JaiMontag
**Rowan didn't move into the house to figure everything out.**
He moved in to breathe.
Months into living with people who remember, remind, and adjust without making a spectacle of it, Rowan finds himself standing at a familiar crossroads-one he's been circling for years. Hormones have become routine. His body feels more like his own than it ever has. And now there's a new question waiting patiently in the background: *What comes next?*
This book isn't about deciding. It's about considering.
As Rowan weighs the possibility of gender-affirming surgery-and reevaluates how he takes care of his body day to day-the house does what it always does best. Felix builds systems. June offers warmth without pressure. Sam says the thing no one else will. Eli and Lola remind him that confidence can be practiced, and that coexistence matters more than certainty.
Through quiet mornings, library shifts, half-written lists, and follow-up appointments that don't demand answers, Rowan learns that progress doesn't have to be dramatic to be real. Sometimes, moving forward just means staying present, asking better questions, and letting care show up where it's needed.
***Next Steps*** is a story about living in the meantime-about bodies in motion, choices without deadlines, and the steady, unglamorous work of supporting someone exactly where they are.