Page 138 of Winning Brynn

She flicks me an apologetic look and shrugs. “Sorry.”

“Anyway.” Alex clears his throat. “My point is, we both fucked up. You shouldn’t have hidden your relationship from me, but I shouldn’t have made you feel like you had to. And I don’t want to throw our friendship away over it, not when you clearly make my sister so nauseatingly happy. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to see the difference in her, actually. So, really, I should be saying thank you.”

I wave him off, coughing around the emotion clogging my throat. “Unnecessary.”

My best friend leans forward in his chair. “So, are we okay?”

I stand and walk around the coffee table until I’m in front of him. Holding my hand out, I wait until he rises to take it. “We’ll always be okay.”

“Kiss! Kiss!” Brynn laughs from the couch, my daughter giggling along with her.

I roll my eyes but use my hold on Alex’s hand to pull him in for a hug. Not just a quick shoulder pat, bro-hug, either, but a real one.

He pulls away to look me straight in the eye. “Truth is, I couldn’t have picked a better man for my sister.”

I force a swallow to stop myself from crying. Jesus. What the fuck is wrong with me? Falling in love has turned me into a sap. “Thanks, man,” I croak, moving in for yet another hug.

When we finally break apart, he grins conspiratorially with a shimmer in his eye. “Does that mean I get to ask you what your intentions are with my sister now?”

I look over to the woman of my dreams. The setting sun beyond the windows dapples her in multicolored light, catching in her hair. She looks so happy sitting there with my daughter in her lap, so at home in the apartment that has now become hers.

I picture us years from now, making dinner in the kitchen as Salem sits in a chair at the island to tell us about her day. Beside her, I imagine another little girl, one with dark hair and stormy eyes.

“Well,” I tell him, not looking away from Brynn, “I haven’t had this conversation with your sister yet, but I’m planning to marry her at some point.”

Brynn balks. Alex, though, looks like the cat who got the cream. He claps me on the shoulder, bouncing up and down on his feet. “So, we’ll be brothers?”

“Yeah, man. We’ll be brothers.”

Today of all days, when I’m preparing to tell Brynn a secret I’ve been keeping from her for months now, I was not expecting my sixteen-month-old daughter to take her first steps.

Alas, on Sunday morning, a few days after getting my best friend back, I find myself crouched on the rug next to Brynn as Salem tries to hobble from one foot to the other.

Brynn has her arms outstretched, draped in one of my old white shirts that she slept in last night. Her hair is bundled in a mess on top of her head, disheveled and unkempt, yet she’s never looked more beautiful.

She doesn’t take any notice of the fact that I’m staring at her. Her attention is fixed solely on my baby girl.

“Come on, baby, you can do it.” She wiggles her fingers at Salem with a wide, reassuring grin. “Just a few steps, ladybug. That’s it.”

Salem stumbles, plopping back onto her butt. But my daughter is nothing if not determined. Pulling herself up again, she wobbles on unsteady feet.

“Come on, baby girl. Walk to yourmuh-muh,” I say.

Brynn flicks me a curious glance over my shoulder, but I just shrug. It’s her own fault that she hasn’t worked out what Salem has been calling her this whole time, but she’ll figure it out—sooner rather than later, hopefully, considering the surprise I’ve got in store for her today.

With a deep breath, Salem releases her grip on the coffee table. Time slows as she lifts a chubby little leg, the other trembling slightly with the effort of holding all her weight. Silence hangs in the air as we watch her, our breaths caught, our hearts beating frantically, yet somehow in sync.

Her foot touches the ground in front of her.

Holy shit.

Holy fucking shit.

But she doesn’t just stop with one step. With reignited confidence, Salem goes for another, giggling to herself as she does. Then she takes another until she’s cleared the space and is falling into Brynn’s arms in an eruption of overjoyed squeals.

It’s as if she’s been walking this entire time, hiding her ability from everyone.

“You did it!” Brynn yells, pride blazing through her like a shooting star. “You did it, ladybug! You did it!”

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