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Avi smiled at the mangled pancake, locking eyes with Asa for a moment before crowing, “Sick.”

Zane rolled his eyes at the bro speak.

“But how about you eat that pancake instead of playing with it since Poppy went through all the work of making that for you?”

“It’s his fourth one,” Zane admitted.

“Fourth?” Avi cried. “Hell yeah, brother. That’s what I’m talking about.”

He high-fived a giggling West.

The boys were eating them out of house and home lately. No matter how much breakfast Zane served them, they were begging for a snack before they even made it to the drop-off line. Their pediatrician said they were about to have another growth spurt. Considering Oscar had already inherited Asa and Avi’s endless appetite, Zane was slightly concerned they were going to eat him into bankruptcy before kindergarten.

“I ate five pieces of bacon,” Oscar said in a tone that let them know he, too, wanted praise for his accomplishment.

“Hell yeah, wild man. Good job,” Asa said.

“My boys can eat,” Avi shouted.

Oscar puffed his chest out proudly while West immediately held up four sticky fingers like he was keeping score.

Zane rolled his eyes. “Where’s Lix?”

Avi grinned, shaking his head. “He’s currently standing in the middle of our closet spiraling from decision paralysis.”

Felix had been invited to guest lecture at the Fashion Institute and had been spiraling about it ever since.

“Oh, should I…” Zane asked, pointing vaguely in the direction of the bedrooms.

Avi nodded. “Probably. He’s gonna be late for his talk if you don’t nudge him.”

Zane nodded, making his way down the hall, narrowly escaping the burping contest erupting in his wake.

The second he stepped out of the kitchen, the volume doubled. Oscar cackled. West shouted something unintelligible. Asa and Avi immediately abandoned any pretense of responsible parenting and began not only judging the competition but participating.

Zane sighed. This was just a typical Wednesday morning since moving to Serenity Grove. It was taking some getting used to. He was used to the city where everything was open twenty-four hours a day and a ten-minute walk. Now, they lived in the suburbs where their neighbors had all been classmates with the twelve disciples and they rolled up the sidewalks by nine p.m.

He did like the quiet.

He liked having the family close.

Oscar and West were constantly playing with their cousins next door or one street over. There were sleepovers on weekends and family movie nights in Jericho and Freckles’ backyard now that they had a pool and a projector screen.

The kids moved through the neighborhood in little packs now, bouncing between houses like they all shared custody of one another. It was everything Zane had wanted as a kid but had never dared to dream of. A real home. A loud one. A chaotic one. One full of people who wanted him there.

He found Felix in the middle of what looked like a garment factory explosion.

Clothes covered every available surface. A sequined jacket hung from a lamp. Three pairs of shoes sat in the middle of the floor, like they’d been abandoned during an evacuation.

He was frantically unbuttoning a white sleeveless shirt while glaring accusingly at his reflection in the closet’s full-length mirror.

“Lix, what’s happening?” Zane asked, stepping inside and closing the closet door, enjoying the brief pocket of silence.

The sudden quiet felt almost sacred after the breakfast chaos.

Felix huffed, sinking to the floor. “I have nothing to wear!”

Zane let his eyes scan the rows and rows of luxury goods.