Page 17 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends

"From us?"

I shrug. "I just wanted to be by myself for a while. I still do." The news I received a week ago is also rattling in my brain, demanding to be acknowledged. But I don't acknowledge it.

The second I acknowledge it, I'll have to deal with it.

And God forbid, Adam or Jake, find out about it. They'd want me to talk to them about it, or start recommending a psychologist again, and that's the last thing I need.

I just need to be alone. I'll deal with it the same way I always do. Alone.

And by apparently, becoming obsessed with a new muse.

Adam hasn't answered because he's busy taking in the rest of it. The carvings. The paintings. The sketches. I have her out laid out in different forms in different media, about a dozen so far.

Okay, now he can safely call me crazy.

“You’re fucking insane.”

"You should be glad it’s just this, and I didn't take it further.”

“Glad? Glad that one of my best friends is basically some kind of obsessed stalker.’

“I haven’t stalked her. Kind of hard to stalk anyone when you don’t even have their name, or their number, or any other identifying information.” Rookie mistake on my part. I should have gotten at least a name before I ate her pussy. But I didn’t think she would run out on me in the morning either. How was I to guess that such a thing would happen?

"But if you did have those things, you would stalk her, wouldn’t you?" Adam sounds disgusted, but he just doesn't get it. He thinks that all these things make me a psycho.

But I was already a psycho when he met me. I can’t help these obsessive tendencies. I would never harm her or anyone else because of them, but I do need some kind of outlet, or it will drive me crazy.

"Listen, I didn’t want to get into this, but seeing how far gone you are, there’s something you should know."

"What?"

"I saw her."

My heart stops beating for a second. I drop the carver and stare at him. "You saw her?"

"Yes."

"Is she okay? Is she hurt? Did you figure out her name?"

"No, but I did figure out that he has a boyfriend."

"A boyfriend?"

"James. Remember when he said he was going to introduce us to his girlfriend at the party? And he said she'd already been at the party when we arrived, but she was waiting for him in one of the rooms. And he said that she said she'd seen us."

"Yeah." I frown. "That doesn't mean what you say it means, though."

"It's more than just that," he continues. "I saw them together when I went to get us some coffee. They were hugging pretty intimately."

"So? Friends hug. Families hug."

"I hung around a little at the coffee shop and saw them entering the restaurant across the street. They sat by the window so I had a clear view. He kept stealing fries from her plate."

"Now who's the stalker?" I mock, and he rolls his eyes.

"I was meeting someone there. Anyway, you know how James is. He has a lot of friends, but he's not that close to anyone. So she could only be his girlfriend."

"Close and girlfriend are two different things," I say stubbornly. "I think you might just be mistaking your military family, where no one shows anyone affection, for a normal one.”