His Best Friend's Sister: A Secret Baby Romance

by Natasha L. Black

  “I know,” I said, not moving my gaze from Becca. Something definitely seemed to be bothering her. “And yes, based on the ballplayer. He played in Seattle most of his career. The splash of grenadine represents when he went off to Cincinnati.”

  “Neat,” Melissa said, putting a big dent in her drink almost immediately. “Becca, you’re driving.”

  “That’s fine,” Becca said, still swirling the straw in her water.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked, leaning forward toward her. She finally moved her eyes over to mine, and they bored into me with a combination of what looked like sadness, confusion, and frustration.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Why wouldn’t it be? I’m just a little tired is all.”

  “Sometimes one of us will go dry so the other can drink more,” Melissa interrupted. “Speaking of, can I have another one of these? They’re amazing.”

  “Sure,” I said, not taking my eyes off Becca. Finally, I peeled them away from her and made Melissa’s next drink, putting it on the bar in front of her before hearing my name shouted behind me.

  The customers from before on the other side of the bar were getting loud and annoying again, and I left to go take care of them. Several drinks and an appetizer of some of the best-smelling buffalo wings to ever come out of our kitchen later and I was ready to return to Becca.

  I put in a ticket for a set of wings for the girls and hoped that the news of impending deliciousness would cheer her up. Secretly, I planned on snagging one or two of them and the curly fries that came with them before they got to her. Yet, when I got there, she and Melissa were deep in a conversation that stopped abruptly when I arrived in front of them.

  “Hey, just checking in,” I said. “Are you sure you don’t want a drink?”

  Becca shook her head and stood, pulling her purse close to her.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I was about to head out. I’m really tired.”

  “Yup,” Melissa said, seeming to realize the new direction in the conversation and downing her new drink quickly to make up for what looked like suddenly lost time. “Just heading out.” She punctuated each word with a mild cough that suggested that perhaps she wasn’t as much of a rum drinker as she might have thought.

  “Really?” I asked, frustrated. “But you just got here.”

  Becca looked at me direct in the eyes and pulled her purse to her chest. There was something in her expression I couldn’t decipher, but it was most certainly there, like she was trying not to say something. Melissa seemed to know what it was and was playing along, but whatever it was, I thought it might have something to do with me more so than her family at that point. Why would she leave so early?

  “I think,” Becca said in a calm, cool voice as she avoided my gaze, “I’m going to stay at Melissa’s tonight.”

  Before I could protest, they were already heading to the door, not looking back, and were gone, only empty glasses, napkins, and twenty-dollar bills on the bar near where they sat. I swiped the money off and stuffed it into my apron. I was confused as hell as I watched them leave, and Ava came up behind me, having finished the trivia portion of the evening.

  “Hey, Tyler, you can take a break if you want,” she said behind me. When I turned around, she could clearly read the look on my face, and her expression turned to concern. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Becca and Melissa were just here,” I said. “Not that you would have had time to notice.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “They were here for like ten minutes, tops. I made them both drinks when they got here, but Becca refused to drink either one,” I said. “She was kind of rude about it, actually.”

  “She didn’t want to drink?” Ava asked, putting her head to one side as she listened.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Then, when I asked her about it, she got all weird and said that she was going to stay at Melissa’s place again tonight. Like, what the hell, right? All I did was offer her a free drink, and she just jumped down my throat like I was the bad guy.”

  An expression crossed Ava’s face that was faint, and nearly imperceptible, but I just caught it before it vanished, leaving a wide-eyed but perky look.

  “Oh, well, I’m sure it’s fine,” she said. “Whatever it is, I bet you’ll find out sooner or later.”

  “Like what?” I asked. “What was with the weird look on your face?”

  “Nothing, nothing,” Ava said, tapping my arm. “Don’t worry about it. Why don’t you head to the back and grab a snack or something? I have a feeling we’re going to be in for a long night of crazy people and terrible decisions.”

  She brushed by me and began taking care of newer customers, many of whom had followed her from the trivia stage over. In fact, a couple of them sidled up to where the girls had sat and took their place. I had to shake it off and get on with the evening, though, and since Ava mentioned it, I did want a sandwich. Knowing that Ava would let me know if Becca suddenly showed back up at the bar, I went to the back to get that order of buffalo wings and take a load off for a few minutes.

  But try as I might, I couldn’t enjoy the food or the silence. Something was up with Becca, and I needed to figure it out.

  30

  Becca

  “Not that I’m complaining, because I’m all about having all-day access to my best friend, but hasn’t anybody found it strange yet how much time you’re spending here?” Melissa asked the next day when she came into the guest room with a cup of hot tea.

  The nausea was hitting me hard that morning, and she told me to just sit still and sip for a few minutes to get it to settle down.

  “No,” I said, taking the tea and sipping it gratefully. “They know how much I missed you and that we haven’t had a whole lot of time to hang out just the two of us since I got back. Thank you for letting me be here.”

  “Of course. Like I said, I’m happy that you’re here and we get to spend more time together. I would be up for regular slumber parties like the old days even if you didn’t need to hide from the world because you’re pregnant,” she said, climbing up to sit on the bed beside me.

  I didn’t know if I should laugh in response to that or cry. I kind of felt like doing both.

  “Yeah,” I said. It was all the response I could come up with.

  “So,” she said a few seconds later. The word was drawn out in that way I knew meant it was a lead-up to something. “Last night at the bar was interesting.”

  “Yeah,” I said again, feeling like it might become my go-to response for conversations like this.

  “You know you have to tell him. You can’t keep waiting and avoiding it.”

  “I can’t,” I said, reaching over to set the tea down on the bedside table. “I’m too scared.”

  “Scared of what?”

  “I finally found this amazing person. After everything I went through with Steven, I finally realize that what I was looking for was actually right there in front of me basically my whole life. I found someone that makes me happy and makes me feel special and beautiful and all those things everybody wants to feel in their relationships. Things I’m realizing now I didn’t feel with Steven. Tyler and I have already been through so much. I don’t know how much our relationship can take,” I said. “And I’m scared to lose him.”

  “You don’t know how he’s going to react. You really don’t. And, honestly, even if he did react badly, which I genuinely don’t think he will, at least you were honest with him. That’s the thing. You have to just go ahead and tear off that bandage. Waiting only makes the situation worse and will hurt him. He deserves to know and to be able to work through it the same way you did,” Melissa said. “And you deserve to have him know and be involved from the very beginning. You shouldn’t be alone.”

  “I’m not alone,” I said. “I’ve had you with me from the beginning.”

  “I know that. And you will keep having me. Nothing is going to change that. But it’s not the same t
hing as having the father of your baby, the man you care so much about, involved.”

  “I know.” I dropped my head back against the headboard and let out a sigh. “You’re right. I need to just go for it.”

  “If you go now, you can catch him before he has to go to work. I know you didn’t want to tell him before he had to go to work, but at least this way it will be done. And it will also give you two some natural distance if that’s what you end up needing.”

  “That didn’t sound reassuring.”

  She shrugged. “I’m just trying to be realistic. But, again, I think it’s going to be fine.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  I got dressed and nibbled on a piece of dry toast to keep my stomach settled before heading over to Tyler’s house. Before going up to the door, I took out my phone and sent him a text message asking if he was busy. When he said he wasn’t, I told him I was there.

  He was opening the door by the time I got onto the porch. This was it. There was no turning back now. I just needed to take a breath and dive in.

  “Hey,” Tyler said as he opened the door. “Come on in.”

  I could almost see the questions in his eyes, hear the worry in his voice. There was so much that needed to be said, and I was still trying to figure out how exactly I was going to say it. Looking into his soft, concerned eyes only made it harder.

  “Can I get you anything?” he asked as he walked me to his living room. I took a seat on the couch and shook my head.

  “No, thank you. Wait, maybe water. Or juice,” I said.

  “Sure,” he said, grinning in a way I guessed was trying to show he was acting like everything was fine. Like it was totally normal for me to disappear again.

  Tyler went into the kitchen, and when he came back out a moment later, he had a large glass of orange juice and a beer with him. He cracked open the beer and sat across from me, and my stomach churned. Even smelling the beer from that distance made me do flips, and I couldn’t get the orange juice in me fast enough. A couple of big sips seemed to quell the nausea. Tyler settled back into the chair across from me and took a big sip of his beer.

  “Are you doing okay?”

  “No,” I said suddenly, surprising even myself. “I’m not. There is something I need to tell you.”

  Tyler sat forward in the chair, setting the beer down on the coffee table and clasping his hands together between his knees.

  “Okay,” he said, a look of apprehension on his handsome features. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m pregnant,” I said. The words blurted out of me before I could stop them. I just wanted it over with, to know how he would react so I could move forward. I needed to hear him, see him react to that news. If it was what I feared, I wanted this part of the night to be over as soon as possible. No use in dragging out suspense.

  “You’re what?” he said, not moving from his spot, his eyes wide.

  “Pregnant.”

  There was only a moment of silence, but it felt like eternity. He looked around the room like he was trying to center himself, to convince himself that he was, in fact, where he thought he was. His jaw slacked open and bobbed there for a moment like words were trying to come out. Then his gaze returned to me, and he rushed over, shocking me in his sudden movement, and wrapped me up in a deep embrace.

  My heart melted when his arms pulled me into his chest. All the worry, all the anxiety began to melt away as he nearly vibrated with excitement. I couldn’t help but let a small smile cross my face, a tear dropping from the corner of my eye where it must have been waiting just in case. I could taste the salty bitterness of it as it slid into the corner of my upturned lips.

  “When did you find out?” Tyler said, pushing me to arm’s length and staring deep into my eyes. The excitement in his voice was palpable, and a big, wide grin stretched from ear to ear.

  “The night I went over to Melissa’s,” I said. “I found out when I was over there.”

  “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” he asked, and I cringed. He could be angry with me, even if he was happy about me being pregnant. I couldn’t blame him for being upset about not knowing.

  “I came to tell you,” I explained. “But Nick was here, and I just couldn’t.”

  “Oh, right, that makes sense,” he said. “The drink!”

  “What?”

  “At the bar!” he exclaimed. “That’s why you didn’t want it. I thought you were just upset at me for some reason, but you didn’t want to drink because you were pregnant!”

  “Yes,” I said, laughing at his enthusiasm and goofiness at figuring out why I didn’t want his cocktail.

  “I never would have tried to serve you if I had known,” he said, shaking his head.

  “I know,” I said. “Are you mad at me?”

  There it was. The big question, and the only one that mattered at that moment. He looked at me almost unbelievingly and shook his head.

  “No, not at all,” he said. “I understand why you would want to wait. Nick can be a challenge at the best of times, and how he’s reacted to the two of us even dating would be enough to convince anyone not to mention a baby.”

  I curled back into his arms for a moment and clawed at his back until I had handfuls of his flannel shirt. I took in the smell of him, my heart leaping in happiness.

  “I had been so afraid of how you would react.”

  “You shouldn’t have been,” he said as he rubbed my back.

  “But we never talked about children,” I started.

  “I love kids,” he interrupted, pushing me out to arm’s length again. His eyes were sparkling with what looked like unrestrained joy. “I have always wanted to be a dad.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “I have always wanted to have a kid.” He grinned, and I felt my heart soaring. “Or more.”

  I laughed, tears streaming down my face. “Let’s just get through this one first,” I said.

  He pulled me back in for another deep hug, and we laughed and held each other.

  “Okay,” he said. “One at a time, I guess.”

  “Yes,” I said, pulling his shirt to make him as close to me as I could. “One at a time. For now.”

  31

  Tyler

  I was already resigned to the fact that working was going to be insanely difficult. Being around my brothers and not saying anything was going to be torture, that I knew. But the level of excitement, and the anguish of not spilling the beans and reveling in sharing the news, was way worse than I anticipated. My brothers had noticed my good mood, mentioning it on occasion through the day, but I had kept my mouth shut as to why. Most of them just assumed I got laid that morning and made more than one joke about it.

  But telling people was something Becca and I needed to make a decision about together. Especially since I didn’t know if she wanted anyone else besides us and Melissa to know just yet. I understood the need for her to tell her family first, since they had been more resistant to her even beginning a relationship. Yet, while I knew all that, and agreed wholeheartedly with it, it didn’t make not telling my brothers any easier.

  My good mood extended all the way through the lunch rush, and as much as I was looking forward to a night at home, I felt like I could bounce through the entire day and close the bar down and still be energetic and happy. It was infectious. Even my brothers began to get sillier and goofier, and the energy in the bar was positive and fun.

  Then, the door opened, and every bit of enthusiasm and happiness drained out of me in a second. Nick walked through the door, heading my way. Suddenly, I couldn’t think of how to talk to him without spilling the secret. It was going to be next to impossible already with just my brothers, and now my best friend was standing across from me and I had to not say anything. He bellied up to the bar, a grin on his face, and briefly I wondered if he already knew and was okay with it.

  “Did you get the link I sent you?” he said excited
ly. I went blank, unable to remember what exactly he was talking out.

  “Link?”

  “The board game tournament,” he said. “Next month!”

  “Oh,” I said, suddenly remembering the text he sent about three that afternoon. “Right. I suppose you’re going to compete?”

  “Damn right I am,” Nick said as I handed him a glass of his favorite beer. He took a pull and looked over the rim, a little foam mustache above his upper lip. “You should come. Bring Becca. She won’t stop making fun of me for it. If she sees you do it, suddenly it will be the greatest thing a guy has ever done.”

  I smirked and shook my head. “Yeah, maybe.”

  “What’s up?” Nick said, sitting forward and leaning his elbows on the bar. “You look like something’s bugging you.”

  “No, nothing’s bugging me,” I lied. “Just a heavy lunch rush, and tonight’s going to be crazy, too.”

  “Ahh, well, that’s a lie,” he said, taking another big sip of his beer.

  “Alright, fine,” I said, scrambling to come up with something to get him off my back. “It’s these online classes I’m starting. They’re a lot, and I haven’t done schoolwork in, what, twenty years? I just don’t want to get behind and look like an idiot around people half my age.”

  “Ah,” he said, nodding. “That I understand. Don’t worry, though, you’ll be fine. This is stuff you like, remember? Don’t think of it like you are so much older than them; think of it like you have that much more experience than them.”

  As much as telling him I was only upset about school was a stretch, it wasn’t entirely untrue. His words were pretty accurate, too. Being stressed out about school was silly when I thought about it that way, and I tried to take it to heart, even if the secret was burning in my stomach like acid.

  I did my best to avoid him for most of the night, which wasn’t all that difficult. The bar became busy quickly, and aside from refilling his drink, I didn’t have much time to interact with him anyway. Eventually he became interested in talking to Jordan and left the bar area, giving me the chance to breathe a little. When he walked out of the door around ten, I had a moment of relief and then buckled down for the next two hours of work.