Page 589 of The Winslow Brothers

Wendy leans back and gently takes Rachel’s face in her hands. “I’m just so fucking happy Ty’s found someone who can stand him.”

Cackles break out across the room at both the vibrant language and the message, and Aunt Paula reaches out to take my mom’s champagne glass from her hand, commenting, “I think someone might have had enough.”

Rachel just laughs and nods.Oh yeah, she knows exactly who she’s marrying.More than that, she can’t wait. Frankly, she’s been waiting a long time.

When Maria announced her pregnancy at family dinner a year ago, none of us had a freaking clue what was in store—four babies for four different couples in the Winslow clan, all arriving within two months of one another.

Since Daisy was the only one spared from our weird pregnancy pact, Rachel and Ty made the difficult but necessary decision to delay their nuptials until we could all have a chance to carry, deliver, and heal.

It was undoubtedly the right choice, but I know if I’d been asked to wait another entire year to marry the love of my life, I’d have been on pins and needles.

A knock sounds on the door, and Daisy jumps up from her spot on the chaise longue with a plate of fruit and runs in her hunter-green satin bridesmaid dress to answer it. I half expect it to be one of our husbands, in the middle of a childcare crisis, but Daisy’s slow retreat from whoever is out there says otherwise.

I crane my neck to look as she backs out of the bridal suite doorway slowly, her eyes big with surprise.

Dressed in green satin just like the rest of us, the infamous Cleo enters the room, a red-lipped smile growing with every step. Her fascinating eyes are alight, and her skin is flawless. It’s been ayear since the first and last time I saw her—since she correctly predicted my miracle—and she looks even younger than before.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I believe in her magic. Honestly, with the way everything has turned out for all of us, I think she might even do a little bit more than relay the hand of fate.

That doesn’t mean I’m not surprised to see her here, though, and from the looks on all the faces of all these beautiful women, I’m not the only one.

Rachel, it seems, is the only one wearing a satisfied smile. Turning carefully so as to not catch the beads of her train on any of the furniture, the bride-to-be closes the distance between herself and Cleo and then pulls her into a hug.

“I’m so glad you came.”

“Oh, my dear,” Cleo replies through a melodic laugh. “I wouldn’t miss this opportunity.”

Rachel is practically beside herself as she squeezes Cleo’s shoulders on a giggle. “Icannotwait to see Ty’s face when he sees you standing up there behind me.”

“I’ve seen it, my love.” Cleo flashes a knowing smile and a little wink. “And I assure you, it won’t disappoint.”

My tipsy mother makes her way across the room, somehow stealing another glass of champagne without Aunt Paula’s intervention, and saunters over to the two of them excitedly.

“How does it work, Miss Cleo?” my mom asks, taking me on a seriously weird trip to an alternate universe. Wendy Winslow has always been the definition of practical. Mild-mannered,tough when she needed to be, loving even more often. She was the rock of our family for all the years that we needed one, and she always put our needs ahead of her own. What she wasn’t was fanciful or anywhere close to a woman who would believe in horoscopes or psychics orfortune-tellers. “The whole fortune-reading, future-seeing thing. Can you only see it for some people, or do you have a line of sight for everyone?”

Cleo smiles softly. “I can see you, if that’s what you’re wondering, my darling Wendy. I can see all of my precious Winslows.”

“You can?” I find myself asking without thought. It’s so unlike me—a woman formed in the footprint of her practical mother.

Cleo turns to me and nods serenely. “Oh yes, my dear. I always regretted not meeting the final Winslow sibling earlier in life.”

“Am I…am I where you saw me being?”

Cleo shakes her head and bites into the red lipstick on her bottom lip with her teeth. Somehow, none of it transfers or stains.Seriously, magic.“You, my dear, have done me one better. I always saw this life for you, after all the heartache you’ve bested, but the way you embrace it, nurture it—that’s beyond fate, my love. That’s all you.”

“I love my life,” I reply, knowing with every ounce of my being it’s true. I was happy before—with Wes and Lexi—but now…now that Wes Jr. has a piece of my heart too, I feelcomplete.

“I know you do, my darling.” Cleo scans the room and smiles at all of us. “You all do. And it brings me great joy to be a part of it.”

Suddenly, there’s a bang and a snap and a pop from the room next door, followed by a toddler shriek and the deep, richness of several grown men shouting. All of our heads whip in that direction, and a small bout of panic grips my chest.

But Cleo—Cleo just laughs.

“All is well, my dears. All is very, very well.” She places an arm around Rachel and ushers her back to the mirror with gentle kindness. “Come now, my darling. Let us get you ready to say ‘I do.’”

Jude

One by one, I watch Wes, Remy, and Flynn move all the kids into the corner of the room at the Carlyle Hotel that’s dedicated to the men of Ty’s wedding party.

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