Page 47 of Knocked Up by my Best Friend's Brothers

“What the fuck?” Teagan whispers and runs back out of the office.

“Shit,” River grumbles.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Christa says, quickly rising from the couch to go after our sister.

It’s not the first time Teagan accidentally walked in on us like this. But it’s the first time she accidentally walked in on us withChrista. The cat is naked and out of the bag, and it really is the very last thing Christa needed tonight.

“Double shit,” I say.

“Get dressed, babe. We’ll try to smooth this out for you.”

“Oh, God,” she breaks down in tears, utterly hopeless.

River stays with her, while Cassius and I quickly get dressed and run out to catch Teagan before she gets to her car. Hopefully, there’s something left of their friendship for us to salvage.

13

Christa

We’re done.

That’s what Teagan’s text says an hour after she caught me with her brothers in my office. I keep staring at the words on my screen, my eyes stinging from tears and exhaustion. I barely slept last night. I keep trying to reach her, but she rejects every call, every attempt I make to talk to her.

River stayed with me. He took me home and held me while his brothers went to Teagan’s apartment to try to reason with her. To no avail, according to their last text messages.

I’m back at work the next day, trying to move on.

The threatening letter is still in my purse. Teagan’s message is still in my inbox. My two greatest sins, glaring at me wherever I turn.

“Tony!”

I find Teagan’s husband at the cafeteria downstairs. He looks rather pale and tired, but he still manages to muster a smilewhen he sees me.

“Christa. Hey.”

“Can we talk?”

My throat feels a little tight, my stomach turned inside out. I’ve been queasy for a few days, but last night made everything worse.

“Sure. Let’s sit,” he says, then takes his breakfast tray and guides us to one of the spare tables closer to the window. He gives me a worried look as we sit down. “You look tired.”

“I am. Have you seen Teagan since last night? I understand you two had a bit of an argument?”

Nathan had told me that was the reason she came to my office to find me. She’d needed to talk and instead she found me with her brothers, breaking the one promise I’d ever made her.

“Oh, she came back,” he sighs deeply. “Whatever we were arguing about was nothing compared to whatever happened between you two.”

“She didn’t tell you.”

“She was crying and cussing for a while, then she went to bed in the guest bedroom. I figured I was already in the doghouse and didn’t want to make things worse, so I just brewed her a chamomile tea and left it at her door with a plate of chocolate chip cookies. That usually puts her in a better mood.”

I let a heavy sigh roll from my chest. “Did it help?”

“Not really. She told me she doesn’t want to talk to you or her brothers ever again if any of you come looking,” Tony says.

“Right.”

“What happened? You two are like sisters. I don’t get it. One minute everything was fine, then she and I argued over something completely unrelated—”

---