Then:
MOM:Why didn’t you tell me there was a child???
I stare at the message.
What.
I sit upright too fast and instantly regret the whiskey I drank last night after the festival.
Snow falls steadily outside the cabin windows overlooking Lake Briar. The whole place smells faintly like cedar and fireplace smoke. Usually, mornings in Briar Cove calm me down.
Not today.
My phone rings again. It’s Maddie, my PR manager, which means the world is definitely on fire.
I answer with a grimace. “Please tell me nobody died.”
“You’re trending above a celebrity divorce and a senator scandal.”
I rub a hand over my face. “That’s not technically an answer.”
“Colby.”
Her voice carries the exhausted tone of a woman one inconvenience away from homicide.
“You need to look online immediately.”
“That bad?”
“That viral.”
Fantastic.
I open social media and instantly wish I hadn’t. The photo from last night dominates every feed. Me carrying Jillie on my shoulders. Sadie smiling beside us beneath the festival lights. The three of us looking painfully domestic. Painfully happy.
The captions get worse from there.
COLBY REID’S SECRET FAMILY EXPOSED
HOCKEY’S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR HIDING A CHILD?
FROSTHOLM BAD BOY FINALLY SETTLING DOWN?
I scroll farther.
Fans are losing their minds.
I always knew Colby wanted kids.
This is literally the happiest he’s looked in YEARS.
Protective dad Colby was not on my bingo card.
The little girl looks just like him omg.
I choke on air.
“She does not look like me,” I tell Maddie.
