Matt and Ellie had never liked each other.

From the moment they met, it was constant bickering. Sarcastic remarks across the table, eye rolls at family cookouts, quiet competitions over who could irritate the other faster. The problem was their parents were close friends, which meant they couldn’t escape each other.

Every holiday. Every barbecue. Every random Sunday dinner.

Ellie was there.

Matt was there.

And somehow they always ended up arguing within ten minutes.

Then there was that cookout.

The one where their parents thought it would be hilarious to let the older teens drink a little. Just for fun. Just to see them loosen up for once.

Matt and Ellie had been tipsy, loud, and still arguing… until they weren’t.

One moment they were snapping at each other in the hallway.

The next, they were in a bedroom with the door shut, tension snapping into something completely different.

It happened once.

And they never talked about it again.

A few months later, Matt and his brothers started building their own lives. New opportunities. A different city. Slowly, the visits stopped. The cookouts faded into old memories.

Two years passed.

When the triplets finally came back for a reunion barbecue, the backyard looked exactly the same. Same grill smoke in the air. Same music playing through cheap speakers. Same familiar voices.

Matt barely had time to greet anyone before he saw her.

Ellie stood near the picnic table.

Except she wasn’t alone.

A little girl rested on her hip, tiny arms wrapped around Ellie’s shoulder, curly hair catching in the sunlight. The toddler laughed at something Ellie whispered to her, completely unaware of the silence that had suddenly fallen over Matt.

His stomach dropped.

Ellie looked up.

Their eyes met across the yard, and for a moment neither of them moved.

Because Matt realized something instantly.

The timeline.

The resemblance.

And the fact that Ellie had never gotten the chance to tell him.