“So,” Axel said as he stared out the window. “Married huh?”

“Don’t start shit,” I sighed. 

“I’m not starting anything. Just making conversation with a brother I haven’t seen in seven years.”

“Yes, I’m married. Only for a year now but it’s been great.”

“Do you love them,” Weylyn asked as he stared at me with stars in his eyes.

“More than anything.” He smiled at that answer and I have to be honest in saying I missed that smile over the years. He could light up a room and not even notice he was the one doing it. 

“I want to love someone that much one day,” he said with a dreamy sigh as he turned his eyes to the window.

“Good luck with that,” Axel scoffed. “Clearly Callum is taking all of the men in the world for himself.”

“They’re too old for you anyway,” I said with a scoff of my own.

“Older guys are hot though. I might steal Ryder for myself.” He was only teasing but I couldn’t help but feel a pissed at the idea. 

“Don’t flirt with my husband.”

“Just saying, he seemed more excited to me see me last night than he was to see you.”

“He’s like 30,” Weylyn said with a disapproving tone. I couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Please say that to his face when I’m in the room.”

“Is he not 30?”

“You think I would date a 30 year old?”

“Well you’re 30 too aren’t you?”

My laugh stopped immediately. 

“You think I’m 30? I’m 22! I didn’t magically get 10 years older when I left!”

“22,” Axel asked as he looked up and down face with a small scowl from the rearview mirror. “That doesn’t sound right. You don’t look that young.”

“Fuck both of you.”

“Callum that’s incest, stop it,” Weylyn said with a voice that I would have thought was too serious if it weren’t for the small smile on his face.

“This is why I look 30,” I told them as I pulled us into a parking space. “Because I had to deal with you brats for most of my life.”

“That’s rude,” Axel said as he got out of the car and slammed the door because he just always had to get the last word in. 

“Get in the fucking store before I change my mind and take you back home with nothing.” Weylyn flinched at the harsh words but started walking, notable tucked into his brother’s side as always. 

There was a reason I had sent Ryder away from us. The trip lasted all of an hour despite the rather long list of things we needed when it would have easily lasted three if Ryder had come with us. The two of them now had several different outfits for when I found them a school to go to since summer break was coming to an end. They also had new shoes, socks, body and hair products, a few new books for Weylyn (maybe I hadn’t grown out of the puppy eyes), and a lego set for Axel (because ‘it’s not fair that he got something and I didn’t’). 

The total was a bit more than what I was hoping for but it was worth it to see the look on Weylyn’s face as he began reading the second we got in the car and to see the way Axel’s face finally got rid of the harsh glare he had been wearing all day. 

“God fucking dammit Liam,” was the first words we heard when we stepped into the house and promptly laid the bags down in the living room. Liam’s rather loud laugh directly followed the words as if he had planned something out for that exact reaction. “If you aren’t going to help go start dinner like a proper house husband.” Carter was not pleased to say the least. 

“I am no house husband. That’s all Ryder and you know it.”

Weylyn had a concerned look on his face as he followed me down the hallways to see what was going on but Axel just looked amused. 

One of the twins’ rooms had been set up already with the mattress and bed frame already made while the two of them were working on bed number 2. The room was an absolute wreck. Cardboard, styrofoam, and instruction papers littered the room. Somehow a sleeve of plastic had found its way to the ceiling fan.

“I take it the setting up is going well,” I teased as I looked at Carter’s rather red and frustrated face while Liam still had a sweet smile. 

“It’s be going a lot better if someone would stop moving the parts he’s supposed to be holding,” Carter said with a glare. 

“I am holding it,” Liam defending, showing me the part he had a loose grip on that was already moving at the smallest intake of breath. 

“You’re husbands are crazy,” Axel noted as he took a look around the room. “I call this one by the way.”

“Are you sure,” I asked as I looked around it. It was the smallest of all the bedrooms and was originally going to be the shared office space. “It’s right beside the gym. Carter has nightmares sometimes and working out is the only thing that helps. He might wake you up sometimes.”

“I’m a heavy sleeper,” he dismissed. “As long as he’s not screaming I probably won’t notice.” I couldn’t help but notice the way Liam frowned and shot my brother a ‘therapist look’ as Jax called it. 

“Well if you want it then I won’t keep it from you I guess. Wey, go ahead and start unpacking your stuff and get the bed made.” Weylyn only nodded before leaving, Axel joining him because of course he did. 

“How did the shopping go,” Liam asked as he took his job as part holder more seriously now that the twins were gone. 

“Pretty good. Got everything we needed so that’s good. Won’t have to go shopping again for a while until they start growing again or their clothes wear out, which every comes first I guess. Oh and apparently we all look 30.”

Carter laughed but Liam looked slightly offended. 

“I will dub myself as the cool husband,” he said with a scoff. “They will not see me as the 30 year old. I refuse.”

“Dear god please don’t.”