Page 75 of Vegas with my Ex’s Best Friends

The three of us look at each other across the table.

Two weeks.

The clock just started.

Chapter twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven—Riley

Two days until the Harrington dinner.

That's what Ethan said yesterday. Two days to keep pretending everything is normal.

I can't wait that long.

Waiting means pretending.

Pretending I don't already feel the shift happening beneath everything.

Pretending this baby doesn't belong to someone sitting at that table.

Pretending I haven't already started imagining what happens when the truth lands.

I sit at the kitchen island with my laptop open. The screen glows too bright in the quiet kitchen. I type the words I've been avoiding for days.

Non-invasive prenatal paternity test.

The results load fast. I scroll. My stomach tightens like something just locked into place.

It can be done after eight weeks. I'm past that now.

I close the tab. Open it again. Read the same lines three times.

A soft sound pulls my eyes up.

Ethan stands in the doorway, sleeves rolled, hair still messy from the roof. Liam leans against the counter behind him, arms crossed. Andrew walks in from the hall, fresh from a run, shirt damp at the collar and clinging just enough to make it hard to look anywhere else.

They don't ask what I'm doing. They just see the way my shoulders are tight and move closer anyway.

I spin the laptop so they can see the screen.

“It can be done now,” I say. “We're past eight weeks.”

Andrew stops mid-step. Like his body forgot what it was doing halfway through the move. “You want to do this before the dinner?”

“Yeah,” I say. “I do.”

Ethan moves to my left, shoulder brushing mine. “Then we do it together. All of us.”

Liam pushes off the counter, voice calm but certain. “Whatever the result, the baby is ours. End of discussion.”

I didn't realize how badly I needed to hear that until he said it. I exhale slowly.

“All of ours,” I say. “Whatever the test says.”

Andrew leans over the island, close enough that I catch the clean scent of soap and skin. “You're really okay with this?”

“I'm the one who brought it up, big guy. Try to keep up.”