Page 32 of Oops, I'm Having My Best Friend’s Baby!

“Oh… you guys could have told me that like two hours ago and this whole thing would have been way less terrifying.”

Kai couldn’t help it and started laughing. Amy was even brave enough to let go for a second to slap his shoulder. But he slowed down to a stop, pulling back up to the yacht where the other jet skis were being moored. It had been fun, that was for sure, but he was kind of tired of the sound of an engine constantly drilling into his ears, and Amy looked thoroughly done with the whole adventure as well.

He swung off and helped Amy get back onto the yacht without falling into the ocean before they wandered up on deck to go and find lunch.

Did she hold onto his fingers just a fraction longer than was necessary? Or was that just wishful thinking?

The afternoon wore on in a haze, and Jess and Jason spent it in the jacuzzi, all over each other. Clearly a morning spent apart, even if it was just a few hundred yards between them, had taken its toll. They weren’t shy about public displays of affection at the best of times, and by this point Kai didn’t even really notice it anymore. But for some reason right now, it struck a nerve that that was what a loving couple should look like, arms all over each other, their faces glued together at the lips and quite literally inseparable. And apparently Amy had picked up on his sudden mood shift as he thought all of this over.

“You look like you’re thinking too hard about something,” she said, drifting around in the pool without a care in the world.

When Kai looked at her, she pointed to her forehead. “If you keep frowning like that, your eyebrows are going to fall off.”

“You sound like your mother when you talk like that.”

Amy shuddered. “Never mind, then. Frown all you want.”

Distracted, Kai looked back at Jess and Jason in the jacuzzi, but now Jason saw him looking and lifted a hand in a wave. Kai returned it, then turned around and swam over to Amy, embarrassed.

“What?” she asked as he drifted to the edge of the pool beside her.

“Just thinking if we’re selling this whole being engaged thing well enough.”

“Why?” she asked. “Did they say something?”

“No, it’s just… they’re all over each other. And we’re not, and should we be? You know, all over each other? At least once?”

Amy looked at him blankly. “You might need to ask that more concisely, because right now you sound like you’re having an aneurysm.”

He knew she was poking fun at him, seizing the opportunity to torture him, just a little bit. But still, Kai could have done without it. He was doing a fine job of torturing himself without her assistance. In fact, he’d like nothing more than to hop in a time machine and undo what he just said, realizing how ridiculous it sounded. In lieu of that, he could always sink below the pool’s surface and drown; that would be a good solution. Should we be all over each other? Had those words seriously come out of his mouth? Unfortunately, he couldn’t see a single way to back out of the situation without making it ten times worse than it already was.

“I just meant…” he said, using every fiber of his being to sound as rational and sane as possible. “If we’re trying to sell the image of being an in-love engaged couple, maybe it would be prudent to at least kiss in front of Jess and Jason. Just once. To sell it. But I realize that it’s maybe beyond the limits of this whole endeavor that we’ve agreed on. So never mind, forget I said anything. In fact, let’s go back to our regular programming. Okay?”

Amy’s face was perfectly blank in the very specific way that meant she was borderline hysterical with laughter and determined not to show it. Kai honestly didn’t know if that made him feel better or worse about the whole situation.

“You know what?” she said with a serious nod. “You’re right. We should kiss in front of them. Just once. To sellthe vision.”

Kai was glad that he was clinging to the edge of the pool. Otherwise, he might very well have just sunk right there and never surfaced again.

“Sorry, what?”

“Yeah!” she said brightly. “We’ve had a lovely day out on the water. It would be perfectly normal for us to kiss if we were getting married. We must seem like a couple of prudes compared to those two.”

“Well, yes, then. We should kiss. If you’re okay with that.”

“I’m okay with it. Are you sure that you’re okay with that?”

“I’m okay with it. Why wouldn’t I be okay with it?”

“Because you seem kind of not okay with it,” she said dryly. “I’m not going to give you cooties.”

“I don’t think you’re going to give me cooties.”

“Then why are you acting like it’s such a big deal?”

“Because you’re you, and it’s weird.”

“Do you want a shovel for the hole you’re digging yourself?”

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