Dinner at the Dunphy house was chaos disguised as routine.
Gael realized that within the first five minutes.
Phil sohow told three separate stories at once while carving chicken, Luke kept trying to stack dinner rolls into a tower, Haley scrolled through her phone under the table, and Claire managed the entire room with increasingly controlled frustration.
Alex sat across from Gael, occasionally glancing at him over the edge of her water glass like she was trying to solve a puzzle.
Which, honestly, she probably was.
"So," Claire said casually, though nothing about her tone was casual, "how exactly does a teenager sell an app for millions?"
There it is.
Gael took a sip of water calmly.
"I got lucky."
Claire imdiately shook her head.
"No one makes hundreds of millions of dollars from luck."
Haley smirked.
"My mom says things like that when she's impressed."
"I do not."
"You absolutely do."
Phil pointed his fork dramatically toward Gael.
"I personally think it's inspiring."
"Thank you," Gael said.
"Young entrepreneur. Self-made success. Strong hair."
"Strong hair?" Claire repeated.
"It's a thing."
"It isn't."
Gael hid a smile behind his glass.
God, hearing them banter in person felt surreal.
"Loop was actually pretty smart," Alex said suddenly.
Everyone looked at her.
She shrugged slightly.
"What? It was."
Gael raised an eyebrow.
"You used it?"
Alex looked mildly offended.
"I research things before forming opinions."
"That's terrifying."
"Thank you."
Haley groaned loudly.
"Oh, my God. There are two of them now."
Phil leaned toward Gael conspiratorially.
"That's Alex's way of saying she respects you."
"It is not," Alex said instantly.
"It definitely is," Luke added.
Alex kicked him under the table.
Luke yelped.
Claire sighed heavily into her wine.
Gael watched the entire interaction quietly, feeling sothing strange settle deeper inside his chest.
Warmth.
Real warmth.
Because despite all the dysfunction, there was genuine affection here. The kind built over years of shared life.
And for soone who rembered dying alone in another world…
It affected him more than he expected.
Claire noticed him watching the family with an oddly distant expression.
"You okay?" she asked.
Gael blinked slightly.
"Yeah."
"You keep zoning out."
Haley pointed dramatically.
"See? I told you!"
"I'm beginning to regret being psychologically analyzed by this family."
"You should," Alex said.
"Definitely," Claire added.
Phil grinned proudly.
"Welco to the Dunphys."
The words landed harder than they should have.
Welco to the Dunphys.
Dangerous sentence.
Very dangerous sentence.
An hour later, Phil dragged Gael into the backyard to show him a "small landscaping project," which turned out to be an unnecessarily elaborate outdoor lighting setup.
"It syncs with music," Phil explained proudly.
Gael stared at the glowing patio lights.
"…Why?"
Phil looked genuinely confused.
"Because it's aweso."
Fair enough.
Inside the house, Haley had disappeared upstairs while Luke played video gas loudly in the living room.
This left Claire and Alex in the kitchen cleaning dishes.
Claire watched through the window as Phil enthusiastically explained electrical wiring to Gael outside.
"He actually seems normal," Claire admitted cautiously.
Alex nearly dropped a plate.
"You say that like you expected him to have horns."
"He's eighteen and rich."
"That's not illegal."
"It should be."
Alex smirked faintly.
Claire noticed imdiately.
"You like him."
Alex rolled her eyes.
"I respect him intellectually."
Claire narrowed her eyes.
"That sounded dangerously close to admiration."
"Oh, relax," Alex muttered.
But Claire noticed sothing else, too.
The way Gael listened when people spoke.
The way he looked directly at soone instead of waiting for his turn to talk.
The calm confidence.
Most teenage boys around Haley felt loud and obnoxious.
Gael didn't.
Which honestly worried her more.
Outside, Gael leaned against the patio railing while Phil continued talking enthusiastically.
"…and then I realized the wiring issue wasn't electrical at all. It was squirrels."
Gael nodded seriously.
"Natural enemy of modern engineering."
"Exactly!"
Phil pointed excitedly.
"You get ."
Unfortunately, Gael actually did.
That was the problem.
He liked Phil.
A lot.
Which made certain future thoughts increasingly inappropriate.
The back door slid open.
Claire stepped outside, carrying another glass of wine.
"There you are," she said to Phil. "You kidnapped our guest."
Phil scoffed dramatically.
"He volunteered."
Claire's eyes shifted briefly toward Gael.
"You surviving?"
"Barely."
"Good answer."
Phil gasped.
"Oh wow. You're getting Claire's sarcasm already. Usually that takes months."
Claire rolled her eyes.
"Go help Luke before he destroys the couch."
"I'm choosing to believe in him."
"You shouldn't."
Phil sighed dramatically before heading back inside.
Leaving Gael alone with Claire.
Imdiately, the atmosphere changed.
Subtle.
But noticeable.
Quieter.
Claire leaned lightly against the railing beside him, sipping wine.
Up close in the softer backyard lighting, she looked unfairly attractive.
Gael firmly told his brain to shut up.
It ignored him completely.
"So," Claire said, "how accurate are the online articles?"
"Depends."
"On?"
"How much secondhand embarrassnt can you tolerate?"
She laughed softly.
"That bad?"
"One interviewer called 'the voice of a generation.'"
Claire visibly cringed.
"Oh no."
"Exactly."
A comfortable silence settled briefly between them.
Then Claire glanced sideways at him.
"You really are different from what I expected."
Gael smiled faintly.
"That keeps happening tonight."
"You know what I an."
Unfortunately, he did.
Claire studied him carefully now.
Trying to understand him.
"You're calr than most people your age," she said quietly.
Gael looked out toward the neighborhood lights.
"You grow up fast when adults start treating you like a business opportunity."
Claire's expression shifted slightly.
That answer hit sowhere genuine.
"I can see that," she admitted softly.
For a second, neither spoke.
The warm California evening wrapped quietly around them while muffled laughter drifted from inside the house.
Then Haley suddenly slid open the door dramatically.
"There you are," she said while looking between them suspiciously.
Claire blinked.
"What's with that face?"
"You both look too serious."
"We were just talking," Claire answered.
"That's exactly what emotionally serious people say."
Gael laughed quietly.
Haley walked over beside him, naturally slipping into his space without thinking.
Claire noticed imdiately.
"We're watching a movie," Haley announced. "And Luke lost voting privileges because he picked Sharknado."
"That's cinema!" Luke yelled from inside.
"No," Alex shouted back, "it's a cry for help!"
Gael shook his head, smiling before following Haley toward the house.
But just before stepping inside, he glanced back briefly.
Claire was still standing near the railing, holding her wine glass.
Watching him.
Not suspicious this ti.
Just thoughtfully.
And for the very first ti, Gael felt the faint beginning of sothing dangerous shift quietly beneath the surface between them.
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