Page 31 of Knocked Up by my Best Friend's Brothers

“Hey,” I say, greeting her first, then give Alexandra a nod of acknowledgment.

“Hey,” Christa shyly replies.

Alexandra reaches us, and I wish I could just send her on her way, but she clearly has something to tell me, while I’m eager to get Christa alone. I swear, high school was easier.

“Cass, honey, we need to talk about the equipment list. I’m about to send it off for a first purchase, and we need to make sure we’ve got everything checked off,” Alexandra says, then smiles at Christa. “How’s the fintech department going?”

“Good, thank you.” Christa keeps it short, but not as sweet as she’d probably like.

“I’ll be with you in a minute, Alexandra,” I say with a pleasant smile. “Wait for me in my office, if you don’t mind. I just need to run something by Christa real quick.”

“Sure, I’ll wait. Want me to pour you a scotch while I’m there? I know where the minibar is,” Alexandra asks with a little giggle.

Her statement earns me quite the glare from Christa, but it’s not what she thinks. I assume even Christa knows it’s not what she thinks. She’s actually even cuter when she struggles to hide her jealousy. It’s imperative that I ease her mind.

“No, I’m good. Thank you,” I tell Alexandra.

She walks off, suspiciously pleased with herself, while I shift my focus back to Christa. “Sorry, I was actually coming to see you. How are you?”

“I’m good,” she replies flatly.

“You wanted to talk to me?”

“It can wait. Alexandra beat me to it, I guess,” she says, averting her gaze.

9

Christa

Amonth can go by in a blink when you’re having fun.

In my case, all sorts of fun.

Professionally, I’m pleased with how well my job is coming along. Despite his initial snark, Colin is turning out to be exactly what I suspected—a brilliant coder, the yin to my algorithmic yang. We have a great team, and the work we’re doing is creating three impressive fintech products.

Personally, I’ve got my feet in two worlds: the past that haunts me to this day and the sweet, yet bitter present. Things with Teagan are as good as ever. They’ll stay that way unless she learns the truth about her brothers and me.

Go easy on her,River writes in a text message.

I smile at the screen and reply with a winking emoji. I don’t know what else to say. My nerves are jittery as I make my way up the front steps of my old house.

You’ve got this, Cassius texts me as well.

This friends-with-benefits thing between us is way more than that. It’s growing into something deeper, and the sexual intensity amplifies everything by a thousand percent. I can’t get enough of them, they can’t get enough of me, yet I know this is all it’ll ever be because a relationship like ours would likely never work in the long term.

Finally, I gather the nerve to knock on the door. A minute later, Aunt Mary opens it and stands motionless before me.

“Christa?”

“Hey, Aunt Mary,” I reply with a small smile. “Long time.”

“Yes. A very long time.”

“You look good,” I tell her, my stomach in knots.

“You, too,” Aunt Mary says, narrowing her brown eyes at me. Her wrinkles have deepened, and I see she’s not bothering with hair dye anymore. Her silver mane is pulled into a loose bun at the top of her head. The mustard-colored cardigan she’s wearing over a brown tweed dress makes her shoulders look small and her back even more hunched than I remember.

“Los Angeles was nice, wasn’t it?”

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