Page 47 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends

"One of us is responsible for the broken condom," I say. "And it was our responsibility to contact you and let you know, but we didn't."

"I didn't leave any contact info," she says stubbornly.

"Still. We could have made more of an effort to find you."

She shrugs. "I'm the one who didn't pay any attention to my missed period. Also, I could have gotten an abortion, and still could, but I’m not sure I want to. But that decision has nothing to do with you. It’s on me if I decide to keep the baby, and I'lltake care of it. I don't need anyone to support or dictate my decisions."

I bite back my protests, though it rankles that she’s completely writing us off on this. She’s scared. She’s scared and pregnant and worried about all the implications of that, and the last thing she needs is me getting in my feelings about it.

I have to approach this in a way that doesn't set her off, but explains our viewpoint accurately.

“Listen,” I tell her. “I know you don't need it, and I'm not saying you do, but I...we want to support you. Whatever you decide is okay with us, but we wanna be there, and this isn’t me trying to throw my weight around and tell you what to do. This is simply me trying to tell you that if you do decide to keep the child and it turns out to be mine or any of the other guys, I’m sure I can speak for them when I say that we would very much like to take care of the child and be in its life in some capacity. I’m not going to be able to just forget about it and let you raise it all on your own. I would want to be its dad."

“Really?

"Yeah." She looks doubtful, and heck, I’m doubtful too, even as the words leave my mouth. I mean, I can’t believe that I'm saying these things. I’ve never so much as considered being a father. Seriously. I didn’t think I would have kids for a while, if ever, and I made peace with that. I’m not anti-children, of course. I just never thought it was in the cards for me, but now…

Well, if I do have a kid, I have to take care of it, don't I? I'm not going to be the deadbeat who ignores its existence or only sends a check every now and then. That will make me as bad as my father, and I refuse to be like that bastard.

My whole life has been spent proving I'm not like him. I'm not going to stop now.

She’s looking at me oddly as though I said something strange. Did I mess up again? I hate that I sometimes can’t talk right around her, can't read her properly. Something about her disarms me, and it weirds me out.

She releases a breath. "I’ll let you know what I decide later. But for now, I would really like us to forget all of this happened. Forget I told you that and forget what happened back in the car."

I smirk. "I don't think I could forget if I tried."

She blushes, but at least a smile curls the edge of her lips, however tired it is.

"At least don't tell the guys yet. Can you do that?"

"I don't know. I'm not great at secrets, but I'll try."

She purses her lips and nods.

"On one condition, though. You let me give you a ride home, or to the office if that's where you're headed."

"That's really not necessary."

"I know, but I want to. Please." I cock my head. "Look, I'm not going to try anything. No flirting, no funny business, alright?"

"Are you sure?"

“Yeah. I can take a hint." I bet the pregnancy is one of the reasons she's been running away from us so much. Because she thought we would be mad at her or something, when it should be the other way round.

But even before that, I'd decided to tone down my pursuit of her, as painful as it was. I sent her with Sam for a reason. The other night, when he was willing to accompany me to a bar, it made me realize how serious he was about her. Sam would rather chew his eyes out than do bar crawls and talk to random women, but he truly made an effort that day. And he made an effort today at the coffee shop, cracking jokes, being charming in that awkward way of his.

I don't know. Something in my gut just told me to let him have this.

After all, what we have is purely physical, but Sam seems like he's halfway in love with her or something.

I was ready to back off and let them have their happily ever after.

But now with the news of this pregnancy, it changes everything.

That familiar possessiveness that I’ve tried to fight my entire life brews underneath my goodwill, even as I struggle to suppress it. It's stupid. I don't know if the child is mine yet, and she doesn't even know if she's keeping it. It's senseless for me to feel possessive over her just because of that.

Yet, it's hard to fight the feelings of satisfaction when she nods and says, "Alright. You can drive me to the office, but no funny business."