Page 5 of Marry Your Best Friend

“Exactly what I said. If you start dating someone, I’ll know.”

She puts her hands on her hips. “Why do you care, Gabriel?”

“Because,” I start and then stop before I say too much. I take in a breath and then tell her part of the truth. “Because you’re my best friend, and I want to make sure you’re okay… you’re safe.”

Her voice softens. “This is Whiskey Run, Gabe. And I’m thirty-three years old. I can take care of myself.”

I reach up and tuck the hair that’s come out of her ponytail behind her ear. I shouldn’t touch her,but I can’t resist, and I put my palm to her cheek. “Honey, I know you can take care of yourself. I know you’re a strong woman who can do what you want. I just need to know that you’re okay and safe. I’m sorry if I’m overbearing, but when it comes to you…” I suck in a breath and let it out slowly. “I just can’t risk it.”

Whether she realizes it or not, she leans into my hand. As she blinks up at me, she whispers, “Okay, if I decide to date someone, you’ll be the first to know.”

I remove my hand from her face, put my hands on her shoulders, and spin us so my back is to the door. “Can I talk to you and you won’t get mad?”

She peeks around me to the door. “Are you blocking me from getting out?”

“I need you to listen to me.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “What do you want to say?”

I take a deep breath and hope what I’m about to say doesn’t set her off. I know it’s possible since she’s refused to talk to me for the last two days. “Why did you get so mad when I offered to have a baby with you?”

She opens her mouth to say something and thenslams it shut. She looks over my shoulder. “Can’t we just forget it?”

I take a step toward her. “I would forget it, but I don’t want this between us. You feel pretty strongly about not having a baby with me, and well, I guess I just don’t want this to be weird, that’s all.”

She shifts from foot to foot and throws her hands up in the air. “You’re my best friend, Gabe.”

I wait for her to continue, and when she doesn’t, I nod my head. “Right… and you’re my best friend.”

She shakes her head side to side. “No, you don’t get it. You’re my best friend.”

I laugh. “I do get it, and you are my best friend.” I hold my hands up. “Okay, I think we’ve established that we are each other’s best friends. That’s no surprise to anyone.”

She doesn’t try to walk out, but she does take a few steps back, putting some distance between us. “Right, well, I can’t lose you.”

Did I hear her right? She can’t lose me? “I’m sorry… did you just say you can’t lose me?”

Her forehead creases, and she nods her head.

I take a step toward her. “But…”

She holds up her hands, and I stop in my tracks. “No, listen. If we were to have a baby together—asbest friends—it would change everything. I can’t lose you, Gabe… I won’t.”

“But…” I try again, but she’s not having it.

She gets louder. “Stop. I don’t even want to discuss it. Look, yeah, I want kids, but I’m not going to do it and then have you resent me in a few years when you meet some woman that you want to have a family with. People don’t understand our relationship now… they definitely wouldn’t if we had a kid together.”

“Fuck them,” I say. “Who cares what anyone else thinks?”

Ever since Dom told me that Chrissy confessed to him that she wanted a kid, it’s been on my mind, and I’ve gone crazy thinking about it. In my mind, if we have a baby, it gives me a perfect excuse for us to be together. But as soon as I mentioned it, it was obvious she would never consider it.

She taps her foot stubbornly. “Look, I can do a lot of things, but I can’t deal with you resenting me one day.”

“Chrissy, baby, please listen to me.”

She looks at the clock on the wall. “Look, I need to get back to work.”

I don’t move because I can’t let her walk away from me right now. She reaches up and wraps herhand around my arm. “When Macy was born, it got me thinking, and I got baby fever, that’s all. It’s not anything I’m going to jump into. You know how I plan and think about everything. I’m not going to do something without thinking it through. And you know that I will talk to you before I make any decisions. Okay?”

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