Page 224 of Triplet Babies for my Ex's Best Friend

Bryce’s jaw shifts. “I wasn’t asking you.”

Luci steps forward before I can stop her. “Oh, mistake number one.”

Celeste touches Bryce’s arm. “Maybe we should go.”

He shakes her off, not violently, but sharply enough that I notice.

So does Luci.

So does Sophie.

Ice cold slips through me.

“Don’t touch her like that,” I say.

Bryce’s eyes narrow. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

I see the man from the airport. The one who decided my life was inconvenient and discarded it in public. But now there’s something worse under the surface. A pressure. A crack spreading beneath the charm.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” he says.

I laugh once. “Me?”

“You humiliated me at the gala. And Ethan had no right to have security threaten me.”

“He had every right,” I say. “You weren’t wanted there.”

His face tightens. “You don’t know anything about it.”

“There it is,” Luci says. “The fragile male mating call.”

Bryce points at her. “Stay out of this.”

Luci steps forward. “Point that finger at me again, and you’ll be retrieving it from your overpriced colon.”

“Luci,” I hiss.

“What? Pregnancy has made me protective.”

“I’mthe pregnant one.”

“And I’m emotionally dilated.”

Sophie makes a strangled sound.

Bryce’s eyes snap back to me. “Pregnant?”

The café goes quiet.

My lungs freeze.

Celeste looks at me. Then at Bryce. Then back at me, her face paling further.

I stand slowly, one hand pressing against the edge of the table. “That’s none of your business.”

Bryce’s gaze drops to my stomach.