Page 119 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends
"Okay, you don't get to come here and insult my cooking after practically throwing me out of your boyfriends' house." He makes a face of disgust. "God, I can’t even say it with a straight face. Yourboyfriends."
I roll my eyes. "Okay, first of all, grow up. Second of all, I didn’t throw you out. You left after I said something you didn’t like."
"You said you would pick them over me. PickJakeover me."
"Is this about Jake or is this about us?" I shoot back. "Listen, I know you have your personal problems with him, and I disagree with who the blame lies with there, but that's not even what this is about, and it's not what we're about to talk about right now.We're going to talk about us. When I said what I said…I didn't mean it like that.”
"You did," he said. "You forget I know how stubborn you are, and I know what you look like when you're bluffing. You weren't bluffing then. If I had made you choose, you would have chosen them."
"I didn't want to choose at all. You're my brother, James. The one person I've loved for my entire life. And they're..."
I trail off and can't even explain how they've come to mean so much to me in the short time since we've been together.
"You love them?" he asks me, finally sifting the sausage from the pan onto a paper-towel-covered plate.
I nod. "I think so."
He pulls a disgusted look. "Gross."
For some reason, the childlike disgust on his face makes me snort. "Yeah, I didn't exactly plan it like that. It's not like I sought out to date three men at the same time."
"Oh yeah? Then how did it happen?"
"It was..." I blush. "We met at your party, and one thing kind of led to another."
"And what, you guys slept together?" His eyes widen. "Is that why you left early? To go and screw them?"
"Yeah," I admit. "Sorry, I lied about that."
His looks utterly shocked and flabbergasted, "Did they get you drunk?"
"No, actually. They're too decent for that. I was stone cold sober. I just..." I gesture with my hand, waiting for the words to form. "I was feeling down about Eric, about being the good girl and doing the right thing, and still getting screwed over by life. So I thought, hey, maybe I deserve a little mindless fun for a change. You know, I never actually did that in high school or college. Never just hooked up with a hot guy or had that kind of fun because I was too scared of what people would think about me. What you would think about me. And that day, I kind of just threw caution to the wind and thought, why not screw around with the hottest guys at the party?"
"Gee, maybe because they're my friends and I was starting a business with them?"
"Yeah, I didn't know that part at the time. The hook up wasn't supposed to be a serious thing, and I thought it would be one time and we would part ways. But then….I got pregnant.”
James' eyes get even wider, turning into saucers. He drops the spatula in his hand, and it clangs on the edge of the pan before toppling to the floor.
“What?”
I say nothing, waiting for it to sink, in as my brother’s mouth gapes open like a fish. He sputters and tries to form words, but not a single one of them moves to completion.
It takes nearly a minute for him to speak again, and I let him have that time to process, his eyes a mixture of surprise and horror.
"You're pregnant?"
"Yeah," I say. "That's the other thing I wanted to tell you, and I planned to do it with more finesse than that."
"You're not fucking with me? You're really pregnant?"
"Yeah," I say. "I don't know who the father is yet, but they all know, and they all want to be involved and....I think I might let them. Because I might be in love with them." Somehow, it's easier to admit this to my brother than it is to say it to the guys.
Even though James' reaction almost makes me regret it. His face goes through a series of emotions: shock, confusion, despair, and even a little bit of amazement.
I wait for him to call me crazy, to tell me how insane it is for me to want to give my child three fathers.
But he shocks me by asking, “Boy or girl?”
