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“See?” Ed interjects “Murder kink”

“Anyway, he seeet it,” I say “I think he is relieved to see that I really am okay, and not a nutcase”

Alex clears his throat

“Okay, not a coainst the side ofe experiment and you have no idea whether it’s successful until, like, decades later”

I turn around and kiss him “You are so sublimely dorky”

After this, everyone is quiet for a few seconds I realize hoeird it h this, and I think I should probably say so about how much I love that they’re here or what it means to have a family like this for the first time in my life But then Alex rips an enorroans and stands up to open a , and Ed starts pretending to beat Alex with the tiny lead pipe, and I think, These idiots

Reid spreads his hands acrossI love when he does that, when he spreads his hands wide like he wants to cover as h the rest of the roo into twelve-year-old-boy chaos of belching full sentences and jokes about lead pipes

“I’m proud of you,” he says quietly

“I’m proud of me, too,” I say “And I really like that you’re here”

“Do you think we can sneak out of here unnoticed?” he asks, lips pressed gently to o have sex now”

I nod “On the count of three”

“One,” he says

“Two,” I say

“Three”

We stand, slowly backing away fro out the , trying to reach the shoe that Alex just launched outside

Reid and I e to tiptoe all the way down the hall to the master bedroom before our absence is noticed

“Don’t think we didn’t see that!” Alex yells

“We’re turning the ht!” Ed says “Don’t be weird!”

“We’ll do our best!” I call back

Last night, I barked like a dog just to freak the noises