Page 31 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends

“Yup," he says cheerily, and the glitter in his eye tells me exactly who it is.

Except why would she be coming over when she spent our last meeting with her running from us?

I narrow my eyes. "What did you do?"

"Nothing. Just suggested that I wasn’t feeling too hot, so we should move the meeting to a new location."

"And that location is our home?"

"Yeah.

"And did you tell her she was coming to our house.

He grins wickedly. "I’m pretty sure she’s going to figure it out when she gets into the neighborhood."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Jake..."

The doorbell interrupts whatever I was going to say next.

"That must be Sam, early for the first time in his life," he says. "Can you get that? I'm kind of busy here."

He adjusts his apron and continues wiping the sink, without waiting for my answer. I sigh and head to the door, pulling it open to find Sam with freshly cut hair, wearing something that isn't a T-shirt and ratty jeans for a change.

As a matter of fact, he's wearing a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and loafers of all things. He no longer looks like some kind of shut-in hacker. He looks like a rich preppy kid, and he's holding a bouquet of flowers.

Great. Just great.

"Don't tell me you're in on this, too?" I tell him.

He smirks as he walks past me into the room. He puts down the flowers on the counter and pushes his hands in his pockets, standing there.

"You missed a spot," he tells Jake.

"No, I didn't." Jake spins around, peering at everything. "Where?"

He points at the ceiling where random dust had collected around the painting.

"Ah. Good call."

I stare at the ridiculousness for a few more minutes before I shake my head and head to the shower. The men are determined to crash and burn. They're determined to keep going until they ruin their friendship with James and maybe each other. And I feel so powerless to stop it.

After I get out of the shower and get dressed, we hear the sound of a car parking in our driveway.

“I'll get it," Jake says, but Sam is already on his feet, and I watch them reach the doorway at the same time, attempting to push and shove each other out of the way before pulling it open.

"Hi!" Jake says, waving. "Glad you made it."

"I didn't think the meeting would be at your house," she says, sounding like she’s stepping out of the car. "Otherwise, I might have selected somewhere different."

"Oh, did I forget to mention? Silly me."

"Yeah, you forgot to mention." And from the wryness of her tone, she knows that the forgetfulness was on purpose.

"Give her some space, guys," I say, because they're crowding around the doorway.

"Sure. Come in." Jake finally backs away, and I catch a glimpse of her, and suddenly butterflies flip-flop in my belly.

She's wearing pink today.