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“Mom and Dad are totally getting back together,” Yves declared.
“What?” Sah asked.
“They’re getting back together,” Yves repeated.
“They aren’t, brother, I talked to Mom about it today,” Manon said.
“When today?” Yves asked.
“Before her girls’ night.”
“When she was in the car or something?” Yves pushed.
“No. I don’t think so. I didn’t ask. Why?”
“Because me and Dad were in the kitchen having a beer—”
Manon rolled her eyes and interrupted him. “You will note Dad didn’t initiate me to alcohol with Gastineau Family Hold Your Drink 101.”
“Because Mom had been letting you have a half a glass of wine at dinner since you were fifteen, a full one starting at sixteen, and she mixed your freaking martinis herself the first time you came home for a visit from school,” Sah pointed out.
Manon shut up.
“Why do you think they’re getting back together?” Sah asked.
“Well, first, she didn’t kick Dad out. She just started bickering with him immediately, like he never left,” Yves explained.
None of them said anything.
But they all knew what that meant.
Manon spoke first.
“She seemed pretty…firm about that not happening, Y.”
“She was looking MILF, as usual, and I can say that because I’m gay,” Yves said.
Manon grinned.
Sah laughed.
“And she walked in, and for a second there, I thought I needed to figure out how to disappear in a puff of smoke because I thought he’d jump her,” Yves finished.
“This is gross,” Sah muttered.
“There are worse things than your parents having a very healthy sex life,” Manon sniffed.
“Did you hear me a second ago saying this is gross?” Sah asked.
“You guys, shut up. They’re getting back together,” Yves pressed. “He called her ‘baby.’”
Both his older siblings focused on him, he could tell, even if they were looking at his face on a screen.
“He did?” Manon asked quietly.
Yves nodded.
“What’d she do?” Sah asked.
“Nothing, it was like when they were together. They just kept squabbling. Mom was on a roll, it was her usual, totally hilarious. And Dad totally did not miss how hilarious it was.”
“Yves, bud, I hear you, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Sabre said.
“Yeah,” Manon agreed, though she now seemed unsure.
“You weren’t there,” Yves told them.
“Just, you know, you’re home and around them more, so be…you know, cautious, okay?” Sah advised.
They’d all been crushed when their dad left.
Sure, their parents fought, but most of the time, it was like today. They were just two strong personalities who had no problem laying it out. Their mom would be funny, their dad would be cool and egg her on, sometimes it’d escalate and then they’d disappear in their bedroom where the argument might get loud, but then it’d get very quiet for a long time.
So there was love, a lot of it in that house, and having half of the engine that drove that love walk out the door, the buzz of the house had changed drastically and it had been hard to take.
The three of them didn’t lose him, just time with him.
But Mom lost him, and it was killer, watching that.
And maybe it was good advice to be cautious.
But since they broke up, his dad never followed him home from practice with the lame excuse that he was bringing the booze over for their get-together early, but also to grab a beer and shoot the shit, and that was not about him initiating Yves in Gastineau Family Hold Your Drink 101.
Dad could do that at his house.
It was about Dad being in a place where he could see Mom, and she could see him.
“I’ll be cautious,” Yves said.
And he would.
But still.
Their parents were getting back together.
“Can I go back to my date now?” Manon asked, and it wasn’t snotty. She wanted to know if Yves was cool.
“Yeah, sister. Have fun,” Yves said.
“Later, bros,” she replied then her face blinked out.
“You good?” Sah asked.
“Yeah,” Yves answered.
“See you tomorrow,” Sabre said.
“Tomorrow, brother. Later,” Yves replied.
Sah blinked out too.
Yves shut his laptop.
Then he picked up his phone and called Theo.
“Hey, babe,” Theo answered.
“Hey,” he greeted his boyfriend. “So, one, I’m a man now, my dad gave me a beer, and two, strap in, because I’m springing you on them tomorrow and then you’ll be on the Gastineau train and we’re all along for the ride, which is sure to be rocky, of Mom and Dad getting back together.”
Theo’s laugh was deep and rich, and Yves felt it in the two places he always felt it. In his chest, and points south.
“Looking forward to it,” Theo said.
Even though his man couldn’t see him, Yves smiled.
“Are you sure this springing me on them gig is the right way to play it?” Theo asked (again, he’d mentioned it before).
“One, Dad knows you,” Yves pointed out, because that was true. Theo played rugby with him and had for the last five years, and his dad had always been their coach. “Two, yes. I’m sure.”
