The Secret (Winslow Brothers 3)

“Nice to meet you, Rachel,” he remarks, thankfully forgoing the offering of a hand.

“You too,” I say easily enough, glancing among the group of strangers and willing myself not to shrink. “I really hope there’s news soon.”

It’s a genuine statement. But the depths of where it comes from are a touch more complicated. I’m looking for relief for Ty and his family—obviously—but I’m also hoping for some relief for the heavy feeling inside my pounding chest. I’m growing so uncomfortable, I might as well be the one in labor with twins.

“Me too,” Remy says, his eyes both warm and watchful. A silence palls over the group after that, and I’m instantly sorry for saying it. They were just starting to get distracted, and I ruined it.

Sophie is the first to chime in, and much to my dismay, it’s to direct a question right at me. “So…how do you and Ty know each other?”

“I…well, we…we’re—”

I’m just about to get to the part where I start putting real words together when another tall, dark-haired, much more intense man bursts through the doors and throws his hands into the air. “She’s good. The babies are here, and they’re healthy. Everyone’s doing really well.”

A cheer takes over the room, and emotion overcomes who I know now must be Ty’s fourth and final brother. “Thank fuck,” he mutters and sinks to his knees.

A couple of women rush him immediately. One is young, possibly around Ty’s age or a few years younger, and the other has a startling resemblance to all of them that makes it impossible to classify her as anything other than their mother.

My stomach flips over on itself at being witness to such a tender, intimate family moment, but Ty pulls me into his arms and into a hug before I can think about it too much.

All I can feel is the warmth of his long arms around me and the relief in his laugh at my neck. Why does this have to feel so good?

It’s only when he pulls away that panic sets in again. Because he’s pulling me out of the room and down the hall, right along with the rest of his family, headed to meet his freshly sliced sister-in-law and her adorable babies.

I don’t know that we’re ready for that. I don’t know that it’s appropriate.

Two months ago, I was at the beginning of a new start. I was proud, I was poised, I was ready.

Now, I’m so tangled up in a man, I don’t know where the knot begins and ends.

How in the world have half a semester of fighting and a week of fucking landed me here?

Ty

The feeling of tightness in my chest has finally left and been replaced by the best news in the world. Daisy and the babies are happy and healthy, and I can go on knowing my brother Flynn will live to see another day without darkness.

It’s strange to say—and even stranger to recognize—but Flynn’s world starts and stops with Daisy Winslow née Diaz. Their relationship certainly moved at what felt a rapid-fire pace to me, but I’ll be damned if my brother wasn’t born the day he met her.

He’s happier, healthier, chattier. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s still one of the most mysterious fucks on the planet, but I get more than a nod and a grunt these days. And that’s a big change.

I watch and wait as Winnie, my mom, Remy, Jude, and Sophie file into the maternity room in front of us, a couple other people I don’t know particularly well in front of them, and then pull Rachel’s hand to follow. But I’m met with a resistance I’m not expecting.

I turn back to face Rachel, question on my face. “Rach?”

“I don’t think I should… Ty, I think you should just go in yourself. You and your family. This is a personal moment.”

I shake my head, trying to focus on what she’s saying but just as eager to get into the room and see Daisy. “Come on, Rach, it’s fine. I promise. I want you in there.”

The truth is, I’m not sure I could let go of her hand if I tried.

I didn’t get it at all—the marriage and the babies and the little white picket fence that’s seemed to fascinate my brothers as of late. But hearing the news that all might not be well with the babies and Daisy and putting myself in Flynn’s shoes shook me.

I know Flynn before Daisy, and I know him after Daisy. And now that he’s with her, I can’t picture them apart. She’s the voice he never used and brings smiles to his face that were never there.

He’s not terrified of having twins—he’s thrilled. And the thought of something tainting that joy was almost too much to bear.

I pull Rachel through the door, her resistance finally giving in as we pass over the threshold, and jockey us around to a front position in the crowd. No offense to Daisy’s friend Pam, but I’m not going to stand around in the back of the group. She can wait until the family’s done.