“What do you mean a second sibling-text group?” Silas demanded, calling up the group message on his phone.

Michael slid his phone over to Silas on the bar.

“What the hell, man?” Silas was offended and impressed. He considered himself to be the glue of his generation. Checking in with his sister, Taylor, on the East Coast. Demanding daily pregnancy updates from their half-sister, Nirina. But here was evidence of an entire conversation with flashing pictures and cartoon eggplants going on without him. “What is this?”

“They’re GIFs and emojis. The ones that don’t move are memes.”

“I feel like you just told me there’s no Santa Claus,” Silas said sadly.

“You’re the one who told me there was no Santa. Your parents didn’t want you believing.”

“So you cut me out of the family?”

Michael was trying not to laugh. “You’re so antitechnology, we didn’t want to overwhelm you,” he said.

“You put me in this message thing right now, and after you show me how to look up the love of my life on YouTube, you’re gonna teach me how to put those moving pictures in shit,” Silas said.

“I think we’re going to need another round,” Michael said to the bartender.

“And maybe some finger steaks,” Silas added.

Over finger steaks and alcohol, the brothers walked carefully through the steps.

“Hang on,” Michael said, looking up with wide eyes. “Maggie Nichols is the future Mrs. Wright?”

“You know her?”

“I watch her show. She flips houses. The one she’s doing now is this beachfront place in Oregon.” Michael scrolled through the long list of videos while he talked.

“Was. Now she’s here,” Silas corrected.

“You’ve got to introduce me, man.”

Silas hadn’t seen Michael this excited over anything since he’d scored tickets to the John Legend concert in Boise. “Okay. Sure.”

Seeing his bafflement, Michael grinned. “You don’t get it. She’s a celebrity. You see this number here?”

Silas leaned in, peering at the screen. “Yeah.”

“That’s the number of people who subscribe to her channel.” At Silas’s frown, Michael rolled his eyes. “It’s the number of people who want to watch every video she uploads.”

“That seems like a lot,” he guessed.

“A million followers is a big deal,” Michael confirmed. “And she’s close. Wait a second. Are you actually going to be on her show?”

Silas unwrapped his brother’s fingers from where they’d clamped on to his arm. “I am if she accepts my estimate. I made quite the impression on her this morning, so it could go either way.”

“What kind of an impression?” Michael looked like all his hopes and dreams were pinned on this moment.