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“Or maybe I’ll invest in any other stupid hobby,” he continued. “I don’t know what I want to do, but I do know I’m not going to freeload either. I’ll get a job. I’ll pay my own bills and pay you rent—”

“You’re not paying me rent,” I interrupted. “But you are going to clean up after yourself. My house isn’t a frat house or a dorm room. And you’re not going to have a revolving door of tongue inspectors coming into my house either.”

Jude laughed so loud it echoed through the garage. He doubled over the table, his whole body shaking. The one time he looked up, my flat expression only made him laugh harder.

“Deal,” he agreed as he blew out a long breath, trying to get control of himself. “I really will get a job.”

“I know,” I said.

What I didn’t say was that it’d be nice to have him around longer. I’d already missed too many years of his life. Having him underfoot no longer felt like an obligation. It was something I wanted. Even if that meant, eventually, I had to introduce him to May and the rest of his favorite band. At least I didn’t have to worry about that for a while.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked.

“Sleeping,” Jude replied as if that was obvious. Of course that was his answer. I looked at him, taking in the sweatshirt he’d been wearing for the last three days and the fact that he still hadn’t managed to replace half the things he’d left at our father’s house.

“I’m taking Theo to get a winter jacket and some other things,” I told him. “You’re coming with us.”

“Rhodes—”

“You need a jacket, Jude,” I cut him off, offering no room to argue. “And you’re not breaking into Dad’s house to get yours. So either you come with us, or I’m going to buy you the pinkest fucking coat I can find.”

His mouth twitched despite the glare he tried to give me.

“I’d pull that shit off.”

“Sadly, he would,” Theo chimed in. He leaned against the frame with that goofy grin, his hair slightly mussed and his cheeks still pink from whatever chaos was happening inside. My whole demeanor changed at the sight of him, and I smiled wide. It was probably ridiculous how much I missed him, even when he was just in a different room in the house. Theo pointed at Jude as he said, “I’m supposed to tell you that they’re starting a dinosaur movie.”

“Without me?” Jude exclaimed, gasping dramatically. He was off the stool before Theo could answer, abandoning our conversation and whatever half-finished project sat in front of him. From the way he rushed into the house, someone would’ve thought there was an emergency.

“That man is a full-grown adult,” I muttered. “And what movie are they watching?”

“Uh…” Theo made a face. “They found some cartoon called The Land Before Time in the homeowner’s video drawer. We had to Google how to play a VHS… actually, we had to look up what a VHS was first. Did you know it stands for Video Home System?”

I ignored how painful it was that I knew all the answers. My age was showing. Instead, I got stuck on their choice of movie.

“Oh, no,” I whispered, staring through the door where Jude had disappeared, mentally picturing the team settling in for what they clearly thought was some harmless dinosaur cartoon. “Oh, they’re about to be emotionally destroyed.”

“Really?” he asked. “It seems cute.”

“It’s not,” I said. He made a sound but didn’t ask me to elaborate as he crossed the space between us. I rotated on my stool when he was close, and Theo slipped both arms around my shoulders. I lightly took hold of his sweatshirt and pulled him closer, kissing him softly.

“I missed you,” he murmured against my lips.

“Not that fun being roasted without me to share the embarrassment, is it?” I replied, making him laugh. Oh, how I loved that sound. I kissed him again.

“It was brutal.” His lips curled into a small smile as he said it. “Did you know Wyatt won four hundred and seventy-five dollars because of us?”

“Do we get a cut?” I asked, and he shook his head. “I feel like we should get a cut of that. He wouldn’t have made any of that if it wasn’t for us.”

“I’d love to see you tell him that,” Theo said. “Well, you’d probably scare him into it.”

“I’m not that scary,” I retorted. His arched brow told me he wasn’t buying my bullshit. I dragged him closer and kissed him harder to avoid that conversation. I sighed against his mouth and admitted softly, “I missed you too.”

“Are you coming inside?”

“In a minute,” I told him. His fingers slid through my hair. The light touch sent a shiver down my spine. “I just needed a little quiet.”

“I figured,” he replied. He tipped his forehead against mine and let out a content sigh. My hold on him tightened.