The Secret (Winslow Brothers 3)

“Fuck hey. Do we know anything about Daisy yet?”

The tall dreamboat shakes his head, his mouth pulling down in a frown. I can tell by the way his skin stretches that being unhappy is a completely infrequent occurrence for him. A lot like Ty.

Maybe the happy-go-lucky thing runs in the family?

“Nothing. Flynn went back there over an hour ago for an emergency C-section. The first baby was breech. And then the second started having issues with his heart rate. I guess the doctors were pretty firm about C-section being the only option. Daisy was upset.”

My mind immediately rallies itself, searching for something to put all the scary words from Ty’s brother to sleep. I don’t know a lot of people with kids, but I’ve had two cousins both have C-sections within the last couple of years, one of them being emergent, and they both turned out fine. I know going this route is scary and major surgery, but I think C-sections are pretty standard practice these days. If you ask me, it’s at least a modicum of comfort.

Still, I don’t dare say anything—thanks to the overwhelming feeling that I probably shouldn’t be here in the first place. If it were just Ty and me, I might mention it, but taking the audience with his brother and the woman I’m assuming is his significant other into account, things feel different. I’m an outsider. They’re not looking for comfort from me. Especially since no one has said anything to me yet. I get the feeling they’d rather I say nothing at all, and it’s starting to feel a little awkward.

I know they’re all worried about Ty’s sister-in-law, so I’m trying not to read too much into it, but I thought maybe I’d get a hello or a wave from the woman at Ty’s brother’s arm or something. Just like the essay section on the test last week, it’s almost as if they can’t see me.

The speaker crackles with a page for one of the doctors on the intercom, and everyone gets briefly quiet to listen. I think they’re all well aware that they’re not actually going to hear any news over that thing, but I know in times of distress, it can be hard to think rationally.

Scooting closer to Ty, I try not to notice the cloying, almost suffocating hospital smell. I know this isn’t the hospital where my mom died, and that this doesn’t even have anything to do with me, but the olfactory memory of watching her struggle in her final days is knocking a little too loudly on each and every one of my mind’s doors.

“Paging Dr. Olsen to room 611. Paging Dr. Olsen.” When the speaker quiets, the tension in the room seems to get even thicker. Ty, however, startles before pulling me nearly in front of him and waving a hand between his brother and me. “Rachel, this is my youngest brother, Jude. Jude, this is Rachel.”

I hold out my free hand for an awkward shake and pull my mouth into a self-conscious grin. “Nice to meet you, but I’m really sorry for the circumstances.”

“Rachel,” Jude says, his eyes widening in a way I can’t quite read before turning to the woman at his arm and smiling. “This is Rachel, Sophie.” My eyebrows draw together at the odd emphasis on my name, and Sophie rolls her eyes before holding out a hand to me for another awkward lefty shake.

“Nice to meet you, Rachel. Ignore my husband, he’s weird.”

Her husband. So, this is Ty’s sister-in-law.

“Hey,” he snaps playfully, but all she has to do is give him a hard stare, and he’s shrugging. “Yeah. She’s right. Just ignore me.”

Ty laughs at that, cracking the hard edge of his worry for the first time since I walked into his office and saw him on the phone.

At the sound of his laugh, several other people’s heads come up and look over, and upon a narrowed-eyed survey of me, they also start to make their way toward us. Ty drops my hand briefly.

It’s kind of a nightmare in the package of a dream, and I don’t know what to do with my newly found freedom. I shove my hands into the pockets of my coat and clench at the inner fabric.

Ty frowns as he looks down and sees it, and he reaches into my pocket to once again retrieve the hand he’d been holding. Jude and Sophie share a look I can’t put my finger on, just as a tall, dark-haired, nearly godlike man with piercing blue eyes approaches the group. He looks like he belongs, but the easygoing attitude of both Jude and Ty is pointedly missing.

“Oh hey, Remy,” Jude says with a huge smile, glancing back at me. “This is Rachel.”

Remy’s reaction is normal, even in the face of Jude’s exaggeration, and for the sake of my sanity, I decide to focus on that.