Page 13 of Secret Baby for the Triplets

I frown. “Why do you say that?”

Owen shakes his head with a crooked grin and pushes to his feet, heading for the kitchen.

Brock rolls his eyes and tosses a look my way. “Honestly, sometimes I wonder how you would’ve survived after Mom died if it weren’t for us.”

I bristle, the jab about Mom hitting harder than I want to admit. “You always act like I wouldn’t have made it without you,” I snap. “All I said was I think she gave us her real name. Why is that so hard to believe?”

Owen sighs, and I realize he doesn’t think she did either.

Brock lifts a brow. “Toby. She just wanted to have fun. She didn’t give us her real name, and she certainly didn’t give us a way to contact her. Why are you all hung up on a girl you barely know?”

“I’m not hung up on her, “I grumble defensively. “She left me a note. I just wanted to say thank you.”

Owen eyes me curiously. “A note?” he repeats. “What did it say?”

Now I feel like an idiot for having brought it up at all. They always have this way of making me feel ten years old again. I should’ve known better than to say anything. Everything seems so much easier for them, and somehow, I’m the one who ends up feeling like the asshole.

“Nothing.” I stand to join him in the kitchen. I need coffee.

“Oh, come on,” Brock insists. “What did it say? Maybe we can find her if she left you a love note. Who are we to stand in the way of true romance?”

His jeering is beginning to piss me off. Why did I even agree to come on this stupid trip? Owen and his goddamn charm, convincing me that it was “just what we needed” a “brotherly regrouping” and all that other bullshit he fed me.

“Tell us, Toby,” Owen urges. “What’s the note say?”

I know better. I shouldn’t tell them.

“She just said she hoped I was feeling better, and thanks for a great night.”

“Oh, I see. So you want to thank her for a thank you note,” Brock offers sarcastically. “Well then, let’s hire a private investigator to track her down right away.”

I grab the coffee pot and pour a cup, feeling heat rush up the back of my neck.

I’m such an idiot.

“Take your coffee and go get dressed. We were waiting for you to eat,” Owen says quickly, sidestepping Brock’s taunting. “None of us are happy when we’re hungry.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to refuse, to tell them to go without me, but Owen seems to anticipate it, and he steps closer. “We came here to blow off steam, Toby, not create more. We’re here for one more day. I don’t want to go back to Pine Sky with more baggage than we left with.”

His gaze bores holes in me. “Go get dressed.”

I swallow my resentment.

Simmering below the surface, I do as I’m told. There’s no sense in arguing when it’s two against one, anyway. Those two will always side against me.

But when I’m alone in my room, I sprawl on my bed and open my phone. Diana’s scent twines with mine in the sheets, making me hard. I want to ask my brothers if they remember what hotel she’s staying at, but I don’t dare. I’m not bringing her up to them again.

But if I can find her on my own, they can’t stop me from looking her up.

I scroll through Instagram, looking for Diana in Texas, fully expecting to see her pretty face smiling back at me. How many Dianas in Texas can there be?

It turns out that there are a lot.

Time gets away from me, and Owen bursts through the door, half an hour later, scowling.

“Seriously?” He glowers at me in disbelief.

Jutting my chin out defiantly, I shrug. “Sorry. I got caught up in something.” That’s not a lie.

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