“That’s all yours,” he says, pointing at mountain one. “Those are mine.” He points at mountain two. “Can I go eat?”

“Um …” I start to say.

“We are going to eat, and then you’re going to clean up that mess,” Justin says, getting plates out. “And you are going to fold all the clothes and put them away.”

“Put them away where?” Dylan asks, going to the stool.

“In your room,” he says, and my head snaps to him. I wait for Dylan to say something, but he just asks for pizza.

“After that, can we go to the pool?” Dylan asks, and Justin nods his head.

“Sweetheart, come and eat,” he says, and I look over at him. His eyes fly from the pizza to mine, and he smiles at me. At first, it starts off as a smirk and then his whole face lights up. I take it into my memory, and I know that I’ll remember this moment for years to come.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Justin

“I’m not folding Mom’s clothes,” Dylan says, taking his last bite of his spaghetti. “She has to do her own chores.”

“It wouldn’t be a chore if you hadn’t emptied the bags,” I say, and he just shrugs. When the bags arrived, I knew that Zara overdid it. I can’t say I was surprised or that I even cared. But I was worried about what Caroline would say, and although she looked like she was going to murder me, having Dylan there protected me.

“Go wash your hands,” Caroline says when Dylan slips off the stool, bringing his plate to the sink and rinsing it, then putting it in the dishwasher. Crooked but at least he did it. He hops and skips over to the couch that holds his pile of clothes. When he starts to fold them, I want to get up and go help him. “Sit down,” she says. I look over, and she tries to hide her smile behind her glass of water, but her eyes are lit up.

“I wasn’t going to do anything,” I say and lean in to kiss her lips. “Okay, fine, I was going to do yours at the same time.”

“Sit,” she says. “He made the mess, so he gets to clean it.”

“Fine.” I get off the stool and take my plate and hers to the dishwasher. “Go fold your clothes.”

“I can make piles of things you can donate,” she says, and I stop and look up to glare at her, and she laughs. Sitting on the edge of the couch, she starts to fold her mountain.

I clean up the kitchen when my phone rings, and I look and see it’s Zara on FaceTime. “What did you not understand with my instructions?” I say and look over to see Caroline look at me while Zara just laughs her head off.