Page 7 of Marry Your Best Friend

Her forehead creases. “You have a family. We’re your family.”

“I know, and I don’t know how to describe it, but I want my own family. I want a husband I can depend on and grow old with. I want us to have kids and traditions and all the good and bad things. I’ve never had a family of my very own, and well, I don’t know. These feelings are really strong now. It doesn’t look like I’m going to have a husband anytime soon, so maybe I need to have a child on my own.”

She bites her lip, and I can see what she’s thinking before she says a word. I can tell she’s debating whether to say it out loud, and she must decide to because she blurts out, “What about Gabe?”

I roll my eyes. “I guess everyone knows he offered?”

It’s more of a question than a statement, but I know the answer. “Yeah, we all know, but…”

She trails off, and I lean forward. “What? You all know but what?”

She shrugs. “But none of us were surprised he asked. We were surprised you said no.”

I nod. “Of course I said no.”

“Why?”

“Why?” I blurt out. “What do you mean, why?”

She leans into the cushion with her eyes trained on mine. “I mean, why would you say no? Gabe loves you, and you love him. It actually makes a lot of sense for you two to have a baby together.”

I pull one of the pillows off the couch and press it to my belly, hugging my arms around it. “Because he’s my best friend.”

She laughs, nodding her head. “And?”

“Oh my God, we’re best friends… and I want to keep him as my best friend.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not getting it. King is my best friend.” She points at Macy. “And we had a baby together. I mean, it’s only been two weeks, but so far, it’s working out pretty good.”

She smirks like she made a funny joke, and I just shake my head. “Yeah, well there is a big difference between you and King and me and Gabe.”

She doesn’t make the connection. “I don’t know what you mean.”

I roll my eyes, and I can feel my cheeks get hot just thinking about what I’m about to say. “Well,let’s see. To start with, you and King have sex. Gabe and I don’t… do that. You and King are married, Gabe and I are not. I mean, should I keep going?”

Her eyebrows lift. “Have you ever had sex?”

My stomach drops. “With Gabe? No… never.”

She looks completely surprised. “Really? I would have thought…”

When she trails off, my mind starts going a hundred miles a minute. “You would have thought what?”

She just shrugs. “I don’t know. You guys are so good together. It’s obvious there’s something there.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, we’re best friends. That’s it. I mean, not that’s it, like it’s a bad thing but that’s it, we are not romantically involved.”

She looks like she doesn’t believe a word I’m saying. “I’m serious. Nothing has ever happened between us. I love him, he loves me but not… like that.”

I look over at Macy so I don’t have to look at Haven while I tell her that I don’t love Gabe like that. Heck, the truth is that I’ve loved Gabe like that for as long as I can remember, and that’s exactly why I can’t take him up on his offer. All my dreams would come true—well, most of them—but he’d be the one stranded with his best friend in a platonicrelationship. Nope, no matter how much I want to be with Gabe, I’m not doing it.

The baby saves me from further questions when she starts to cry. Haven starts to get up, but I stop her. “Let me grab her. She’s probably hungry. I’ll bring her to you.”

Haven leans back in the couch and puts a pillow on her lap. I pick up sweet baby Macy and start cooing to her. My heart melts as her little lip puckers. “She’s even cute when she cries, Haven.”

I place her in Haven’s arms, and immediately she starts to feed.

Not wanting to stare, I lean my head back on the couch. “Anyway, I’m going to put it off for a while. I’m only thirty-three. I have time.”

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