Page 17 of Baby By my Best Friend's Daddy

“Fuck your parents.”

I burst out laughing.

“I’m serious,” Brad said. “They’re full of shit, and if they can’t see the good that’s in front of them, that’s on them, not you. You’re an incredible person, Beck. You just need the right people in your life to remind you.”

“Thanks, Brad.”

“I think we should find you a date.”

I blinked at him. “What?”

“Yeah, you need a guy. A man in your life who will constantly show you how great you are.”

“How did this go from consolation to match-making?”

Brad shrugged. “That’s what best friends do—we cover all the bases. I have a couple of friends I can introduce you to if you’re game for that.”

“I don’t know…” My mind drifted to Landon.

He wouldn’t be someone Brad wanted to set me up with. Not that I would be good enough for him, anyway, but a girl could dream. And I had been dreaming about Landon. A lot more than I’d wanted to.

I couldn’t get him out of my mind, and he didn’t deserve me to think about him all the time. He’d just been a one-night stand, for crying out loud!

“I’ll find you someone,” Brad said, looking determined. “Just give me some time.”

“I’m okay, Brad,” I said with a laugh.

“Come on, it will be cool,” Brad said, and when my second drink arrived, he tilted his whiskey toward me so we could clink glasses together again.

I didn’t need a man in my life. I worked too hard to deal with a relationship, and every guy I’d met since I’d started college, working at the bar to pay my way for a degree my parents hadn’t wanted to pay for, had been either shallow or after the wrong thing. I was happy on my own. I didn’t need any more pain and heartache in my life.

What I needed was a break, and with good friends like Brad, I had more than I could ever ask for.

4

LANDON

Tedhungonthebar at the Cavaliers HQ, mumbling something about having had enough to drink.

“What’s that, buddy?” I asked. “It sounded like you were threatening to go home.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Ted said, hoisting himself up. He moved as if he weighed a ton. “I’m done for the night.”

“Come on, man, we’re just getting started.”

Ted shook his head. He looked a dangerous shade of green.

“If you hurl on the carpet, I’m disowning you,” Elias said with a pinched expression.

“All the Cavaliers will disown you,” Archie said from across the bar, tutting. “Poor form, Ted. Go home.”

Ted nodded and stumbled out of the room and into the dark of the night outside.

I sighed.

“That’s me, too,” Elias said and drained his glass before he set it down.

“Not you, too! You don’t even look drunk.”

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