Page 98 of Winning Brynn

I drop my lips to Brynn's forehead, breathing in the fruity scent of her skin until my pulse starts to slow. "I'm gonna put Salem to bed. Come and find me when she's gone."

She nods, but her eyes aren’t on me. They’re staring with sadness at Isabella, who’s tearing at her hair with her hands.

And I don’t understand how Brynn can feel any level of empathy toward that woman after what she did to me. To my daughter.

So, I take my daughter and stride from the room. I don’t look back, not at Isabella, not at Brynn either. It’s all too much.

But it's only five minutes later when I hear the telltale sound of Alex's knock, followed by a few muffled words, and then the door finally closing.

My bedroom door opens, and Brynn stands in the threshold, looking at me with soft eyes, the light from the hallway creating a glowing halo of gold around her. I’m still vibrating with rage, but one look at her standing there like some ethereal goddess sent from the heavens to save me calms the thunderstorm roaring in my soul.

"Is Salem staying with us tonight?" She nods to where my daughter is sleeping in the middle of the mattress beside me.

"I didn't want to be away from her," I admit with a whisper.

Her eyes soften as she tugs self-consciously at the hem of her skirt. "I understand that." Chewing nervously on her lower lip, she looks at me from beneath her dark lashes. "Do you want me to stay in my room?"

"No." I flip over the comforter and pat her side of the bed. "I need both of my girls tonight."

I get the feeling she needs Salem and me too. And it thaws the last frozen piece of my heart that she was prepared to be alone tonight if I didn't want her to stay. She would sacrifice her own needs for the sake of ours. It's what she's been doing from the very beginning. Pulling back on her career to look after Salem. Giving up her evenings to put my daughter to bed, even when I've been able to do it myself. Putting her emotions to the side tonight and prioritizing me and Salem, even if it was to her own detriment.

How I ever thought this woman was selfish is beyond me.

She's the furthest thing from it.

The door closes behind her, drenching us in darkness. The only light left is a narrow sliver of silver slipping through the drapes, but it's just enough to guide Brynn's movements. She strips down to her underwear, snatching one of my t-shirts from the chair in the corner and pulling it over her head. Then she pads to the bed and climbs in next to Salem.

Sensing her, Salem's eyes flutter open, reaching out a little hand to Brynn, who encases it inside her own. "Muh."

"What's that, ladybug?"

"Muh, muh."

Brynn shakes her head, not understanding Salem's babbles, but she smiles anyway. She leans over to press a kiss to her forehead and whispers, "Sleep tight, baby girl."

My daughter blinks sleepily, her face peaceful and content. With our feet tangling beneath the covers, Brynn and I watch as her eyelids fall heavy, and her lips part, her breaths deepening, her chest rising and falling with slow, whispering sighs.

We lay awake for a long while afterward.

The weight of the evening's events choke the air between us like a smog that just won't lift. But neither of us mention it. There's so much to say, yet the words are lost to us both. My lungs are too thick to speak, my head too hazy to think. So, I stroke my foot over Brynn's and pray that she can feel all the things I wish I was able to say to her out loud.

That things haven’t changed between us. That what I meant when I said I needed to find a new nanny was that I want her here without the complication of employment. That she doesn't have to say goodbye to Salem…not now, not ever.

Because Roman and Libby were right, even if I wasn't ready to admit it to myself then.

Somewhere between becoming Salem's nanny and lying here in bed beside her tonight, I fell in love with her. She stopped being Salem's nanny and became something more than that. The thing my daughter has always been missing. The thing Isabella thinks she is but will never be.

Her mom.

It just took tonight to make me see what’s been true all along.

Muh-muh, Salem had called her.

Because she knows it too.

"Daddy Sully and the bros" group chat

Roman:Holy shit, Salem's mom is back?

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