Page 109 of My Brother's Billionaire Best Friends
“I never stopped thinking about that night,” I say. “Even when I tried to. I thought I was crazy. Thought it was just a good hookup I’d romanticized. But it wasn’t. I know that now. I’ve been chasing that feeling for years, Parker. You’re the only one who ever gave it to me.”
Her eyes soften. She leans in. “So what now?”
“Now?” I squeeze her hand. “Now we build something weird and wonderful and ours.” I lean in for a kiss.
“Ew!” Levi balks, while Lyra giggles. We’re still holding hands when her mom clears her throat behind us.
I turn toward her slowly, expecting something between a lecture and a raised eyebrow. But she’s just standing there at the kitchen island, arms folded, a faint smile on her face like she’s been watching the two of us all along.
“Well,” she says, “that explains the resemblance.”
My brows lift. “You knew?”
“I didn’t know,” she says, stepping around the counter to retrieve a coffee mug, “but I suspected. Same unusual shade of green in your eyes. They’re our good luck charms, thanks to that green.”
I huff a laugh, wondering about that. How two kids brought into a family with very little money could be consideredgood luck charms. But then I feel the warmth in the room, the genuine love that shoots in every direction here, and I get it.
“I was going to make dinner,” she says. “Still could.”
“You don’t have to,” Parker says.
Her mother shrugs. “Well, we should have a family meal, all things considered.” She tips her head toward us.
The word hits me harder than I expect. I’m still standing there, trying to absorb the fact that I have children—children,plural—and now the word family is being dropped casually into theair like it’s always belonged to me. Like it didn’t just reshape everything I thought I knew about my life.
Gavin and Harrison find chairs while I sit at the end of the couch, still trying to make sense of the kids talking at full speed. Lyra’s now explaining the plot of a show I’ve never heard of while Levi asks Harrison how many push-ups he can do. Harrison starts demonstrating with a straight face, dropping to the floor and knocking out ten like it’s nothing. Levi’s jaw drops. “Whoa. You’re like a real superhero.”
Harrison smiles and winks. “Just don’t tell anyone. Can’t betray my secret identity.”
“I won’t,” Levi says seriously, then pauses. “Unless they ask really nicely.”
That gets a laugh out of all of us.
Parker’s mom looks over her shoulder. “It’s fate, you know.”
I blink. “Sorry?”
“That night. You and Parker. That wasn’t just coincidence. That was timing. That was the universe saying, ‘Now.’”
Parker rolls her eyes but doesn’t disagree.
“I mean it. You think you justhappenedto be at the same bar as a girl you were always a little too fond of? The night she needed someone most?”
“You knew I…had a thing for Parker back then?”
“Honey,” she says with too much sympathy and a smirk. “I have eyes.”
I snort a laugh, wondering how obvious I was with other things too. The kids are now trying to stack couch pillows on top of Harrison’s back while he continues his push-ups. Gavin sips his coffee like he’s watching a very strange boardroom presentation. Parker’s seated at the edge of the armrest beside me, head tilted toward the chaos, her fingers brushing mine.
I look at her and ask, quietly, “What’s this going to look like?”
She doesn’t hesitate. “However we make it.”
“And Phil?”
She lifts a brow. “You already know.”
I grin. “Fuck Phil?”
