Page 34 of Baby By my Best Friend's Daddy

I wanted Rebecca.

9

REBECCA

“You’reasaintformeeting me,” Celine said when I walked into the mall. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“Yeah, because I’m not good enough,” Brad scoffed.

Celine rolled her eyes. “What would you know about pushup bras and G-strings?”

“More than you think,” Brad said with a grin.

Celine shook her head, but a smile played around her lips.

“Why does everyone keep calling me a saint?” I asked.

“Because you are one,” Brad said. “I have it on good authority.”

“Yeah,” Celine said. “You’re one of the few people who doesn’t have her head up her ass. Everyone in our circles does.”

“Thanks for that,” Brad said.

“Zip it, Leggatt. You were the one who insisted on coming along.”

“You intercepted my date with Rebecca!” Brad cried out.

“It’s not a date if you’re not romantically involved, and as far as I know, you’re not.” Celine narrowed her eyes at Brad. “You were just going to drink and talk shit, anyway.”

“Yeah, well, now I regret not pushing harder for it. Especially the drinking part,” Brad said sourly.

I laughed.

It was early Friday afternoon. Brad and I had had a coffee date before my shift—he would drink beer—but I wasn’t going to drink before walking into the ER. I had a job where being drunk could affect my judgment, and I would never do that. Brad liked our standing arrangement of Friday drinks, but I was relieved Celine had called with a fashion emergency.

My mind was full of Landon, and I didn’t know how to skirt the topic with Brad without him figuring out something was wrong. If it was just the two of us, he would know something was up, and when he got a hold of something, he was like a damn Pitbull. He just didn’t let go until he’d fished the truth out of me.

I wasn’t ready to share this truth with him.

“Okay, tell me what we need to do,” I said. “Are we going for sexy or subdued?”

“Slutty,” Celine said and flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder.

“What?” I asked with a laugh.

“As slutty as possible. Clement wants me to meet his great-aunt, the one person whose approval he needs to pop the question, and I want her to be horrified.”

Brad stared at Celine in horror.

I laughed. Celine and I had been talking more and more lately, and I was starting to move into the territory of “best friend.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that—Celine was a tough one to figure out. She was a bitch in every sense of the word, but under that hard exterior and her prickly comments, she could be sweet. For some reason, she’d attached herself to me.

“You’re not like the rest of them,” she’d told me once. “I don’t have to try to impress you because, let’s face it, anything in my world will impress you.” When I’d been shocked, she’d added, “You’re nice to hang around with because I don’t need to put on a face.” I took that for the compliment it was.

“Remind me why you don’t just break up with him,” I said. “You know you can just call it off, right?”

Celine snorted, and Brad shook his head as if he agreed.

“Yeah, as if my dad will allow that. Noah can do whatever the fuck he wants because he’s the son who will carry on the family name. If Dad loses Noah, then his whole legacy goes to shit. Me… I’m the one he gets to marry off as if I’m property.” She grimaced. “Trust me, being in our circles isn’t all it’s chalked up to be.”

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