I really,reallydidn’t expect it to be Brady.
30
MILO
“Sweet, aren’t they?”
I turned away from my vigil over the twins’ crib to see Roxie hovering in the doorway.
“They’re perfect,” I said, stepping out of the way to give her room to approach. “I love them so much already.”
Roxie came to stand next to me, giving the twins an excited little wave, grinning broadly at the two of them. She glanced over at Dawn—who was dozing again—and then looked away when she realized I was looking, as though she wasn’t allowed.
“Hey, it’s fine,” I said. “I know.”
“Know…?” Roxie asked, raising a perfect eyebrow.
“How you feel about Dawn,” I said. “You’re not subtle, between you and me.”
Roxie sighed, wiggling her fingers for the babies to follow. I wasn’t sure theycouldfollow, but some part of me wanted to believe that they’d recognize her from when she’d been around Dawn. Her voice, or something.
Better her than me, in that case. I hadn’t been around at all.
Now that they were here in the world I already felt like I’d missed so much. They might not have been my kids, but they were probably the closest thing I’d ever have, and they weredefinitelyfamily. And okay, maybe I didn’t have the most functional family in the whole wide world, but…
It was mine. This part of it was, anyway. I wanted it.
“Am I not?” she asked, looking over to Dawn again.
“Well, you are to her,” I said. “Because she’s not looking for it. I don’t think she’s entirely straight though, if it helps.”
Roxie’s eyebrow ratcheted up a notch.
“Brothers know things,” I shrugged. “I approve, for the record. She needs someone like you.”
“Someone like me?” Roxie asked.
“Dependable,” I said. “Smart. Killer sense of style. I have a friend who’d drag you shopping instantly,” I added. “Someone who really likes her, even when she’s pregnant with twins.”
“I do really like her,” Roxie confessed. “But you areswornto secrecy, understood?”
“Yes ma’am,” I said, beaming at her. I didn’t mind being bossed around by Roxie. She would’ve made a great sister-in-law. “But you should tell her. When you’re ready.”
“And this sage advice is coming from a man who’s found someone to care about himself?” Roxie asked. “HowisXander? I hear you two are practically married.”
I blushed, focusing on the twins as they rolled toward each other in their sleep.
“He stayed with me,” I said quietly. “Through all this. Even though he didn’t have to, even though he was exhausted. No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.”
Roxie made a sympathetic sound and squeezed my arm. “You should tell him that,” she said, offering me my own advice. “I bet he’d love to hear it. And a man who makes cinnamon rolls like that? They don’t grow on trees, y’know.”
I laughed. “He does make a good cinnamon roll,” I said. “You’re not gonna tell on me for lying to the nurse about Xander being family, are you?”
Roxie shrugged. “What’s there to tell?” she asked. “I can’t know what’s in your heart.”
That was the thing. In my heart, it’d felt right to call Xander family. We’d only managed to spend a handful of days together, but from the first time he messaged me I’d been getting butterflies every time I so much as thought of him.
There were worse reasons to call someone family.
