The Pact (Winslow Brothers 2)

“I’m Winnie. Flynn’s sister,” she introduces and begins to point at everyone around the table. “This is my mom Wendy, my uncle Brad and aunt Paula, our eldest brother Remy, Jude and his fiancée Sophie, and my husband Wes and daughter Lexi.”

“I don’t get an introduction?” Ty grumbles, earning a shush from Winnie. Everyone else waves. I smile awkwardly, waving back.

“It’s so nice to meet you. I’m incredibly sorry for our rudeness earlier, but that was Ty’s fault,” Winnie continues.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s shit on Ty all night long.”

Remy punches Ty in the shoulder, effectively shutting him up and giving me a chance to respond.

“Thanks. It’s really nice to meet all of you, too. And I don’t blame you for the confusion…it was confusing.”

Ha-ha-ha. God. Someone help me.

“Well,” Winnie replies, looking around the room and meeting everyone’s eyes in a way I can tell means something. “We’ll get the details later. For now, I want to say welcome to the family. And I’m sure,” she adds, eyeing everyone closely again, “everyone at this table feels the same way.”

“Of course, of course,” Uncle Brad says with a nod and a raise of his glass. “Welcome to the family, Daisy!”

The whole room joins in, and their unexpected kindness causes my heart to flip-flop in my chest.

Flynn’s hand moves to my thigh underneath the table to give it a squeeze, and when I meet his gaze, he offers a reassuring smile.

What in the world have I gotten myself into?

Flynn

Daisy was silent the entire ride home from my sister’s house and locked herself in the bathroom as soon as we got back to “get ready for bed.” It’s pretty obvious that she feels I blindsided her by taking her to my family dinner without warning, but while it might seem a bit cruel to an outsider, I still think I did the right thing.

Daisy has shown time and time again that once she gets locked inside her head, it’s nearly impossible to get her out. Her panic takes her in an endless circle of indecision, and I didn’t have the time to both tell her the news of tonight’s family dinner and fuck the anxiety out of her before we got to my sister’s. We were running late as it was.

Still, I’m aware I’m going to have to deal with the repercussions of my decisions, and I’m ready for it.

I open the group text message with my siblings to kill a little time while I wait for Daisy to get ready to face me, and fucking hell, it’s busy. If I didn’t have it on Do Not Disturb, my phone would be on its way to being diagnosed epileptic.

Remy: We’re going to fucking discuss this later, Flynn Winslow. Seems to me now that our lunch conversation should have been expanded a little bit.

Jude: Dude, I cannot believe you’re married before me, you fucker. I didn’t even know we were racing, or I would have tried harder.

Winnie: How did you meet? What was your first date like? Was it love at first sight?

Ty: Does no one even care that Flynn fucking scooped a woman right out from under my nose?

Remy: She was never really with you. He was married to her before family dinner, you dumbass. Plus, the bastard even told me he was married at lunch last week.

Winnie: WHAT? YOU KNEW?

Remy: Relax. I only sort of knew. I didn’t exactly believe him.

Jude: You didn’t believe Flynn, dude? He’s the only one of us who doesn’t lie.

Remy: I remember that now. Obviously.

Ty: She really looks like a woman who’d be my type, though. Like, I feel as if I know her.

Jude: DUDE. Shut up. This really isn’t about you.

Winnie: Seriously, Ty. I want answers from Flynn. Not to hear you whine.

Ty: Wow. Brutal, sis. Brutal.

The door to the bathroom finally cracks open, and I immediately click the button to lock my screen and set my phone down on the kitchen counter.

She’s walking on eggshells, but not because she’s afraid she’s going to upset me. No. She’s a woman at the very end of her rope, trying not to explode all over everything.

As far as I’m concerned, though, the sooner the big boom happens, the sooner I can start putting the pieces back together.

“Go ahead,” I prompt. “Let it rip. I know you want to.”

“God, Flynn!” She tosses up her hands and stomps the rest of the way into the kitchen. “This is just a lot, you know? First, I arrive after traveling across the country a week after giving my boss a practical ultimatum, almost die on the luggage carousel, and then, I find out there’s only one bedroom! And after that, we go straight to your sister’s house without any warning from you, and everyone thinks I’m there with your brother because you left me to fend for myself! And everyone was staring at me and looking for answers that I don’t have to give them! Because this marriage is a pact marriage, and I don’t actually know all that much about you!”