Page 15 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends

"No, because then you’ll be in jail and I won’t have a job." Eric is petty enough to have my brother thrown in jail if he attacked him, and James is a lot bigger than Eric. He might actually hurt him badly. "This way is better. Everyone lives, and everyone moves on."

"He doesn't deserve to move on after what he did to you."

"Well, what he deserves or doesn't deserve is irrelevant. Look, revenge is the last thing on my mind right now. I'm just trying to rebuild my life, and I'm so happy you're helping with that, but I don't want to spend all our lunches talking about him again."

"Fine," James says, but I can tell he's not super happy to let it go.

The nausea persists when I go back to the office, so much so that I step out quickly to head to the urgent care down the street.

They run tests, but give me some anti-nausea medication, because we assume that it's just airplane food making me sick.

I return to work, but somewhere around late afternoon, I get a call.

I pick it up. "Hello?"

"Hey, is this Ms. Winston?"

"Yes."

"Oh, this is Byrdie, from urgent care."

"Oh, sure." I'm answering as I'm scrolling on my laptop, going through possible design plans for a poster.

"We have your test results. Would you be coming back to pick them up?"

"I’m not sure I'll have time to get there before it closes. I might leave work late today. Is there any way you can tell me on the phone?"

"Umm..." Her hesitation is my first clue that something is wrong. After all, she wouldn't be that apprehensive about telling me that I have food poisoning.

I pause my scrolling for a second, alarm rippling through my mind. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. It's just that...our blood test shows that you're pregnant."

6

SAM

Her image rises in my mind, stuck like a constant.

Those clear, expressive eyes, aquamarine waves crashing on the shore, darkening in the night, getting sultrier with every kiss. Her nose, pert and sloped with a nice arch at the top, wider at the base. Her ears, elven, a tad too long with an adorable tip that’s just begging to be sucked.

And those lips...

God, those lips...

I don't know how I managed to drag myself away from them.

Plump and soft and so giving. An object of my every lustful desire. Pink, pillowy, sweet as ambrosia. And her skin, soft and pale as alabaster, like cotton giving underneath my hands, molded to perfection and–

My front door opens and slams. Irritation spirals through my psyche, but I ignore it, hoping that the intruder just leaves without the need to interrupt me.

But when I hear footsteps coming down the stairs of my basement, I know I’m shit out of luck.

“Sam!” It's Adam’s voice calling. “Are you down there?”

I don't answer, hoping he takes the hint and leaves, but of course, Adam never could do that. He’s always been a nosy bastard.

“There you are." He clears the last rung, walking into my basement studio. "You know I wouldn’t have to come here looking for you if you would just answer your damn phone when I call.”