Page 94 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends
Andrew shakes his head at me. “I don’t even know you guys anymore. Sheworkedfor you. She’s youngerthan you. You were around when she grew up! You don’t think that’s inappropriate?”
“The age gap isn’t even that big, and she was around to watch us grow up too. We’ve always been in each other’s lives,” I remind him as I tentatively take a step closer to him. “And we’ve always cared about her.”
Andrew tightens his jaw, fire blazing in his eyes.
“But we care about her in a different way now,” I clarify, watching him closely like he’s a bull ready to rush at me. “We all grew up. We started living our own lives. Our paths just happened to cross again.”
“Again, you all knew that she was off limits. How many times did me and Ethan warn all of our friend group not to mess with her?” Andrew questions me, making a frown settle on my face. He did warn us.
It all started when a guy in our high school friend group made a comment about being surprised that Emma didn’t have a boyfriend. After that, Andrew and Ethan were insistent on making it clear that none of us were allowed to look at Emma or think about Emma inthatway.
Somehow, even though she’s an adult now, their protectiveness over her has gotten even more extreme.
“Look, I’m sorry about that, but things just happen, Andrew,” I tell him.
Andrew shakes his head at me before starting to turn away. “That’s not a good enough excuse, Max.”
I grab his arm again to stop him from leaving. “Andrew, wait.”
Andrew throws my hand off his arm and whips around to face me again. “I’m done talking to you.”
“No, you’re not,” I grit out, my patience waning. “Whether you like it or not, we’re a big part of your sister’s life. She’s carryingourbaby, and we’re going to make sure that she and the baby are well taken care of.”
“You took care of her so well that she ended up in the hospital. Good job,” Andrew replies with a snide voice.
I refrain from rolling my eyes at him. “You’re a doctor. You know more medically. Can you please just tell me some things that’ll help her and the baby? What did we mess up? What can we do better?”
Andrew eyes me, his teeth slowly grinding. He then exhales sharply through his nose and crosses his arms over his chest, his white coat stretching across the back of his shoulders. “Get her stress level down. Keep her off her feet more. She overdid herself, and she’s exhausted.”
I nod as I listen, guilt churning in my stomach. There were so many times when I could’ve encouraged her to sit down or at least slow down. “Anything else?”
“She needs to be on top of her prenatal vitamins. Her nutrition is important for her and the baby,” Andrew replies. “She’s creating a whole other person inside of her. That puts a lot of pressure on her body.”
“Okay, yeah. That makes sense,” I say with a nod. I’ve done a lot of research, but there’s so much conflicting information. There’s so much to absorb. It’s overwhelming.
Andrew breathes in deeply before checking his phone. “I need to go.”
“I’m sorry,” I blurt out as I step closer, making his eyes meet mine. “The last thing we wanted to do was hurt you, Ethan, or Emma. We never wanted that.”
Andrew stares at me, but his stony expression doesn’t waver. He doesn’t say a word to me before turning and walking away.
This time, I don’t try to stop him. What’s the point? He’s made it clear that nothing that I could say will make him feel any better about the situation.
Shaking my head, I leave the hospital and call Josh, hoping that someone has some good news to share since I don’t.
“Hey,” Josh sighs over the phone.
“Any luck talking to Ethan? Did you get to see Emma?” I ask him as I stand outside of the hospital under a gloomy overcast sky.
“Her parents already took her back to their house,” Josh replies, his voice full of defeat. “Ethan just blew up on us. He wouldn’t hear us out.”
“I didn’t have any luck with Andrew either,” I tell him, hearing him sigh again. We’re exhausted. We’re defeated.
On top of it all, it feels like I’ve just lost two brothers. Two friends who I have so many memories with. Who are part of my family.
But they don’t want anything to do with us. We’re villains to them, and it doesn’t matter how much we care about their sister. It doesn’t matter what we do.
Our brotherhood is done.
