The Bet (Winslow Brothers 1)

And I know if anyone can help me, it’s Winnie.

“Jude?”

“The fortune-teller is gone, and her shop is a fucking Wendy’s now.” It’s the first thing that pops out of my mouth, and Winnie’s face morphs into concern.

“Why don’t you come inside, Jude?” Wes acknowledges the fact that I’m still just standing outside in the rain. “You can dry off, I’ll grab you a beer, and you and Winnie can have a chat.”

He holds open the door and Winnie steps to the side, but the second I’m in their entryway, she’s wrapping her arm around mine, completely ignoring that I’m probably getting her wet, and leading me into the kitchen.

Wes hands me a fluffy cream bath towel and a beer, and I sit down at the table, across from my sister. My brother-in-law, though, doesn’t hang around. Instead, it appears, he goes back upstairs for the night.

“All right, Jude,” Winnie says, and her eyes peer into mine. “What on earth would make you run, like, I don’t even know how many miles in the rain at one in the morning?”

Normally, I would play it all off and joke around the truth. But I can’t tonight.

“Sophie.”

“Oh boy.” She inhales a deep breath and blows it out through pursed lips. “I had a feeling you were going to say that. Although, I’m surprised you spilled the beans without more pushing on my end.”

“I’m in love with her, Winnie.” I just blurt it out, and my sister’s brows nearly hit her forehead.

“And I definitely didn’t expect you to say that. Holy shit, Jude!” She reaches out to shove a hand into my arm. “You’re in love?”

“Don’t get too excited, sis. I fucked it all up.”

Her shoulders sag.

“But I’m hoping, fucking praying, that you can help me find a way to fix it.”

She reaches out her hand and gently covers mine. “We’ll figure it out. I promise. But you’re going to have to give me all the details. You can’t leave anything out. And before you get that look, it’s not because I’m being nosy. It’s because I need to have the full picture of what we’re working with here.”

A sharp laugh pops from my throat. “A fucking disaster. That’s what we’re working with.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“Oh, but, sis, it is.” I eye her knowingly, and then I lay it all out there for Winnie—minus all the very intimate details that I know she doesn’t want to know and I sure as shit don’t want to tell her—I give her the rundown of everything.

How I met Sophie. How I ruined her date with that one dude but ended up taking her on a date to make up for it. How she became this irresistible force in my life, and I just wanted more of her time. More of her.

How we went to Vegas.

How things were after I took her to Lexi’s Mathletes competition.

And I tell her how things ended. How badly I messed up. How badly I hurt Sophie.

Winnie just listens, taking it all in, and only occasionally asks me a question to clarify something or simply just nods as she follows along.

Once I’m done, I have to lift the full bottle of beer that Wes left on the table for me and chug half the thing down.

My sister just sits there quietly, like her mind is still trying to wrap itself around everything I just revealed. But then, the teeniest hint of a smile touches the corners of her lips.

“Are you…smiling right now?” I ask, and she shakes her head, but that smile of hers only grows. “Winnie? What the fuck? Are you enjoying my misery?”

She shakes her head again, and a laugh bubbles up from her throat. “I’m sorry! None of this is funny to me, I swear!”

“Then why the happy fucking face?”

“Because I just thought about the conversation we had at the lake house last summer, and how you were saying you were never going to fall in love, and I told you that you were going to eat those words one day.”

“Are you really going to play the ‘I told you so’ game? Right now? While I’m sitting here at your kitchen table, feeling like I’m bleeding out?”

“In my defense, I haven’t said I told you so, even though I probably should tell you I told you so since we both know that I was right, and your mouth is pretty full at the moment with the giant bite of bullshit you spewed at the lake house.”

“You just said it!” I point at her. “Twice!”

“No, I didn’t. I said the words I told you so, but I didn’t say the words directly to you.”

“You keep saying it!”

She laughs. And for the first time all night, I find myself laughing too.

Damn, my baby sister is a trip.

But then, once the laughter subsides, the acute, undeniable pain is the most prominent sensation I can feel.