Page 38 of Falling for His Best Friend

‘I know,’ Jess replied. ‘But I needed something to keep me busy. How is everything going in there?’ She asked as she put her hand on Kitty’s belly. Kitty was getting used to people touching her stomach without asking. Everyone seemed to think of it as separate from her and didn’t seem to think they needed permission. But in this case Kitty didn’t mind. Jess definitely didn’t need permission. After all, the baby was hers.

‘Are you positive you’re fine after the incident? Both of you?’

Kitty nodded. ‘I’m sure. I’ve got a few bruises and a dull headache still, but the baby is perfectly fine.’

‘Your shape has changed,’ Jess said as she took her hand off Kitty’s tummy. ‘That seems to have happened quickly.’

Kitty saw a flash of something on her sister’s face but she didn’t have time to work out what it was. Sadness? Regret? Anxiety? Distress?

Kitty remembered Cam’s expression of the day before. The similarities between his expression and Jess’s now didn’t go unnoticed. Maybe staying at Joe’s wasn’t the right thing to do. She knew Jess wanted—needed—to feel connected to the pregnancy. Maybe she should be here? But Joe needed her too. Kitty was torn. She wasn’t used to having so many people relying on her.

‘Is everything OK?’ she asked. ‘Do you want me to move back in? Joe can organise for a home nurse,’ she offered but hoped, at the same time, that Jess would refuse her suggestion. How could she tell who needed her more? It made her concussed brain hurt even more just thinking about what to do.

‘No, don’t be silly,’ Jess said as she ushered Kitty out of the room. She was back to her usual no-nonsense organised self as she hustled to the kitchen and flicked on the kettle, and Kitty breathed a sigh of relief as she shrugged off the incident. Perhaps she’d imagined Jess’s look of distress. She chose to ignore it for the moment. It was easier to pretend it hadn’t happened than to think about having to make a choice. If she had to choose between Joe and Jess she wasn’t sure what she’d do at the moment. They were both important to her. They were the most important people in her world. The two of them and the baby.

‘So, how is Joe?’ Jess asked as she poured boiling water into two mugs and dropped bags of green tea into the liquid before letting it steep.

Kitty realised she wanted to tell Jess about what had happened. She was too excited to keep it to herself. She’d finally had sex with Joe, made love to him, and it was every bit as good as she’d been imagining over the past few weeks. Better, even.

‘Why are you smiling like that? What’s happened?’

Kitty hadn’t realised she was smiling.

‘I had sex with Joe,’ she admitted.

‘What! Oh, my God!’ Jess dropped the packet of biscuits she was opening but appeared to gather her wits as she picked up the fallen cookies. She was grinning when she looked back up at Kitty. ‘It’s about time. How was it? I hope it was brilliant.’

‘What do you mean, “It’s about time”?’

‘Cam and I have been hoping the two of you would get together, but we were beginning to think it would never happen.’

‘You’ve talked about this?’

‘Of course,’ Jess said as she put the untainted biscuits on a plate on the kitchen table. ‘We love Joe. The two of you would be perfect together, but we were worried that you were destined to be friends and only friends for ever.’

Kitty was worried that she might have ruined their friendship. ‘Do you think we can have sex and still be friends?’

‘Of course. Cam and I are friends.’

‘You’re friends now but you weren’t friends before you started dating.’

‘That’s true. But you and Joe have so much history. You don’t have to worry about all the getting-to-know-you stuff. You already know you like him. Starting from friends is no problem. Not unless you end up making it one.’

Kitty knew Jess was speaking from experience. She knew what Kitty was like. She knew her tendencies. How she overthought everything and always feared the worst. The trouble was, the worst often happened.

‘I don’t want it to be a problem,’ she said as Jess threw out the tea bags and passed her the cup. ‘I’d like to think it could work, but what if it doesn’t?’

‘What would be worse,’ Jess asked, ‘giving it a go and finding out that it might be the best decision you ever made, or being too worried about what might go wrong that you miss out completely? From where I’m sitting it looks like you’ve chosen option one already.’

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