Page 25 of Oops, I'm Having My Best Friend’s Baby!

“Come on,” he said, standing and heading for the door. “I’ll meet you upstairs. Dinner’s probably ready to be served now.”

“Okay.”

She let him go before her, waiting on the edge of the bed just a little bit longer to set her phone aside and clear her head.

Remember that whole promise you made to yourself? To keep just that little bit of distance, to not give into this annoying crush that will only spoil everything? Yeah, maybe focus on that.

It was hard, though, when he’d pulled her in for that hug and it felt so comfortable, so right. When they’d been talking so intimately and the rest of the world had disappeared, so it was just the two of them sitting on the bed.

This was all pretend, she reminded herself. All of it was just a fun little story so that Kai’s career didn’t end up in the toilet because, in the world of the mega rich, business opportunities really did happen over cocktails on a yacht. Pretend. That’s all it was, and that’s all it was ever going to be.

Eating dinner on the deck of a yacht, overlooking the ocean when it was just an inky mass shimmering beneath a night sky… it was otherworldly. And now with all of them sitting on the cushy chairs on deck, a glass of wine in hand with soft music playing in the background somewhere, Amy tried to sear this moment into her memory. When agreeing to go on this trip, she hadn’t been prepared to have a borderline spiritual experience, but here she was, gazing up at all of the stars and feeling a bit of vertigo with how small she felt underneath them.

“Are you all right, Amy?” Jess asked, and Amy looked down from the infinite heavens above to find Jason, Jess and Kai all looking at her with amused smiles on their faces.

“Sorry?” she asked, slowly drifting back down to earth.

“What’re you doing?” Jason asked.

“Looking at the stars?”

“Be careful you don’t put a crick in your neck,” Kai said. Amy’s hand instinctively went to rub at the muscles in her neck, which were a little stiff. How long had she even been staring up at the sky like an idiot?

“I think this will be my last glass of wine,” she said, swirling the contents around.

“I think that’s maybe a good idea,” Kai said. “You don’t usually drink this much. I think it’s hitting you hard.”

He wasn’t wrong, and it did explain why the stars had seemed particularly fascinating just before.

“Amy,” Jess said, suddenly sounding very concerned. “You know that you don’t have to drink, right? Like, there’s no pressure, babe.”

God, Jess really was just too sweet for this earth.

“No. It’s not that. I like to go running in the mornings, and alcohol always makes me sleep in. I usually just stick to a beer or something at most.”

“Do you guys go to the gym together?” Jess asked. “Me and Jason tried that once and we nearly killed each other.”

Jason shook his head like he was having flashbacks to that fateful day, but Kai laughed.

“No,” he said. “Amy’s way more athletic than I am. Always has been. She was on the track team, and I was the nerd in the computer lab, hiding out and studying economics.”

Amy laughed because it was entirely true. “I remember when I told you that I’d joined the track team. You looked at me in horror and asked why? And I said for fun, and your look of horror turned into absolute disgust.”

Jason shook his head. “And to think, Kai, that all I ever see you in is sportswear.”

“It’s all a lie,” Amy said, taking a sip of her wine, and Kai rolled his eyes at her.

“So tell me, then,” said Jason, taking a sip from his own glass. “How did the girl on the track team and the geek in the computer lab end up engaged all these years later?”

Aw, man… Amy had momentarily forgotten about the con they were pulling. Not a con, just a white lie to smooth things over. Remembering it now, she refused to succumb to the guilt spiral that had been threatening to swallow her whole ever since she realized that she actually liked Jess and Jason. But here they were now, right across from her, Jason with a teasing smirk on his face and Jess bright eyed and interested.

“It’s not that interesting of a story,” Amy hedged, and if they’d been sitting at the table, it would have been a perfect opportunity to nudge Kai in the knee, to at least get some sort of reassurance. But here they were spread out on the lounge chairs, all in view of each other, and she couldn’t read Kai’s thoughts at all. He had a carefully blank expression on his face, looking serene and maybe a tad drunk, nothing else.

“Come on now,” Jason said, like a dog with a bone. “For years, Kai, you’ve been in the public eye with a model or an actress on your arm. You were literally on a ‘most eligible bachelors’ list last year, and now you’re shacked up with your best friend from high school.”

“So?” Kai said genially.

“So… what happened, huh? What flipped the switch. Come on, man, we want to hear the story.”

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