Page 57 of Winning Brynn

Her smile is gentle, grateful, and heart-stopping. "I'm okay for now, I promise. But I'll let you know if anything changes."

But I don't feel relieved.

There's a tightening in my chest that lingers long after she has wished me goodnight and padded down the hall to her bedroom. It keeps me frozen on the couch until the early hours of the morning, even knowing how much I'll regret staying up so late tomorrow when Salem wakes me up at the asscrack of dawn.

All I know is I need to do something. I don't want to lose her. For Salem's sake, obviously.

But maybe...a little bit for mine too.

Text thread between Leo and Brynn

Leo:Are you good with the boys coming over after practice today?

Brynn:It's your house, dude. You don't have to ask for permission.

Leo:I know, but I just wanted to check.

Brynn:It's weird when you're nice to me.

Brynn:I'm still not used to it.

Leo:Understood. Lemme try again...

Leo:The boys are coming over today, you bloody slut.

Brynn:Unless I'm on my knees with my ass in the air, I don't appreciate being called a slut.

Leo:Noted.

Chapter Eighteen

Brynn

The first batch ofcookies turned out pretty good. That second batch, though… let's just say that if they were a person, I'd be calling the coroner right about now and arranging a funeral service.

And maybe, if I were a better woman, I'd shoulder the blame. But fuck that.

It's Salem's fault.

It was that adorable, yet arguably disgusting, small child who timed a spit-up in synchrony with the most enormous blowout in history, which meant I had to run with her at arm's length to the bathroom, scrub her clean, change her, do the laundry, then retrace my steps to wipe up any droplets of poop that had dribbled onto the light-oak floors.

Needless to say, by the time we returned to the kitchen, the cookies had been carbonized.

"I'll let you explain to the boys why they're on rations tonight," I tell Salem, plopping her in her highchair with a tray full of sliced avocado. "Seems a fair trade for what you just put me through, huh, ladybug?"

She snorts a spit bubble in reply then smashes a palmful of green mush into her face.

"Glad you agree."

Dropping a kiss to her forehead, I set upCocomelonto play through the sound system and rush about trying to reset the chaos. Practice will have ended by now, and Leo will be back with his teammates any minute. God bless my soul if he walks in now to find the state we've left his kitchen in.

Thankfully, I have everything looking almost as good as new in under ten minutes—mainly because I’ve hidden most of the dirty shit in the pantry, but that’s a problem for later—with the exception of Salem, who resembles The Wicked Witch of the West due to the sheer amount of avocado she's pasted herself in.

I'm cleaning her offwhen I hear the front door slamming open and the footfalls of several boisterous men coming down the hallway.

"What are we listening to?" Arun asks as he enters the kitchen. His lips tip into a wide smile at the sight of Salem, and he immediately launches into a dance routine. "‘Wheels on the Bus’?My favorite."

"Jesus, what the fuck happened to Say Say?" my brother asks, rounding the corner. He stops in front of the kitchen island, resting his forearms on the marble countertop and frowning down at Salem with a grimace on his face. “Daddy Sully is gonna blow a gasket when he sees you.”

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