Page 63 of Who's Your Daddy?

“Right.” I nod, letting that sink in. “Right. That’s what I needed to hear to renew my resolve.” I back out of the driveway. “I’m good now. I’m gonna stay strong. Nothing’s gonna break me.” I look over at her to let her know how serious I am. “I’m a man of steel, Li.”

Her eyes move down to my crotch, and she giggles. “I can see that.”

“Shut up.”

I shift into gear and head toward the highway. During the drive, I tell her about Scott’s wedding and extend the invitation like he asked me to. Although surprised by how sudden it all is, she agrees to go with me. She asks me about a hundred questions about their relationship, and I spend most of the trip explaining my whole friendship circle and the long-winded history of Scott and Cat and Isabella and Dylan.

She also tells me about her new friendship circle with Tori and Shontelle, though her story is much shorter. It seems sort of surface level though, like she’s actively trying to not get too close to any of them, which makes me feel a little better. At least I’m not the only person she shuts out.

After dropping her off, it takes me over an hour to get to Scott. I find him and Dylan on the beach outside his apartment building. They’re putting together some makeshift deck. It has interlocking plastic pieces, but it looks like it’s made of wood. Cat always wanted to get married on a beach. This is the same beach he proposed to her on, and it looks like he’s going all out to give her the dream wedding she always talked about.

It’s a scorcher today, and my skin feels like it’s sizzling as I make my way over to them. Dylan drops everything when he sees me, racing toward me at full speed. He throws himself onto my back, ruffling my hair as his arms tighten around my neck.

He’s so excited he can barely contain himself. “You’re gonna be a daddy, boy!”

With him still attached to me, I walk over to Scott, whose reaction is a lot more reserved.

“Congratulations!” I say, reaching out to shake his head. “You and Cat are finally getting married. It only took you about a decade.”

“I can’t tell you how happy I am.” His grin stretches from ear to ear, but it slowly morphs into wariness. “I guess congratulations are in order for you, too.”

I nod, reading between the lines to decipher what he’s really trying to say. “If you have even one negative thing to say about her, I suggest you keep it to yourself.”

He nods because he knows what I mean without me having to say it. “I still think anI-told-you-sois looming, but I’ll save it for that particular day.”

“Much appreciated.”

Scott and I have been friends since the second grade. That’s all we need to say to each other to reach an understanding.

“What did I say?” Dylan says, hopping off me. “Didn’t I say that a little birdie told me he saw you and Lia sitting in a tree? But you skipped a few vital steps, Pete. First comes love,thencomes marriage,thencomes the baby in a golden carriage.” He taps me on the shoulder. “So, are we going for a hat-trick? Three weddings in one year?”

“What? No. Dyl, this isn’t the fifties. People don’t just get married because of a kid anymore.” I shrug, kneeling into the sand so we can continue putting this deck together. “We’ve decided that we’ll live together for the time being and we’ll co-parent, but we’re not going to pursue a relationship or anything that may lead to...complications.”

“Solid idea,” Scott says, his tone laced with sarcasm. “It’s not gonna work, but...”

“What do you mean, it’s not gonna work?” I ask when he leaves that sentence hanging.

“Well, firstly, there’s no way you’re gonna last more than a month without sex, so you’re either gonna cave and have sex with her, which is going to lead to exactly the complications you’re trying to avoid—”

“My money’s on that option,” Dylan chimes in, slotting one piece of the deck into another and clicking it into place. “You’re under the same roof. Tensions are high. Chemistry is flowing. Plus, you like her so much it’s gonna be impossible to resist.”

“I don’t like her.” I reconsider my words when he glares at me. “...thatmuch.”

“Pete, take it from me. I learned the hard way that it’s better to embrace your feelings rather than deny them.”

I groan, covering my face with both hands. “Fuck, why do you turn everything into an episode ofLove Island?”

“It’s just who I am.”

“Or,” Scott interrupts to bring our attention back to the original conversation, “you’re gonna end up sleeping with someone else, and that’ll cause shit to hit the fan in the most colossal way.”

“Why?” I ask. “We’re not together. If I want to sleep with someone else—”

“But you don’t want anyone else, do you, Pete?” Dylan cuts in again. “She’s theonlyone you want because you haven’t even looked in the direction of another woman since you met her.”

I grit my teeth, trying not to get annoyed by his sentimental ramblings. He’s right, but I refuse to give him the satisfaction of admitting that. “What I was trying to say is that we both agreed to this. If I want to have sex with someone else, I can. That’s the whole point of staying single, right?”

“That means she’s single too,” Scott counters, wiping the sweat off his brow. “So, what would you do if she sleeps with another guy?”

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