Page 139 of Winning Brynn

With tears in my eyes, I swipe up my daughter with one arm and wind the other around Brynn’s neck, pulling them both into my chest.

“It took you a little while, but you were just building the suspense, huh, baby girl?” I laugh, pressing my kiss to her head then leaning over her to brush my lips over Brynn’s.

Salem looks up at Brynn, her eyes shining with adoration. “Muh-muh.”

Brynn cocks her head to the side, staring back with a matching expression. “Are you going to tell me what that means now?”

Laughing, I shake my head. “How have you not figured it out yet?”

“What?” She gapes at me. “You know what it means, and you haven’t told me? It’s been driving me crazy. She says it all the time.”

“Of course she does.”

She frowns, two adorable lines creasing between her brows. “I don’t understand.”

“She’s been telling you what you mean to her for months now,” I say.

“Muh-muh,”Salem says again, lifting a tiny hand to stroke Brynn’s face.

“Are you listening?”

But Brynn doesn’t answer me. Her eyes are locked on my daughter, brimming with fresh tears that she doesn’t even try to hold back.

Salem tilts her head in concern. “Mama sad?”

“No, baby.” Brynn sniffs, smiling through her tears. And I think, finally, she understands. “I’m not sad. Mama is very, very happy.”

Miss Jessica:On our way up now.

Ah, shit. They’re early.

After Salem’s first steps earlier, followed by Brynn’s long-awaited epiphany, I haven’t had a chance to brief Brynn on what is about to happen.

There’s a small part of me that is worried I’ve overstepped. But then I think back to the day she took me to the children’s home, and I watched her with Ivy for the first time. How bonded they are to one another, how much they obviously adore each other.

I knew, even then, that I was going to keep Brynn forever. Maybe that’s why I did what I did long before we’d become an official couple. When you know, you know, right? So, I bit the bullet and put plans into motion to give Brynn what she wants more than anything.

The process of adoption is more complicated than I’d anticipated, especially when one half of a couple is doing it behind the other’s back, but it has helped that Miss Jessica is already well acquainted with Brynn, that she wants the end result just as much as we do, as does the child named on the documents we will hopefully be signing today.

Ivy’s bedroom isn’t ready yet. Brynn will want to spearhead that, and I didn’t want to take the opportunity of designing her daughter’s room away from her. Besides, Ivy won’t be able to come home to us for a little while yet. There’ll be court hearings first, where a judge reviews the case before a decision is ultimately made, but Miss Jessica is more than confident it will go in our favor.

Soon—very soon—our family will be complete.

That is, unless Brynn wants to try for a biological child, but she’s never shown interest in doing things that way before. Regardless, I’ll give her as many children as she wants. Hell, I’ll give her as many animals as she wants too. Annoying as it is to admit, Gordon Ramsay, the three-legged cat, has grown on me.

“Brynn.”

She turns to me behind the kitchen island, popping a blueberry into her mouth. “Hmm?” she mumbles as she chews.

“I have a surprise for you.”

Her eyes brighten with excitement as she bounces in place. “Is it a puppy?”

“No.” I roll my eyes just as someone knocks on the door. “It’s better than a puppy.”

“What could be better than a puppy?” she laughs as she walks out of the kitchen.

I follow closely behind her, Salem on my hip as my heart beats rapidly, and my palms sweat with nerves. God, I hope she’s happy. All I want is for her to be happy. There is no one in this world who deserves it more than she does.

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