She freezes when she sees me, and I prepare for a big scene.
“Sorry,” she says instead, moving by me, but I grab her arm gently and blow out a breath.
“No, I’m sorry. I blew up. I hate being labeled, and I don’t like being called a liar.”
“Out of the two of us, I’m the only liar here. You had every right to blow up, and you didn’t owe me an explanation to begin with,” she goes on too calmly as she steps out of my hold. “You leaving already?”
“Forgot to buy a gift,” I say with a shrug, pocketing my hands.
She immediately thrusts a pink box at me, and my eyebrows go up.
“I bought two, because I couldn’t decide what to bring.”
I take it warily, wondering why she’s being so cool after I basically called her desperate.
“As for us, I think it’s best things ended before they started. I mean, we’re friends with the same friends. It would just make things awkward in the long run.”
I don’t speak, because I have no idea what to say. I want to argue and agree at the same time.
“I… um… need to take this in there,” she says while walking by me, and I let her go before letting my eyes drop to the present in my hand.
I acted like an ass, and then she called to tell me I should be here when Tag had his baby. Then she gave me a present when I was too fucking thoughtless to remember to buy something in advance.
I might hate labels, but asshole fits pretty damn well right now.
Chapter 19
BELLA
Ethan is watching me silently from across the room as I hand the pretty baby over to Allie. I sit down beside Ash, who is exhausted in the bed and still wiping tears while smiling so hard it has to hurt.
Tag is moving constantly from Ash’s side to whoever is holding his new baby.
Ash looks over at me, and she grins before saying, “I really am sorry about the breastmilk-French-toast joke. I was so irrationally jealous.”
I laugh but try to smother it while shaking my head. I actually forgot about that.
“No worries. I would be irrationally jealous too.”
Considering she has to know I lied about being too drunk to remember Tag’s name once upon a time, I never held any hard feelings.
Allie coos and talks to Fall. Tag hovers over her like he’s worried Allie doesn’t know what she’s doing.
“I want one,” Brin says as she steps closer, and Rye chokes on whatever he’s eating.
Ethan smirks while pounding Rye’s back, trying to help him dislodge whatever is stuck in his throat, and I hold back a laugh as Rye glares at Brin when he stops choking. Brin is oblivious, because she’s focused on baby fever.
“Me too,” Tria says happily, cooing at the baby.
Kode doesn’t choke though. In fact, he looks like he’s excited about that.
“We can start trying tonight,” Kode drawls, winking at Tria.
But she just rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “I was kidding. But we can borrow Fall when Tag and Ash need a break.”
My phone buzzes, and this room is too small and too crowded for me to answer it in here. So, I weave through the hordes of people, careful to stay far away from Ethan, as I make my way outside.
When I see Marcy’s number flash on the screen, my gut clenches. Instead of answering, I rush toward the stairs and sprint down one flight to the floor they’re on.