Tranquil Trail Monday. 6am! I check the text from my brother Liam before my fingers freeze and I can’t use my phone anymore. I’m in the right place at the right time. My jagoff brothers are just fucking late. I should have known they’d do this. It’s not even light out yet and I feel like an asshole with my headlamp on for our morning run.

I’m about to get back in my truck and head home when I hear them rolling up. My shoulders relax a bit when I see the two men crammed inside Cal’s ancient vehicle. We’re all here, I guess. I work to stuff down the twinge of jealousy I always feel when I’m reminded how close they are. We have different mothers, but Cal and Liam would never suggest I was any less their brother.

It’s all my own head that twists my thoughts.

”Let’s go, before my balls snap off.” Liam springs from the car and takes off down the trailhead without waiting for the rest of us. He’s dreaming if he thinks we won’t catch him. This isn’t like yesterday—that was equal parts full family activity and work requirement.

We all work for my dad and my uncle—two brothers who started an engineering firm over 30 years ago when nobody else was really doing that.

None of us particularly liked running at first, but just like studying engineering in college, we weren’t given a choice about it. In our father’s house, we run five miles a day at minimum, and we bleed, sweat, and dream engineering principles. It’s just part of our DNA. Not sure where Orla puts her miles in. She never comes running with us, but she clocks decent times in the races we run, whether she likes it or not.

Uncle Kellen doesn’t compete. He says his leisurely run into work each morning is enough for him. I wish I had the nerve to buck against the family expectations like that. Maybe someday if I’ve lived through what Uncle Kellen has, I’ll let go of all my fucks, too.

Liam’s pace is too slow, even given the steep trail as we descend down into Frick Park. When I shoulder past him and he growls, I grin. At least we can keep it interesting if we’re going to push each other.

Soon the three of us are jostling for the lead on the narrow path, laughing and shoving each other as we run through the park. It’s hard not to feel like a little kid, running with my brothers in the woods. Damn, I’m glad we did this after all, even if I did have to get up before dawn.

It’s not yet 7 by the time we finish, so we end up waiting a few minutes outside for the Frick Cafe to open. Another tradition, we always grab breakfast here after our park runs.

Like some sort of unspoken competition, none of us wants to be the first to complain about the cold, so we alternate grunts. I see the wait staff through the painted windows and raise my eyebrows at one of our favorite servers. She takes pity on us and opens the door a few minutes early, nodding her head toward our typical booth in the back.

”Bring on the protein special, Em. You know the drill,” Cal says, sending a wink, earning himself an elbow to the ribs from Liam. ”Eventually she’ll come home with me for a shower,” Cal says, sliding into his seat and spreading across the entire bench.

I kick his thigh to make room and slide next to him. Crossing my arms, I take a minute to appreciate the warmth in the cafe. Liam’s voice pulls me out of my daze.

”Did Uncle Kellen decide about the dam project yet?” The server brings out steaming plates of turkey sausage and eggs and protein pancakes, but Liam holds my gaze until I answer him.

”He didn’t. Wants to think about it another week.” Beltane Engineering is bidding on a major dam restoration project, and the sudden retirement of our geotechnical team leader has left me scrambling to prove myself ready to fill his shoes.

When Kenny Hudson collapsed on the job from a heart attack, my dad responded typically: he visited Kenny at the hospital, insisted he retire and enjoy his dotage, and then called each of his sons to lecture us about our health. Again, not sure if Orla got a lecture. She keeps to herself.

You’d think being the boss’s son with an engineering degree from MIT would give me an edge for a promotion, but if you thought that, you never spent much time with Mick and Kellen Brady. Two brothers—the yin to the other’s yang—they never seem to agree on anything except that nothing their kids do is ever quite good enough.

My uncle won’t say so, but he’s pitting me against the new guy from Texas and waiting to see which of us can solve another client’s sinkhole problem first before assigning us the lead role on the dam.

”No pressure, right Zack?” Cal talks with his mouth full and nudges Liam, waiting for him to laugh. ”Get it? Pressure? Geotechnical? Nobody?”

I roll my eyes. ”Yes, I get it.”

”Want to run the sinkhole plan by us, see if anything sticks?” Liam always wants to collaborate, even though as a structural engineer he doesn’t have much overlap in my work. I start to map out my idea to him, talking about back filling the space under our client’s access road, maybe utilizing a plastic bubble technique to displace some of the shifting that’s been causing sinkholes at a manufacturing site outside the city. ”We’d replace some of the dirt fill with these plastic bubbles. The sphere shape makes them very structurally sound,” I tell him, and he nods.

”We use those in concrete flooring sometimes for less weight at the same strength,” he says.

By the time we leave breakfast, I’m actually feeling ready to present at our meeting later today. ”Hey, thanks, brother.” Liam nods. ”See you all at the office?” The two of them live in an industrial loft space our dad picked up on a whim. It’s like a college dorm at their place, complete with nosy landlord, but what I lack in companionship at my house, I make up for in calling all my own shots. Cal flips me off as they pile back in his SUV and head home, most likely to wrestle for who gets first shower.

I’m the first Brady to arrive at the office, and I take advantage of the quiet to organize my plans. By the time my uncle rolls in with Texas Ted at his side, I’m feeling confident. I even allow myself a slight smile when our office admin announces it’s time for all the civil engineers to gather for the weekly planning meeting. As soon as we settle this sinkhole issue, our top priority at Beltane Engineering will be to make headway on winning this dam project.

I can smell the opportunity when I see that someone from the sales team is joining us this morning. Uncle Kellen wouldn’t call them in if it weren’t time to coordinate our pitch. I’m grateful I got an opportunity to talk through the pitch with Liam this morning. Everything feels fresh. From here on out, I plan to be neck deep in soil calculations and talus slopes.

I grit my teeth when my dad sticks his head into the meeting. ”Zack, good. You’re here.”

”I’ve been here for an hour, Dad.”

He ignores my snide comment. ”Kellen, I need to borrow my kid for a minute.” My uncle nods and gestures for me to hand him my notes on the sinkholes. I feel my guts collapsing in on themselves like the soil beneath our client’s dump trucks. My blood runs cold as I realize my father is pulling me away from my opportunity to advance at this company, in this career he insisted I pursue. White hot rage nearly blinds me as I follow him into the elevator.

”Can you push 6 for me, kiddo? We’re going up into my office.” I don’t say a word, don’t tell him to push his own fucking elevator button instead of clutching his Yerba mate with two hands. Slowly, deliberately, I extend a finger and jab as the doors slide shut, along with everything I’ve planned for the past year.