour,” Ben starts.
“But the city has even more stuff.” Mia’s expression is serious. She has a plan. “We haven’t seen most of it because, you know, we don’t have that much money, but we’re going to see everything eventually. From the bus, we saw a sign that said—”
“—there was a museumjust for math.” Ben’s face brightens. “We thought we could do that another time. What we really want to do is go to the zoo.”
“Please.” My little sister’s tone goes deadly serious. “Will you please take us to the zoo?”
Sean raises his eyebrows. “Right now?”
“Yes. They have groundhogs, Sean.Groundhogs.”
“You’re both wearing pajamas.” Sean says. “You get dressed, and I’ll take you to the zoo.”
Ben grabs Mia’s arm and they walk-race to their bedroom. “Yes,” he murmurs under his breath. “We’re finally going to get to see those things.”
Their bedroom door shuts, and Sean turns to me, his eyebrows basically at his hairline. “Bristol, what is going on? Where’s Dad?”
My stomach sinks. “I don’t know.”
“So you just…what? Adopted them?”
“He’ll come back.”
