by Mignon Mykel
I nodded. “Ok.” I could take that. “Eventually, though…”
She shook her head, knowing where I was going. “They don’t need to know, Grey.”
I tugged her closer until she was sitting on my lap and I had my arms locked around her. “Their opinion of you is not going to change, Brenna. You are still their sister.”
She dropped her eyes from mine, watching as she traced a finger down my chest. With her voice low, she said, “I don’t want them to know. I don’t want to open up that hurt again.”
That I could understand. The night she told me about losing her baby, she definitely shattered in my arms. There were only so many times a person could do that and still find a way to put the pieces together again.
I took her chin in my fingers and lifted her face toward mine. “I do not judge you. You know this.” I pecked her lips before finishing what I had to say. “If and when you decide to tell them, I will be there to help you pick up your pieces. You are strong, Angel. You can get through any of it.”
She offered me a half smile which I gladly covered with my lips. We kept the kiss light and appropriate for our surroundings.
I wasn’t about to make love to her in her brother’s living room. Not happening.
“I love you, Brenna O’Gallagher,” I said against her lips.
She pulled back this time, a hand on my face as she stared at me. She brushed her thumb over my lips, her eyes on the movement, before she shifted them back to mine. “I love you too, Greyson Stone.”
My lips lifted on their own accord. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Before I could celebrate that news though, her phone chimed through the dark.
“Oh! It’s probably Con,” she said, scrambling off my lap. I took the moment to adjust myself, then stood to move toward her. “It’s time. Oh good, it’s time!”
“That wasn’t long. We going?” I asked, unsure of what her plan had been.
She nodded, heading toward Aiden’s room. “Yes. I just need to grab Aiden. Could you start the car? Mia’s keys are on the hook.”
I did as she asked, finding myself surprisingly excited to get to experience this with Brenna and her family.
Brenna
Just as we parked, Conor texted to let me know that Ava Grace O’Gallagher made her entrance. With a sleeping Aiden in tow, Grey and I made our way to their room. I was excited to meet my little niece.
Grey held Aiden against his side and had my hand in the other. I was anxious to walk into the room like this, I wasn’t going to lie, but I was going to go through with it anyway.
“Congrats, Mama!” I said as we walked through the door, me leading my small pack.
“Thank you,” Mia said from her perch on the bed, a smile on her face as she looked down at her bundle. But when her face lifted to us in the doorway, her eyes dropped to mine and Grey’s linked hands, then back up to my face. Her own face dropped, her eyes wide and mouth open.
“Brenna O’Gallagher!”
Con, whose back was to us as we walked in, looked over his shoulder, frowning at Mia’s outburst.
And then, to make the whole fiasco even more fun and exciting, Rory stepped into the room behind us.
“Guy uses the bathroom and comes back to squealing. What’s going on?”
“Are you…?” Mia asked.
Grey’s hand in mine tightened.
Support.
He was always giving me his support.
“Yes. We are,” I answered.
Conor stood and Rory stepped around us to join him. Both had matching frowns on their faces.
It was funny how those two looked nearly nothing alike, but their expressions were mirror images.
“How long?” Conor asked, crossing his arms over his chest in that big, puffy way men sometimes got.
“Dude, they’re holding hands. It’s probably been awhile. Or else they’d have just walked in together.” Rory, ever the thinker…
“We’re not here to talk about Bren and me.” Grey shifted Aiden in his arms, but the boy still slept.
“But let’s!” Mia was giddy as all get out and I couldn’t help but laugh lightly at her reaction. She should be tired after pushing out a baby but she was excited for me.
“And Bren’s giggling. So maybe it’s new. That’s a new relationship sign.”
I shook my head at Rory. He wasn’t all that bright in the women department, which was probably why he had yet to secure Emily in his life.
I looked over to Grey only to see him looking at me. He was letting me decide how long. Because really…how long? Five years? That’s when it started. One year? That’s when it got seriously serious.
“Five years,” I said, my chin rising.
“Five years?” Conor’s face was contorted in confusion. “That was when—”
“Shit—” Rory started, but was interrupted by Mia yelling ‘ears!’, “You mean, every time I covered a shift for you so you could go out with a girl, it was with my sister?”
“Seriously. Five years?” Conor couldn’t seem to get past that.
“It was casual for the first few years, yeah, but I moved in last year,” Grey offered, putting all our cards on the table.
Conor’s eye swung to mine and where I semi-expected anger, there was just confusion. “Why the secrecy, Bren?”
I shrugged. “I wasn’t ready.”
And I left it at that. They could too.
“I’m so excited for you, Bren,” Mia said. “Come here and look at your niece.”
What she really meant was she and I were having a discussion apart from the boys.
Grey let go of my hand and when I moved to Mia’s bedside, he moved closer to my brothers. Con reached for Aiden and took him from Grey, cuddling him into his chest. The anxiety was back; I was afraid of what my brothers would say to Grey now that we were apart.
Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it—Mia stole my attention.
“Would you like to hold her?”
I smiled at my once again best friend. She looked tired but absolutely radiant. When Mia handed me my niece, I cuddled her close and lowered my face down to her sleeping one.
“Hello, little lady.”
“Tell me,” Mia said, her voice low. I looked over at her, a frown on my face. She lifted her brows and moved her head to the side slightly, signaling the boys. “Tell me!”
She scooted over on the bed, patting a spot next to her hip for me to sit and face her. I did as she wanted, keeping the baby between us and my attention on Ava’s face.
“I love him.”
“Awww.”
I grinned to the side and looked up at Mia. “I have my reasons for keeping everything quiet. I know that that’s probably going to irk Con and Rory, but most of it is going to stay between me and Grey.”
“Grey?”
I grinned. “Yes, Grey. I stopped calling him Stone in private a long time ago.”
“I love it. Tell me more.”
Chuckling, I glanced back down at the baby in my arms, running a finger down her cheek.
I held Aiden at this age, but holding Ava, a baby girl, was hitting me a little bit harder. I took a moment to compose myself before looking back at Mia. “He’s been my rock. I haven’t always been the kindest. But he’s been there, and he supports me. Heck,” I said with a laugh, “he let me keep us a secret for this long. If I knew there wouldn’t be fists flying, would I have been willing to share it sooner?” I glanced at the boys, who seemed to be more relaxed, if Grey’s laughing was any indication. I turned my attention back to Mia and shrugged. “Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe the road we took is what we were supposed to take to get here. What’s done is done and there’s no reason to think about the what ifs.”
“God, Bren. You’re so fucking adorable.” My eyes widened at Mia’s swearing. She stopped swearing, at least in public, the month before Aiden was born.
Her eyes were misty. “I wish you would have felt comfortable tel
ling me, but I understand why you needed to keep it to yourself.”
Now I could feel my eyes getting misty. “Oh, Mia. Me keeping it from you had nothing to do with our past.” Because that was where Mia was going with that comment. I knew it without a doubt in my mind. “It was more because I was afraid you’d tell Con.”
Her laugh was a little watery. “Yeah, I probably would have.”
Brenna
Just like we had done when Aiden was born, Rory and I had a fruit bouquet and a meat and cheese tray catered into the room while family and friends filtered in and out through the late morning and early afternoon to meet the newest O’Gallagher. When the crowd was dying and it was down to just my brothers and I, as well as Mia, Grey, and the babies, I started to clean up what was left.
Grey walked up behind me and brushed his hand over the small of my back before leaning down and whispering in my ear. “I love you.”
I smiled.
It was as if now that he’d said it and I responded in kind, he couldn’t stop saying it. And I, well…I loved it.
“I love you too,” I whispered over my shoulder, smiling when he pressed his lips to mine.
“No making out in corners, kids,” Rory said, pocketing his cell in his back pocket. “Shoot! That’s what you were doing the other day, wasn’t it? You too like a little heat with your sweet.” He chuckled to himself. “Ha. Poet and I didn’t know it.”
Conor groaned, shaking his head.
“No, we were just fighting that day,” Grey told him, picking up a pile of paper plates and tossing them.
“Sure, sure…” Rory shook his head and walked over, snagging the last cantaloupe and pineapple flower from the bouquet before I could put the remaining fruit in a container.
“Speaking of fighting,” I said, putting the lid on. I stacked it with the other container of what was left of the meat and cheese before turning to my brother. “I heard you and Emily got into a fight.”
Rory took a bite of his flower and shrugged a shoulder, chewing slower than necessary.
“Yeah, I want to hear what’s going on with you and Emily!” Mia shouted from the bed. Conor sat in a chair adjacent to her, his socked feet propped on the bed and Baby Ava bundled and curled at his shoulder. Aiden slept in the bed next to Mia.
“There’s nothing to tell about me and Em,” he finally said after finishing—yes, finishing—the fruit in his hand.
“You were awfully cozy with her at the dealership,” Conor offered.
“But she was upset yesterday,” I added, looking to Rory. “What did you do to her?”
“We just got into a disagreement, I said some words, she said some words, which echoed some words Con said—”
“Don’t bring me into this.”
Rory gave him a pointed look. “I just said she had words that were similar to ones you gave me.” He shrugged again and turned to the containers, opening the meat and cheese to grab a cube of cheddar. “AndImaybeamgoingtomakesomechanges.”
The room was quiet, everyone trying to process what Rory mumbled as he popped cheese into his mouth.
Mia, bless her pretty heart, said what we all wanted to. “Say that again, slower this time.”
Rory groaned and looked up to the ceiling. “I’m going to make changes.”
“For a girl?” Conor asked, his face splitting in a huge grin.
“Yes, for a girl.”
Rory went to toss a cheese cube at him but Mia put her hand up. “Sleeping babies. You hit her with that, you will be hit with the wrath of Mia Hampton.”
Rory pointed at her, palming the cube as he did. “Good point.” Instead, he popped the cheese in his mouth.
By this point in the conversation, Grey pulled me to a chair and into his lap. I was surprised at the ease I felt. While Grey and I weren’t new, putting us in this kind of environment was, and I would have assumed I’d feel some sort of unease, but I didn’t.
My oldest brother shifted in his seat at Mia using her last name and I glanced at him, watching him. It wasn’t a secret that he wanted to change Mia’s name.
Just like it wasn’t a secret that it would happen eventually.
But I knew he wanted it done sooner than later. He was so in love with her.
He caught me staring at him from across the room and raised his black brows. I felt like he was trying to tell me something, ask me something, but I couldn’t figure it out.
Finally, he nodded his chin down toward Ava. “Av and I are going for a walk.” He took his feet off the bed and put his shoes back on, one hand on the baby’s back at all times. “You want to walk with me, Bren? You can be my hands.” Then he addressed the room. “Anyone want a beverage?”
“You can leave her,” Mia said with a frown.
Conor gave her a crooked grin before bending to kiss her on the lips. “As her mama, you get her more than me. Just let me hold her for a little longer.”
Mia smiled up at him and laughed lightly. “Ok, burly man.”
He gave her one more kiss and rounded the bed. Grey patted my hip before I stood. I trailed my fingers over his shoulder and he took my hand when I was behind him. Pressing his lips to my knuckles, he let me go when Conor reached us.
Conor winked at me and slapped Grey on the shoulder in a friendly manner—it was still probably a bit harder than necessary—and walked with me out of the room, Ava still secure to his chest.
“Can’t let her go, can you?” I asked my older brother, a big smile on my face. There was nothing like seeing him with his babies. He made such an awesome father.
His chuckle was quiet, his lips still pressed together, but Ava shifted on him at the slight movement. He turned his face into his daughter’s and pressed a kiss to her forehead, walking with me in the otherwise quiet.
I pursed my lips in an action that was probably too duck face, so I quickly pulled my lips in. I sighed heavily as we walked to the open refreshment area. When he still said nothing, I stuffed my hands in my pockets.
Still, nothing.
“So,” he finally offered the moment we reached the juice and water machines. “You and Stone. For five years.”
Rather than feel the anxiety I imagined, I couldn’t help but smile slightly at Con’s voice. “Well, not really five years.”
“That man back there has been dating you on the low for five years, Bren, regardless of when it was ‘serious.’” He lifted his free hand to do air quotes and I couldn’t stop my slight smile from filling all the way.
Conor wasn’t an air quotes guy. Rory, sure, but not Conor.
“Why didn’t either of you say anything?” One hand still on Ava, Conor opened a cupboard, revealing Styrofoam cups and lids. I reached in to grab them, knowing there was only so much he could do with Ava in his arms.
I shrugged, pulling down enough cups for our family. “I had some things I had to get over. Personal things.”
I knew Con wouldn’t be content with that answer. “Personal things? What, like all the rumors you lived through? Bren, you gotta know that none of that shi—stuff mattered.”
I filled the cups, half with water and the rest with an assortment of the available juices. “It mattered to me. I wanted to make changes to who I was.” I shrugged again, still filling cups. “For what it’s worth, I said ‘no’ to Grey the first few times he asked.”
“But eventually you said ‘yes’ and you still didn’t feel the need to tell your brothers.”
“I didn’t want him to lose a job. O’Gallaghers needs a bartender like Grey, and that’s not me being biased,” I added with a pointed stare at my brother.
He let that go.
“But he’s good to you.” It wasn’t a question; it was clearly a statement. I lidded a cup before looking at my oldest brother, the guardian of much of my youth, and took in his raised brows and concerned blue eyes.
I nodded once slowly and while my smile was much smaller, it felt like it had much more emotion behind it. “He’s good to me.”
“The
n that’s all I care about.” Con opened another cupboard, taking down a disposable tray. I helped place the cups on it and when the task was complete, he and I headed back to the room.
Right before we reached the doorway, Conor stopped, his hand in his pocket and a frown marring his face.
“What’s up?” I asked him, my back to the propped door.
His hand dug in his pocket for another second before he nodded, seemingly to himself. “Nothing. We’re good.”
Chuckling, I shook my head and pushed with my back through the door. “You’re weird.”
“Right back at’cha, Brenna.”
Stone
I would have thought that the first time I was in the O’Gallaghers’ presence after our announcement, without Brenna, I’d have been uncomfortable to a degree.
Let’s be honest. For as carefree as Rory sometimes acted, in the years I’ve known him, where his sister was concerned? He could be pretty fierce.
But it wasn’t like that at all.
No, Mia and Rory joked with me like they did at the bar. Again, I found myself with Aiden in my arms, to which Rory took offense to.
“I’m the kid’s uncle. You’re not.”
“Yeah, well…” I looked at Aiden and winked at the chubby ten-month old. “Give that a year.”
Mia gasped. “Yeah?”
I shrugged, shaking my head at the same time. “Yeah. I’ll give her time, though.”
“Please not another five years.”
I chuckled. “I said a year, Mia.”
“Ah, yes. You did. Pregnancy brain.”
“I don’t know if you caught it, but pretty sure you had the baby already, Mi,” Rory, ever the smartass, said.
“Fine. New baby brain.” She stuck her tongue out at Rory. The teasing quickly turned to smiles as Brenna and Conor came back into the room. I stood to help Brenna with her full tray of drinks, giving Mia back her son, and taking the tray from Brenna to place it on the room’s built-in desk.
Brenna, standing beside me, hugged me from the side and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. “You good?” I whispered down to her. I could only imagine that her and Con’s walk was more than just grabbing water and juice.
