The twins came home from school with Julian, and the house immediately filled with noise.
Kyle was with them, his overnight bag dragging behind him, his dinosaur backpack bouncing against his spine. He was scheduled for a sleepover, which meant the playroom would be conquered, the sitting room would become a secondary base of operations, and Julian would have a rare twenty-four hours to himself—something he had been looking forward to with the grim determination of a man who had been fighting with quarterly reports and investigation paperwork for weeks.
Lily burst into the sitting room first, her backpack on, her cheeks flushed from the chill outside. Leo followed at his usual pace, the whale under his arm, his tablet in his hand. Kyle brought up the rear, already talking about something that had happened during the car ride.
