Briar doesn't talk about Myron or Roman for the entire drive back. But that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it even when I'm smiling and laughing at whatever she says.

Nanay and Tatay are never disappointed in Roman. Ever. Not once in my entire life have they looked at him the way they look at me: like I'm a disappointment. And it's not like they've ever objected whenever Roman antagonizes me. Those three basically agree with each other on everything, especially when it comes to me and how I'm not good enough.

So even if Roman is acting like Myron, that doesn't mean it's because he relates to Hai. Or Hien. Or me. And no matter what Briar says, understanding Hien and Hai and what it's like to have your parents think you're utterly worthless and a disappointment doesn't excuse treating people like garbage. I don't care if that's either of them "doing their best." It just makes them assholes in my opinion.

I park the car in front of Everett's house and shut off the engine. We get out of the car and step into the waning sunlight to grab Briar's instruments from the backseat. I take the guitar while she takes the violin. She rubs her eyes as we walk up the porch steps. She doesn't make a move to let us into the house, turning to face me instead. Her eyes are glowing amber in the light, and when she smiles, her skin looks sunkissed.

"Thanks for driving back," she says, "and for spending the day with me."

"No problem." I take her hand, rubbing my thumb along her knuckles. "Day's not over yet, though. We still have to read some chapters from your dad's draft."

"I'm still not caught up to where you're at."

"Then, I'll read to you."

She smiles. "I'd like that."

Instead of responding, I take a step forward and catch her mouth against mine. I let go of her hand to cup her jaw, running my thumb along her cheek. She sighs against my mouth. That one sound shoots straight through me, making every nerve stand on end. It's almost like listening to her sing in person but somehow ten times better because I'm the one who's causing her to make this noise, so she must really like me. That's a confidence boost if I've ever had one.

It feels like only a moment passes when the front door opens. Our heads are still bent together as we look towards the door. I should probably pull my hand back at the very least, but a weird rebellious part of me doesn't want to no matter how hot my face is burning from getting caught. I just can't tell if it's from embarrassment or annoyance—they couldn't have waited just a few more minutes?

Marlowe stands in the doorway, her mouth agape. When the shock passes, a smile slowly spreads across her face. "I fucking knew it."

"What?" I hear Everett ask behind her.

Marlowe looks over her shoulder. "Nothing. Just that I think I might stay for dinner after all if that's okay with you guys." She turns back to us, smirking. "I'll give you two a minute, but you're telling me everything."

She shuts the door. No doubt to tell everyone else about what she saw. Wonder how long they'll give us before making us come inside. Or make me leave and never come back.

Briar laughs, resting her forehead against my chest. "Great..."

I smile, wrapping my arm around her. "At least we don't have to worry about telling them, right?"

She sighs, turning her head to press her ear against my chest. "I guess." She settles back on her feet, smiling up at me. "But I wanted to tell them on our own time."

I narrow my eyes. "To see me squirm and blush?"

She pauses. "Well, now I do." I roll my eyes, making Briar laugh. She kisses me on the cheek as an apology, and I take it. "But no. I just didn't know how to tell them that I'm dating my grandfather's employee and my dad's intern who I hired."

Makes sense. I glance at the door and back at Briar. "Do you think they'll be mad?"

Briar furrows her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side with the pout I find so endearing. "Why would they be mad?"

"Because..." I swallow, hoping that'll flush out some of the heat already spreading to my face. "We spent the entire day out of town alone..." I don't know if she doesn't get it or if she's just waiting for me to say it, but she gives me an innocent look. I let out a breath and quickly but quietly add, "And we're dating."

The implication hangs in the air, making the corners of Briar's lips turn up. I have to break eye contact as the heat fans over every square inch of my face at full force. Briar has enough mercy not to keep teasing me and make me overheat even more.

"I think it'll be fine," she says. "And at least we'll be telling them together."

I nod. Briar starts to turn to the door, but I quickly turn her head back to me and kiss her. She blinks as I pull away, a mix of adoration and a question in her eyes.

"For good luck," I smile. "In case your parents get mad at me for being out of town with you all day and never want you to see me again."

She laughs, giving me one more kiss. "I don't think they'll be that mad."

She shoots me a reassuring smile before opening the door. When she does, all heads turn to us. There's a range of expressions from contemplative to ecstatic. Marlowe looks just as happy as she did when she caught us, mouthing, "I fucking knew it." And Briar's family... they don't look mad or like they want to kick me out and never see me again. So as far as I'm concerned, this is a win.

"Dinner's about ready," Gareth says. "I'm sure you two are hungry, so why don't you come and sit down? Catch us up."

We glance at each other. I wait for Briar to decide what to do. She probably has a better read on the room than I do. So when she sets her violin case on the couch, I do the same with her guitar case. We join her family and Marlowe at the kitchen table, sitting side-by-side.

"So who wants to fill us in first?" Thera prompts.

I feel my heart thud against my chest, and I guess Briar reads it on my face because she answers the question for both of us. "There's not anything to fill in, Mẹ. We just got to know each other and that's pretty much it."

Marlowe narrows her eyes. "Yeah, but we want specifics."

Briar laughs. "Like what?"

"Like what was the first thing you noticed about each other?"

"Annotations," Briar and I say at the same time. I smile at her, and her expression softens.

"That's cute," Everett laughs.

"Second thing?" Marlowe presses, leaning forward.

"Eyes," I say.

"Smile," Briar answers. I smile at her again, and she points at me. "That one especially."

Gareth arches an eyebrow. "You can differentiate between smiles now, Briar?"

Briar rolls her eyes. "Dad, you've written entire paragraphs about how Hien noticed the subtle differences in how Lanh fished depending on her mood and you think I can't differentiate between Idris' smiles?"

Thera laughs, setting her chopsticks across the top of her bowl. "She's got you there, Gareth."

Briar sits back with a smirk. "Thanks, Mẹ."

Gareth rolls his eyes. "Yeah. Okay. Whatever. Keep going. Tell us more about your relationship."

Briar and I take turns catching them all up on what we came to like about the other and when we realized our feelings for each other. Everyone at the table is all smiles the entire time. Guess they don't hate me and I don't have to worry about being banished.

"Maybe we should have dinner with your family, Idris," Thera says.

"No," Briar laughs, gathering the last of her noodles on her chopsticks. "His family hates me."

I nod, feeling the lightness in my chest dim. "They really do."

Gareth narrows his eyes at his daughter. "What'd you do?"

"Be a good friend," I interject. Gareth gives me a quizzical look, but everyone else's eyes light up in recognition. "She confronted them about things that I didn't have the courage to, so they think she's a bad influence. That's why my parents told me to quit working at A Quiet Café and to stop beta-reading for you."

Gareth nods slowly, sitting back in his chair. "Did you at least confront them respectfully?"

Briar shrugs. "Well, no, but I wanted them to yell at me instead of Idris, so I couldn't be respectful about it."

Gareth, Thera, and Everett glance at each other. Thera leans forward, her eyes on me. "Idris, if your parents are ever mad at you... how do they act on that anger...?" She tilts her head down, her eyes narrowing. "Is it anything like how they were speaking to you at the café that one time they came to see you during lunch?"

All eyes are on me, and I almost choke on my dinner. Briar takes my hand under the table, and I shoot her a grateful look. Always nice to know that she's here to support me. When I swallow, I shrug, focusing on my empty bowl.

"Usually, yeah," I admit. I find myself quickly adding, "But after that, they're either really nice or they just ignore me, so it's okay."

I don't have to see everyone's expressions to know that it's not okay. But Marlowe says it anyway, putting a hand on my shoulder: "Kid, you deserve better than that from your parents. From your brother, too."

Gareth frowns. "How does your brother treat you?"

I inhale, squeezing Briar's hand to ground myself. She squeezes my hand back, and that lets the words slip out of me. "Similar to my parents, I guess. He usually yells at me out of nowhere and tells me that he hopes I fail at something, especially after my parents seem proud of me about it."

Gareth lets out an uncertain laugh. "He can't mean it, though, right?"

Briar shoots her dad a look. "Even if he doesn't mean it, it still hurts to hear, Dad."

I squeeze Briar's hand again. She really is my Lanh.

"Do your parents say anything to him about it?" Everett asks.

I shake my head again. I feel the back of my eyes start to burn, and all I can think about is how my family actually believes I'm pretty stupid and hopeless. At least I didn't end up like Myron because of it. That's a plus.

"It's not a good idea for all of us to sit down with Idris' parents," Briar says, taking the attention off of me. "It'll probably end badly. Idris isn't even supposed to be here right now. Or talk to me. Or see me."

"Maybe you should've been a little more respectful to his parents," Thera chastises.

"That wasn't on Briar," I argue. "My parents were telling me that I didn't have any right to say what's on my mind—" Tension slams into the table the moment the words leave my mouth. Gareth focuses on his empty bowl, ignoring Everett's glances. Briar looks at me and nods, telling me to keep going. I clear my throat. "So Briar tried to make them angrier at her than at me."

"It's not like you guys even have to meet," Briar points out. "That's not a thing that has to happen. I think we'll all live without it."

Gareth studies me, concern creasing his expression. "I don't know... Maybe we should talk to Idris' family."

I shake my head. "It's fine. I just need to get through another year, and hopefully, I'm out of here for college."

Everett flinches. Gareth glances at him but looks away before they can make eye contact. I really need to watch what I say. But at the same time, it's kind of cool that I'm having the same experiences as Gareth Chiem. Not that rocky relationships with parents are cool, but relating to my favorite author on anything is insane.

Dating his daughter is pretty cool, too. Not because of him, but because of her.

Thera changes the subject to Briar teaching Amalia how to play the guitar, and the atmosphere lightens as we clean up dinner. Once that's done, Briar grabs her instruments and heads upstairs to put them away in exchange for her laptop, so we can read together. But that leaves me with Marlowe and her family for a few minutes.

"Does your family really hate Briar?" Thera asks as we migrate to the living room.

I stop by the stairs, sliding my hands into my pockets. "Pretty much."

"But Briar hates your family, too," Marlowe points out, kicking her feet up on the coffee table as she settles into an armchair with her tablet, stylus in hand. "So it's pretty even."

Everett pushes Marlowe's feet off the table, ignoring her indignant look. "So they don't know that you're with her all the time?"

"Are you guys really together all the time?" Gareth asks, studying me.

My heart rate kicks up. I can't tell if Gareth is asking out of curiosity or if he's suspicious about me being around his daughter all the time now. Especially since neither of us said anything about being in a relationship. But I hold his gaze, hoping it comes off as me being confident and not confrontational.

"Yeah," I say. "Pretty much."

"It's cute," Marlowe gushes, clasping her hands together and holding them to the side of her face. "Like super cute."

Thera nods, laughing. "It is. And you guys call each other Hien and Lanh, don't you?"

Gareth arches an eyebrow, his head snapping back to me. "Who's Hien and who's Lanh?"

"Briar's Lanh," I explain. "I'm Hien."

Gareth's smile broadens. "Good. I based Lanh off of Briar."

I look up the stairs like I can see her now. "I knew it." I look back to Gareth. "She really is Lanh."

Gareth nods, his expression turning even more smug. "I'm glad I can capture personalities pretty well."

Thera rolls her eyes, swatting her husband on the shoulder. "Don't make this about you." She turns her attention to me, her smile softening. She puts her hands on my shoulders. "Listen, Con—"

I blink at the word. I've heard her call Briar this enough times to know it's the Vietnamese equivalent of Anak. Except when Thera says it—to me or Briar—it feels like the term of endearment it's supposed to be unlike how my parents say Anak most of the time. Thera's soft tone and loving expression warm me from the inside out. The suddenness of it makes my vision blur. Her eyebrows furrow, so I know she catches it, but she doesn't comment. She just squeezes my shoulders and gives me an even kinder smile if that's possible.

"I'm glad it seems like you're both happy," Thera says, "but I don't know if it's a good idea for you to hide this from your family. It might cause you more trouble if you get caught."

I shrug. "Maybe. But I think it'll be okay as long as we're careful. And I think it'll be worth it."

Marlowe holds her hand up against her mouth and loudly whispers to Everett, "It's because he really likes your granddaughter."

"I would hope so," Briar says, coming down the stairs with her laptop held against her chest. She stops next to me with a smile. "It would suck if he didn't."

"For who?" Marlowe teases.

Briar doesn't miss a beat. "For everyone." She turns to me. "Anyway, you up for reading?"

I nod. "Yeah. Of course."

Briar holds her hand out to me. I take it and let her lead me to the front door. No one stops us from leaving. I'm sure they want the chance to discuss what we told them anyway. And, hopefully, this means they trust me. I did spend an entire day out of town with Briar, so... it's a little too late for them to distrust me...

We settle on the porch swing, and Briar logs into her laptop. Once she has the document up, she hands the laptop over to me. I start reading aloud, and she snuggles into me, resting her head on my shoulder. I wrap an arm around her, resting my head on top of hers as I read.

In this moment, everything feels perfect. And all I can do is hope that every moment after this feels a fraction like it does now. And maybe there's a chance it will as long as I have Briar and her family in my life.