His Baby Secret: His Baby Secret, #1

By Layla Valentine

Three best friends
One big secret
My brother's best friend is getting a big surprise…

Hannah:

We were inseparable. Best friends.
Me, my twin Harvey, and our buddy Dominic.
Only I loved Dominic in secret, and never told him till high school was over
And then he told me he loved me too…
Only then did he tell me he was joining the Navy
I hated him for leaving me,
And I found out I was pregnant the day he shipped out
He never found out
Seven years later, my brother's getting married, and the secret SEAL dad is finally coming back to Tucson as his best man.
Dominic Riley has a big surprise coming his way, seven years in the making…

Dominic:

Seven years ago, I left my heart in Tucson.
I've traveled the world,
Risked my life defending my country's freedom,
Seen things you wouldn't believe,
But I'd trade it all for one more day with her.
She hated my guts when I left,
Can she forgive me now?
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Layla Valentine
• Release date: Feb 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201150792

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

HANNAH

JUNE 2011

Hannah narrowly dodged a splashing drink as Ronnie Kurtz staggered by. For the host of the party, he didn’t seem all too concerned about keeping his parents’ house clean. At this point, though, he was probably drunk enough to forget about the fact that his parents would, at some point, return. The mess of the house, the stickiness of the countertops and tables, and the accumulation of plastic cups and snack food crumbs and puddles of pool water on the tiled floors would be a problem for the Ronnie Kurtz of tomorrow.

And, judging by the state of Ronnie Kurtz tonight, Hannah was pretty certain that tomorrow’s Ronnie Kurtz would be pretty pissed. If he could see past his hangover.

If this was what it was like to be rich, Hannah would take a hard pass. What was the point of accumulating all these nice things, just to not care about them? Something shattered in the next room, and Ronnie’s distinctive, gasping laughter was some of the loudest. Case in point. If she had a house this nice, she’d take care of it and the things inside of it. She wouldn’t invite her entire graduating class for a wild house party while her parents were away; that was for sure.

Well. Her foster mom, anyway.

What’s in that cup? Harvey demanded, snagging it away from Hannah, who hadn’t heard her twin coming. It better not be booze, Hannah Newell, or so help me God, Marnie will find out about it.

You’re the one who stinks of booze, not me, she informed him, taking her cup back. Mine’s just soda.

Don’t tell Marnie, Harvey said immediately. I can handle my liquor.

If you don’t leave me alone, I swear I’ll tell Marnie, Hannah said, one hand on her hip.

You are the worst tattletale, Harvey groused. Seriously. I don’t even know why you came to this party if you’re just going to be a pooper.

Her twin had had a little too much to drink; that much was apparent. And the reason she’d come to this party? Because she was treating it like the last time she’d see any of these people in her life. They’d all walked across the stage just that morning, high school diplomas in hand. It was nostalgia, or something close to it, because Hannah generally avoided big social gatherings like this.

The only people she cared about in this town were Harvey and Dominic. They’d been dubbed the Three Musketeers by teachers and Marnie (Harvey and Hannah’s foster mom), plus Dominic’s parents. Their friendship group had other names—high school kids weren’t as nice about two twins who generally didn’t socialize outside of Dominic. The older they got, the crueler the rumors. Like about just how good a friend Dominic actually was to the twins, and whether there was something freaky going on.

It was laughable, really. Or, it would be. Whenever Hannah complained about it to Harvey, he promised it would be something she’d laugh about when the three of them were older. Idiot kids being idiots. That’s why they attached themselves to Dominic—because all the rest of their classmates weren’t worth their time.

Dominic had similar notions. Screw them, he’d say helpfully, pulling Hannah down the halls as she stared hard at groups of kids whispering and laughing at them.

At least they would never have to walk those halls again. That part of her life was over.

The thing that was still very, very present, though, was that the rumors had been at least a little right. Not the part about freaky twin stuff—yuck. But Hannah had been coping over the years with a rather debilitating crush on Dominic.

It wasn’t as if anything had ever happened between the two of them. A lot of the time, Hannah felt like she was the third wheel of the Three Musketeers, that she was always tagging along with Dominic and Harvey. But things had changed in high school.

She couldn’t put her finger on it. Puberty, maybe. Dominic finishing a growth spurt over the course of the summer that filled out his frame, muscles now fitting his height. Hannah filling out, too, in places no one had ever told her to consider. Sometimes, they caught each other staring. It was never as awkward or embarrassing as Hannah thought it would be. Dominic just made her feel…comfortable. Like she could be herself.

And the self she was right now longed for him. For something more.

Are you sure there isn’t anything in your drink? Harvey had been peering suspiciously at her for the duration of this reverie, apparently. Where’s Dominic?

I don’t know. She shook herself, looking around. It had been Dominic’s idea for them all to go to the party, and Hannah had seen him only in fits and snatches. You know, if you keep drinking, I won’t have to tattle to Marnie. Your hangover tomorrow will do that for you.

Harvey seemed to consider this. He really was capable of reason when he wanted to be. It was just that the four extra minutes of life he had on her, having come out of their biological mother first, gave him some sort of inflated sense of duty. Like he felt he had to be an older brother to her, even if the older part was just those four minutes.

The protectiveness could be stifling. Was stifling, when it came to Dominic.