Page 56 of Baby for my Best Friend's Brother

The rest of Noah’s room was already in cardboard boxes. His mattress was on the floor, and the frame was currently being reassembled in his new room across town. Jimmy and Callum’s dad had picked it up that morning.

“Anyone home?” Callum’s voice came floating up from the bottom of the stairs.

“We’re upstairs,” I called back. To Noah, I said, “Maybe your dad will have a better idea.”

His footsteps were quick and light on the stairs, and when he appeared in the doorframe, my heart lifted. He was grinning at us like he’d just found the winning lottery ticket. He stopped byNoah to ruffle his hair, then wrapped his arms around me, lifting me up.

“Whoa,” I said breathlessly, wrapping my arms around his neck for balance. “Good day at work?”

Callum had recently started his own law firm in town. The days were just as long as they’d been in LA, but he liked the work better and he only took cases he cared about. It made him happy, but not usuallythishappy.

“I have good news.”

Noah looked at him suspiciously. The last time we’d had good news, we told him we were moving to Belmont Springs. Callum being Callum had bought the biggest house on the block, the one that had been the model fifty years ago when the neighborhood was first built. He’d also planned extensive renovations to improve the security features, inside and out. Noah hadn’t been thrilled about the idea of leaving the only home he’d ever known, but we bribed him with proximity to Aunt Renee. It didn’t hurt that the house backed up to the woods, and one of the paths took you right from our backyard to the lake. He had come around now, but he wasn’t ready for any more of our surprises.

Callum was only looking at me though, and there was an expression of visceral satisfaction on his face, like he’d just won a brutal, bloody knuckled fight that nearly took out both opponents.

“He signed it,” I whispered, hardly daring to believe it.

“The motherfucker signed it,” Callum confirmed, dropping his voice to a whisper than Noah still heard.

“Swear jar,” he cried happily, and ran off to get it.

Alone, Callum and I stared at each other, the air buzzing with the magnitude of what happened. Silently, Callum extended a white notecard. I recognized it instantly as belonging to Jason. I opened it and saw his familiar cryptic, cursive scrawl.A life for a life.

“So Jason is doing something decent for once inhislife,” I murmured, taking the note and reading it myself. A hundred different emotions went through me as I realized what this meant.

I didn’t have to record a third album I didn’t believe in.

I didn’t have to do any more private performances for billionaires I didn’t trust.

I didn’t have to ever see Jason Cain again.

Callum’s eyes were as steady as always, waiting to see what I needed from him. I smiled to show him that the answer wasnothing. I didn’t need to be consoled, and I wasn’t going to have a belated breakdown from the stress I’d been living under these past few years. I felt exactly like what I was… free.

I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him before Noah could bound back up. A lingering kiss that told him that I would show him how grateful I was later. In the end, it hadn’t been his brilliant mind that had gotten me off the hook. It had been his magnificent heart. Jason Cain would have let him die if the roles had been reversed, no question. But even knowing that, Callum had bled to save his life. Something like that didn’t go unnoticed, even by someone as reptilian as Jason. That kind of good turn didn’t just stop at one rotation, it kept going.

“You can putThe Bellesback together,” Callum said when we finally broke the kiss.

“Yeah,” Noah yelled, running back into the room with the swear jar they’d made the day I officially moved in. He proffered it to me, and I dug out a dollar bill from my back pocket. I’d taken to carrying them around, knowing that the inevitable curse word was going to slip from my lips.

“Why are you so excited, kiddo?” Callum laughed as Noah jumped around.

“Because I want to be a Belle!”

Callum and I looked at each other. His eyebrows were raised; my expression was sheepish. “Maybe I told him he could sit in once in a while.”

“Maybe?”

“Okay, I told him he definitely could.” Before Callum’s questioning look could darken into a scowl, I added, “If he ate his vegetables.” Then I escaped into the other room to call Joanne, Mia, and Renee. We agreed to meet up at Jimmy’s the next day after they all got off work.

I was surprised to find that I was nervous, but Callum wasn’t.

“You just got out of one contract by the skin of your teeth,” he pointed out after we’d put Noah to bed. “Now you’re rushing into another one.”

“Yeah, but this one is with my best friends.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He kissed me. “You’ve got commitment issues, Quinn.”

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