Page 67 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends

"You know what I mean. Every other woman in this place thinks he's so handsome and falls instantly in love with him if he so much as looks at them."

"He's certainly handsome, but I'm not even remotely looking for a relationship right now."

"I didn't say relationship."

"Ew. I'm not talking about my sex life with you."

"Are you having sex with him?"

"No!"Just the one time.

"Okay." Visible relief appears on my brother's face. "That's good. I think the guys like you, by the way. I can tell from the way they look at you."

I freeze with the cup halfway to my mouth, wondering if this is a warning or if he's about to freak out over his friends potentially being attracted to me.

But his tone is calm when he says, "Now I'm not going to say that I like it, but if you had to pick one, I'd go with Adam. He's a good guy."

"I don't want any of them."

"Right, but I'm just saying...if you did pick one, it can't be Jake. Alright?"

I give him a grim smile. "Yes. Anything else?"

He tweaks my nose. "Nothing else."

But even after he leaves, my thoughts keep circling over James' odd animosity towards Jake in particular. What's up with that? What does he know that I don't?

Perhaps my thoughts are like magic and conjure up the object of their ruminations.

Because later that evening, Jake is at my doorstep.

20

JAKE

“Jake." Chelsea's eyes widen in that adorable way of hers, like pretty round emeralds sitting in her face. "What are you doing here?”

I retrieve the bouquet from my back and hold it up to her.

Her mouth falls open. “Jake–”

“An apology,” I tell her before the protest building can leave her lips. “For spilling your secret before you were ready.”

She sighs and shrugs. “Eh. It’s for the best anyway. I think I would have been too in my head about it and somehow managed to talk myself out of actually coming clean to your guys. So this way, the choice was taken out of my hands."

"Mhmm. Does the same thing apply to your brother?” Today, she lied about the reason she was sick, meaning he still doesn't know she’s pregnant. Which makes sense. He strikes me as the super overprotective type, and finding out that his sister is pregnant from a one-night stand with us…he’s going to lose his shit. I’m prepared to deal with it if he does, though.

Instead, she shakes her head frantically, pallor sinking into her face. “Absolutely not. I can’t tell him now. He would…I don’t even know what he’ll do, but it’s not going to be pretty.”

“Well, he's going to find out eventually,” I tell her. “There are only so many ways you can hide a baby bump.”

"Yes, but…I’ll tell him after the merger is announced and after we’re done crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s. That way, he can’t back out of it.”

“You think he’d want to back out if he knew what happened between us?”

“Maybe. James is very smart, but he can be very illogical sometimes and will act out based on his emotions. He might just do it to get back at you guys, even if he knows it will cost him tons of money and hurt him in the long run.”

"Yeah." That brings back the recollection of when he tried to kick my ass in college, knowing fully well that I was bigger and stronger than him. "He'll definitely go scorched earth, especially if he knows I'm involved."