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definitively tell that sort of thing, but hell, I was hardly an expert. If she told me the baby wasn’t mine, I believed her. She wouldn’t lie—not about something this important.
    She started walking, but I asked, “Do you love him?”
    “Chad?”
    “No—Santa.”
    “Please, don’t be a smart-ass, Garrett—not this morning. Usually, I can give as good as I get, but…” She turned to me. Her faint, sad smile through silent tears had me abandoning my cottage cheese to wrap her in a hug.
    Above all, she was family.
    Sure, we’d had our drunken five-minute fling, but that was over and now, reality had to rear its ugly-ass head. As this beautiful, smart, funny, sexy woman’s big
brother,
it was my duty to ensure she never cried.
    I held her tight, stroking her long hair. She felt so good—incredible. It took superhuman strength to not get wood. “Tell me what’s going on. It can’t be that bad.”
    “It’s not…” She melted against me, and I rested my head atop hers, holding her, rocking her. “I’m just always so sick, and Mom’s taking the wedding to a freak show, circus-level I never wanted it to be. I need to set up our Boston apartment, but there’s no time. The residency I’ve literally spent my entire life preparing for is barreling toward me, yet instead of being excited about it, I’m living in dread and fear. It would be hard enough under normal circumstances, but now…”
    “Shh…” I smoothed back her hair the way I had when she didn’t make cheerleading her sophomore year of high school. “You’re going to be a great mom. If you and Chad are as tight as you seem, everything’s going to work out fine. Hell, I’ll even help. I never thought of myself as an uncle, but I’ll have this kid sipping the best aged scotch from his bottle.”
    “Stop! You’re horrible.” She shoved me away, but then pulled me back. “I love you. Thank you for always being such a great big brother.”
    “You’re welcome. Love you, too.” Her words killed me.
Our
words. How many years had we performed this routine? The one where neither of us acknowledged the part where that love we professed on Christmas and birthdays had infinite layers. Familial love, friendly love, and then there was the kind of dark-hot-sexy-velvety-dirty love that by mutual consent we’d shoved so far back into the corners of each of our closets that it was never to be taken out again.

Chapter 6
Savannah
    “You look beautiful.”
    “Thank you.” I stood on my tiptoes to kiss Chad. My trip down memory lane had left me feeling horrible. Unfaithful and unworthy of Chad’s love. At that moment, I vowed to do better by him. I would eradicate all thoughts of Garrett from my mind to focus on the future Chad and I shared. Odds were, the baby wasn’t my stepbrother’s, so I had no cause to worry aside from the challenge of raising a newborn while completing my residency. “You’re not looking too shabby yourself.” He wore a tux, and I’d squeezed my already enormous boobs into a floaty red cocktail dress I hadn’t worn since the holidays two years earlier. Mom had wanted to take me shopping, but what was the point of buying a new dress, when I’d outgrow it in weeks?
    “How was golf?” Though we’d just dressed for the evening together, there hadn’t been time to talk. He took my hand for the trip down the circular stairs.
    “Good. Dickey won.”
    I smiled. “Daddy always wins.”
    “That’s funny…” Midway down the stairs, Chad knelt in front of me and kissed the spot where my baby bump was already growing. “From my perspective, I’m the winner.”
    I cupped my hands to his head, trying not to cry—not because I didn’t desperately need the release, but because I didn’t have time to redo my makeup.
    I love this man,
I told myself.
We’re going to have a wonderful life.
    So why, when I closed my eyes, did my mind’s eye envision Garrett? Laughing Garrett, asshat Garrett, Garrett leaning in for a