Page 94 of Secret Baby for My Brother's Best Friends

But just seeing him here, and his ocean scent washing over me, has my brain fighting for its life. Heat fills up my face.

“Erm, yeah, sorry for bumping into you like that,” I say. "And forgetting"

“Don’t be,” he says, and his finger brushes my cheek. “I forget things when I'm around you, too."

Before I can do more than draw in breath and try to get my brain to work again after it’s been scrambled by the sheer force of his presence, the door behind me opens, and James says, “How many times do I have to tell you to stay away from my sister, Jake?”

“I mean, we do work together.” Jake doesn’t step away from me immediately, nor does he drop his hand, and for the life of me, I can’t find the strength to pull away from him, at least not at first.

“Working together doesn’t mean touching her whenever you want,” he says. “She’s a taken woman."

Taken woman? What is this, the nineteenth century?

“Is that so?” Jake says.

“I know you didn’t have any respect for my relationship, but I thought you would at least value Adam’s."

The strange tension in the air is amplified by the statement; the frost in James' tone obvious. Jake backs off from me, still staring at my brother, and I take the opportunity to escape and get started on the day.

However, that's not the end of the animosity.

It bleeds out during the press conference, and James stares at Jake hard throughout the entire conference, so much so that the reporter has to tell him several times to get his eyes back on the camera.

Jake, for his part, gets caught staring at me an inordinate number of times, so much that Stacey asks me once again if anything's going on between us at lunch.

I, of course, deny it fervently, but my brother calls me back to his office again to warn me about Jake and the type of things he would do to me. I try not to roll my eyes during his description of Jake as a boogeyman who goes around dropping panties and ruining lives. Not that I think Jake is innocent, but it's so exaggerated I can't even take it seriously.

I know that a part of it is pain. He’s still hurt about what happened with his ex, but he has to let it go. It wasn’t Jake’s fault. Maybe a little bit for not clarifying that the girl was single, but ultimately, if she hadn’t slept with Jake, she would have slept with someone else.

Of course, it’s hard to get a word in edge-wise with my brother when he starts in on his rants, and probably any attempt to defend Jake will make things worse.

So I just remain silent, give him a few approving murmurs, and allow him to move on, knowing fully well that my date with Jake is on the weekend.

Throughout the week, I text all three of them. Adam checks in the most and wants to know how I'm feeling. Sam sends me pictures of his sculptures, and we trade jokes about when we think aliens are finally going to visit.

Jake drops hints about the date, although he refuses to tell me exactly what we're doing.

My conversations with all of them flow so smoothly, so easily, it's like I've known them my whole life. Juggling all that should feel uncomfortable or guilt-inducing, but it doesn't.

I finally figured out what the date is when Jake wakes me up before the ass crack of dawn in beach attire.

I stare at him blearily while he beams. "You ready?"

"For what?"

"Your surfing lesson."

I blink. "You're kidding."

"Nope," I recall now that I mentioned wanting to learn surfing as a kid, but I lived 5 hours from the beach. I can't believe he remembered an off-handed comment like that and planned an entire date around it.

Despite that, I get excited. I rarely have time to go to the beach lately, so now that I have this opportunity, I don't want to waste it.

"Okay," I smile and scramble into my room to don my bathing suit.

After the hour-and-a-half drive to the Jersey shore, the sun is finally coming up, and the waves are 'perfect' according to Jake.

He gets me on the board as soon as possible, coaching me into how to paddle and stand at takeoff.