“Sure you’re going to be okay?” Eva’s voice came over the phone. She was back in town, but we hadn’t had a chance to see each other yet.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine. It was going to happen sometime or another. Might as well get it over with.”

Mom called me and asked me to come over for lunch. Specifically not go out, but come to the house. We hadn’t spoken since dinner, so hopefully her inviting me over for lunch meant she actually wanted to talk about what happened and not have to have our public faces on the way she’d insist on at a restaurant.

Eva sighed. “I wish I could be there to run interference.”

“You can’t be a shield between me and Mom every time we have a disagreement, Va-va. I need to do it myself.”

“Yeah.” Her voice was quiet. “I just wish you didn’t have to.”

I was staring into the long mirror on my bedroom wall. On the floor in front of it actually, doing my make-up. My phone was propped against the wall, and I could see her on video. There was a silence, and I took the risk. “I went to see dad.”

“You did?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you… are you okay?”

“No, not really.”

She blew out a breath. “Yeah, I was going to say. That’s probably been a long time coming.”

“Maybe.”

“No maybe, Esme. I know dad’s death hit me hard, and I’m not going to apologize for it. But it hit you harder, and you wouldn’t admit it. Dad was your person, and Mom has always been mine. We both know it.”

I laughed. “I thought something similar while I was there. But it seems disrespectful to say they have favorites.”

“Parents always have favorites.” Eva rolled her eyes. “Unless there’s only one kid. Fair? No. Real? Yeah.”

“Don’t wear my pack out too much today, okay? I need them. This screen test has been distracting and I haven’t been getting nearly enough attention.”

She could hear both the truth and the exaggeration in the statement. “I won’t wear them out. It’s only a screen test, there’s nothing strenuous about it. And they’re your pack now?”

I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “Yeah, they are.”

Luke and I hadn’t talked about it this morning, but I was planning on telling them all together tonight. I was one-hundred percent in love with them, and had been for a while. I didn’t ever want to leave, and now that I knew, I wished I’d told them sooner.

Eva shrieked and did a little dance. “I’m so happy for you!”

“Don’t say anything. I’m telling them later.”

“My lips are completely sealed.”

A text popped up on the screen—Wes telling me he was outside whenever I was ready.