Page 90 of More Than Friends

“No one is pregnant. The baby is here. She’s almost five months old, and her name is Ava.”

It’s silent for a few beats before Beck is the one to speak up. “Being a girl dad is the best.”

I meet his stare, relief flooding through me that he didn’t ask another question. I smile. “Yeah, she’s got me wrapped around her finger, that’s for sure. Since I found out about her, it’s been kind of crazy. Her mother doesn’t want to be involved, and I’m working on getting full parental rights to her. It came as a surprise that she even existed…so that’s where I’ve been recently.” By the end of me talking, my words come out hurried and almost blur together. I was just so ready to get the news of Ava out on the table that I couldn’t even slow down when talking.

It’s quiet for a few beats as all of them soak in what I said. I know me being a dad was probably the last thing they were expecting to hear today, but I’m glad I’ve now told them.

Tyson clears his throat. “That’s amazing, and it explains a lot. Happy for you, Kensington.”

I give him a relieved smile. “Yeah, sorry I ignored your invites to hang out. You can now understand that I’ve been preoccupied.”

He nods. “All good. I’m excited to meet her.”

Archer chimes in. “Winnie will be thrilled to find out there’s another baby in the crew. She’s always talking about how much she adores Celeste.”

“Margo will also be so excited that we aren’t the only ones with a baby. Although it makes me sad… I don’t know if I can even call Celeste a baby anymore because she’s getting so big,” Beck notes.

I can’t help but let out a sigh of relief at how easy they react to the news. I’ve spent the last month worrying that anytime I told anyone about Ava, they’d grill me with questions, but I’m learning that maybe all of those fears were just in my head. So far, no one’s pressured me to speak about Karina, for which I’m incredibly grateful. They’ve been nothing but encouraging after learning about Ava, and it makes me feel bad for taking weeks to tell everyone about her in the first place.

All the tension in my body dissipates as they ask me questions about Ava without ever being intrusive. They listen intently as I give them the details I’m willing to share before we start our round of golf.

Time flies by, and all I can think about is how excited I am to get home once the eighteen holes are over and tell Charlotte how appreciative I am of her getting this all set up. No matter how much I miss my girls, the time with my friends today is just what I needed to finally feel comfortable finding a new normal that involves Ava in my life at Pembroke.

FIFTY

CHARLOTTE

It’s been almosttwo hours since Jude’s parents showed up, and I don’t want to admit the number of times I’ve checked my phone since they’ve been here. I keep expecting to see a notification from Jude, but I haven’t gotten anything. He’s got to be done with the eighteen holes by now, but my guess is he’s probably still hanging out with the rest of the guys or doing something at the club. I was the one who told him to have fun and stop checking in, but now that his parents are here, it feels weird to still not have told him that they arrived unexpectedly. I can’t help but wonder if I should text him and tell him anyway even though Florence didn’t want me to.

I quietly shut the door to Jude’s room, making sure I don’t wake up a sleeping Ava. She had a great time playing with Florence and Nathaniel for the last hour, but it was obvious she was getting tired. Florence was thrilled to give her a bottle before I grabbed Ava and put her down for a nap. Once I leave Jude’s room, I sneak down the hallway and into my room to grab some clothes to cover the hickeys Jude left before returning to the main living space.

I walk into the living room at the same time I watch Nathaniel step out to the back porch. My stomach drops at theidea of being alone with Jude’s mom. She’s been nothing but nice to me since they showed up, but I’m nervous that being alone with her will lead to her asking questions I don’t have the answers to.

“I probably should’ve asked this earlier, but do you need anything to drink? Some food?” I ask, trying to make idle conversation with her.

Florence shakes her head. She sits on the couch with her ankles crossed, her hazel gaze locked on me. There’s a hint of a smile on her lips, but something about the way she looks at me makes me nervous. “No, thank you. Want to come sit next to me?”

My feet pause as I stare at the empty spot on the couch next to her. If I were honest, I’d tell her “not really,” but instead, I find myself closing the distance and taking the seat next to her.

I give her a tight-lipped smile, my heart beginning to race at the way she looks at me. It almost looks like she pities me, and I don’t like the sight of it. I don’t know why she’d look at me like that, but something about her demeanor tells me I’m about to find out.

“It’s very kind of you to step in and help Jude like this,” she begins.

I try to take a deep breath because maybe I’m overreacting and that’s all she wants to talk about. It’d make sense that she just wants to extend her gratitude for stepping in and helping Jude when he needed it. “Oh, thank you, but I’m happy to help out,” I respond, my voice a little unsteady. I don’t know why I’m suddenly so nervous, but my intuition tells me this conversation is going to go in a direction I might not like.

She solidifies my gut feeling by clearing her throat and giving me a pensive stare. “Tell me, Charlotte…do you care about my son?”

My mouth opens and closes as I think of how to respond to her question. “Of course I do. We’ve grown close over the last year. He’s my friend.”

Her gaze slips to the marks that are now hidden underneath the fabric of my sweater. “And the way you care about him…it’sjustas a friend?”

I twist my hands in my lap. I’m tired of having to lie to everyone when they ask me how I feel about Jude, but I’m also not ready to say out loud just how deep my feelings have gotten for him. When I finally make sense of them and am finally ready to talk about them, I want Jude to be the first to hear it, not anyone else.

“Yes,” I lie. Truthfully, when I look at Jude, he feels like so much more than a friend, but I can’t say that to his mom. Not when I’m still figuring out what exactly it means to be falling for my best friend and especially not when I haven’t been honest with him about them either.

She stares at me for I don’t even know how long. Her posture is rigid, and her face is unreadable as she scans my face. Eventually, she sighs. “For your sake, I hope that’s the truth.”

My head rears back at her comment. “What’s that supposed to mean?”