Page 57 of Doctor Daddies

“And they came to me about it first,” Matt explains, filling in the gaps for me before I can get any more lost to the confusion. “Which I appreciate, even if they should have done it six years ago…” He pauses, gathering himself, clearly having to remind himself not to get dragged down that path once more.

“But that doesn’t matter,” he replies. “Because…because they’ve shown me that they’re willing to provide for you. To care for you and Lewis, the way you both deserve. God knows I’ve tried to make it happen myself, but I can’t do it alone. I don’t want to be your only family, the only blood relation you have, and…”

He looks between them, a fond smile on his face. “As much as I might have hated these assholes for a hot minute there,” he concedes, “there’s nobody better in the world I could trust my sister to than them.”

Tears spring to my eyes, and I have to bite down hard on my lip to keep them from leaking out. I can barely believe what I’m hearing right now.

Not only do the guys want me,reallywant me, but Matt is willing to take his hands off the wheel and let it happen too. He can see how deeply they care for me and how they’ve shown themselves willing to do anything for both me and Lewis. I might not know much about relationships, but I know that’s what love is supposed to feel like—being cared for, supported, adored in all the ways you never imagined you could be.

“You’re serious?” I whisper, half expecting all of this to be some kind of joke at my expense that will snuff out of existence just as quickly as it came in.

Matt nods. “I know I am,” he replies, and he looks to Cole, James, and Ross. “But I guess there’s plenty that these three want to say to you too. So I guess I should give you a little privacy, huh?”

My heart flutters in my chest at the thought of being alone with the three of them again. When it’s just the four of us, a strange alchemy takes place in my body, shifting me from a mother just trying to get by to someone else entirely. Someone sure of herself, someone passionate and wanting, someone unafraid to claim what she really wants and needs.

But first, I need my brother to know that I appreciate this. That it means the world to me for him to accept me so completely, despite everything that has happened, despite the secrets I kept from him for so long. It might not be easy for him to hear, but I know this is what I need, and it’s one hell of a relief to realize that he sees it too.

I step forward and pull him into a hug, squeezing him close again, silently telling him in all the ways he needs to hear that I can’t believe that he has done this for me—and that I will never forget his kindness and acceptance, his willingness to look past his own reactions and see that there’s so much more out there for me.

“Thank you,” I whisper to him. Words too small to capture the enormity of what’s going on inside my head right now, but it’s the closest I have for the time being.

He hugs me back. “Anytime, Mills.”

And with that, he steps back, clapping his hands together. “Where’s Lewis, at school? I’ll pick him up and he can stay at mine tonight.”

“Really?”

“No problem,” he replies. “Haven’t seen him in a while. And besides, he’s got to be missing his favorite uncle by now, huh?”

I laugh and nod. “Yeah, he’s been asking after you,” I reply. “And he’s at school. If you don’t mind taking him for the night?—”

“Not a problem.” Matt nods his farewell to the guys and then makes for the door.

As soon as it’s shut behind him, I find myself alone with Cole, James, and Ross. The three of them have always come as a trio for me, at least in my mind. But I never imagined that it might move past the physical and into something as real as they’re making it out to be.

I bite my lip as I look between them, hardly daring to speak it out loud.

“Is it…is it true?” I ask them softly. “That you…?”

“I know it sounds crazy,” Cole concedes, as he slips his arm around my waist, drawing me into him gently. “But these last few months, having you in my life again…I realized how much I had missed you. How much I had missed having someone I could come home to, someone I actually cared about, someone I wanted to build a life with.”

“I never thought I would want something like that again, not after what happened with Caroline,” James admits. “But you—you reminded me why I craved all of that in the first place.”

“And now, you’re going to be the mother of our children,” Ross adds softly. “I can’t imagine anything more intimate than that. Or anything I want more than to make a life with you, Millie.”

I close my eyes for a moment, letting it wash through me, the sweetness of those words, of how much they truly want me. I have never felt anything like this before, the feeling of being truly wanted—I’ve never let myself. But with them, it’s impossible to deny. They have shown me care, affection, kindness, and support, in ways I could never have imagined, in ways that go above and beyond what I could ever have asked for from them.

And I will never forget how much it means to me.

I reach up to touch Cole’s face, and look to James and Ross, a swell of emotion threatening to get the better of me entirely.

“I love you,” I whisper, to all three of them.

Those words feel like planting a seed somewhere deep down inside of me, leaving something to blossom and bloom where it will soon break the surface and show to the rest of the world.Because I do, I love them, more than I ever thought I could love anyone in my life.

And as Cole leans down to kiss me, I know that they feel it too.

But they intend to show it instead of saying it.