The twins had taken over the sitting room.

Two large suitcases lay open on the floor, and the couch was buried under an avalanche of toys, clothes, books, and assorted items they had deemed essential for the trip. Lily stood before the pile with her hands on her hips, and Leo sat cross-legged beside her with his tablet in his lap and the whale propped against his knee.

"We need the swimming clothes," Lily announced as she pulled a brightly colored swimsuit from the pile. "Two each, so if one gets wet we have another one."

Leo typed: TWO IS GOOD.

"And the sun cream. The one that doesn’t smell funky. And hats. Leo needs his hat."

I DON’T LIKE THE HAT.

"You have to wear it because the sun is very hot at the beach. Aunt Estella said so."

Aunt Estella, seated in the armchair with a cup of tea, nodded. "I did say so."

"We need books for when we’re not swimming," Lily continued. "Maybe three books or four, but not too many because books are heavy."

Leo typed: THREE IS ENOUGH. CAN READ THEM MORE THAN ONCE.

"Okay, three books. But one has to be the whale book so we can look at it if we see a real whale, to check if it’s the same kind."

Lily placed Petal in the suitcase with careful precision, arranging her purple felt teeth so she appeared to be smiling. Then she placed the whale beside her, moved it, and placed it again at a different angle. Leo adjusted the whale’s tail three times before he nodded with satisfaction.

"What about the baby?" Lily asked, looking up at Franz. "Do we bring something for the baby? A toy or a blanket?"

Franz was seated on the loveseat with Arianne beside him, and he shook his head. "The baby doesn’t need anything packed. The baby just needs Mommy Aria to eat good food, take care of herself, and get plenty of rest. You two can help with that."

"We can help," Lily agreed. "We’re good at helping. We’ve been practicing."

"You’ve been practicing for a long time," Arianne said.

"Practice makes good. That’s what my teacher says." Lily returned to the pile. "Can we take lots of pictures at the beach? Of the whales and us and the baby in your belly? We should remember everything."

Aunt Estella set down her teacup. "Why not take videos instead? Then you can watch them again later, and the baby can watch too when it’s bigger."

Lily’s whole face changed. Her mouth opened and her eyes went wide. "Videos! We can make videos for the baby to watch!"

Leo typed: BABY VIDEOS. GOOD IDEA.

"Uncle Franz is good at videos because he’s on TV all the time," Lily said, her words tumbling out faster now. "But me and Leo aren’t good at videos, so we need to practice tonight so we’re ready."

"There’s no pressure," Arianne said. "You don’t have to be perfect. It’s just for us."

"But I want the baby to see everything," Lily insisted. "We have to talk so the baby knows what’s happening, like ’this is a whale’ and ’this is the beach’ and ’this is Grandma and Grandpa,’ so the baby learns things."

Leo typed: WE CAN TEACH THE BABY.

"Yes! We’ll be teachers." Lily nodded firmly. "We’ll practice after dinner."

Julian and Kyle arrived just as the pile reached its most chaotic stage.

Kyle burst through the front door with his dinosaur backpack bouncing against his spine. "I brought all my dinosaurs, even the ones that don’t like water!"

He upended the backpack onto the couch, adding plastic dinosaurs to the pile. Lily moved a triceratops away from the suitcase. "The dinosaurs can stay on the sand and watch the whales from the beach."

Kyle considered this. "Okay. The dinosaurs will watch from the sand."

Julian stood in the doorway with the expression of a man who had already survived this at his own house. "We’re packed. Mostly."

"Mostly?" Arianne asked.

"Kyle kept taking things out of his bag. I’d put one dinosaur in, and he’d take two out to make room for other ones. It took a very long time."

"I needed all of them," Kyle explained. "They’re a team, and you can’t break up a team."

Lily nodded. "You can’t break up a team."

Leo typed: TEAM STAYS TOGETHER.

Franz stood up from the loveseat. "Let’s sort through this. We’ll pick the most important ones."

The sorting began in earnest. Franz moved through the pile with patient efficiency, and together they decided: the whale came, Petal came, and Kyle’s favorite dinosaur—a green tyrannosaurus with one eye missing—came. The Lion would stay home to guard the house, Leo decided. They would bring three books, not seven, and the small set of art supplies, not the large one. Lily’s drawing of the family was rolled and placed in the side pocket of the suitcase.

When they were done, the pile had been reduced to a single suitcase’s worth of items, and the second suitcase remained empty.

Lily stared at it. "We don’t have enough stuff now."

"You have exactly enough," Franz said. "The empty suitcase is for what you bring back. Shells, rocks, whatever you find on the beach."

Lily brightened. "Oh. We can fill it with treasures."

"Exactly."

Julian left after dinner and promised to meet them at the airport in the morning, but Kyle stayed behind with his overnight bag already deposited in the twins’ room and his dinosaur team arranged on the nightstand.

The sitting room transformed as the suitcases were closed and lined up by the door. An animated film played on the television, something with talking animals that the children had chosen. Kyle sat on the floor with Lily and Leo, their eyes fixed on the screen as the excitement of the day finally gave way to exhaustion. Lily’s head began to droop, and Leo rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

Arianne leaned against Franz on the couch. Her body was relaxed against his side, and her head rested against his shoulder. His hand found the small swell of her belly and began rubbing slow, absent circles against the fabric of her dress. She let out a soft breath and pressed closer to him.

"I forgot to mute myself during the livestream," he murmured, low enough that only she could hear. "When you brought me water. They heard everything."

Arianne didn’t open her eyes. "Is that a problem?"

"Daryll says the marriage rumors are getting harder to ignore. I’m not saying anything, but people are noticing. The way we live together. The way I talk about you."

"Do you want to hide it?"

"No." He looked down at her. "But sometimes I wonder if I’m being selfish, wanting you and all of this—our family—all to myself, away from everyone who thinks they should know everything."

Her hand found his and squeezed. "You’re not selfish. We decide what people see, and we decide what’s private. The rest doesn’t matter."

"The fans already call you my wife."

"I am your wife."

"I know." He smiled, a small private smile. "That’s why I don’t mind."

She closed her eyes again, and his hand kept moving on her belly, slow and steady. The animated film played on as the children grew hushed, their breathing slowing, their eyes growing heavy. Leo’s head rested against Kyle’s shoulder, and Lily curled up on the rug with Petal tucked under her arm.

Tomorrow, a plane to another country. Tomorrow, whales and beaches and a week of family. Tonight, there was this: the couch, the film, the children asleep on the floor, Arianne against his side, and the baby growing beneath his hand.

"We should sleep," Arianne murmured.

"In a minute."

She didn’t argue. She never did anymore.