I’m surprised he doesn’t just spit venom and walk away. If I had the chance, I’d walk out of here and leave this entire situation behind me. But it’s my house, and I’m in no condition to go to Beth’s right now. I’d end up telling her the truth.
I look from Kit to Brooks, noting the second man’s scowl. The look on his face says that he’s going to tell Kit the truth. He’s giving me the opportunity to right one of the wrongs I’ve created.
I shake my head just a little at Brooks, noticing the way Kit is clenching and unclenching his hands.
“I just stopped by to tell you—”
“The baby is yours,” I blurt, catching even myself off guard.
Kit looks stunned as if his brain can’t process what I’ve said.
Brooks heaves out a breath of relief, his shoulders lifting as if the weight of the world has just been removed from them.
“How are you sure?” Kit asks, taking a step further into the house.
Brooks closes the door behind him.
“I mean, if you slept with both—”
“I didn’t,” I say at the same time Brooks says, “We didn’t sleep with each other. I’d never fucking do that to you, man.”
My eyes start to burn with renewed tears at the pain in Brooks’s voice. He’s hurt by my lies, but he’s also destroyed, knowing his best friend would ever believe he was the type of man that would hurt him like this.
That man has loved you since he was a teen.
Brooks’s words echo in my head. If I took a step back long enough to consider everything I know about Kit Riggs, I would’ve never asked this of Brooks. It kills me to think that Kit doubted his best friend even for a second.
“What?” Kit asks, clearly confused, the overload of information we just threw at him too much.
“I didn’t fuck her. I wouldn’t ever touch her,” Brooks says to him before looking at me. “No offense.”
I give him a weak smile. “None taken.”
I swallow as Kit turns his eyes from his friend to me.
“I’m the dad?”
I nod. “You’re the dad.”
His eyes dart from mine to my stomach, but even though I’m covered with a blanket, there’s nothing to see. I probably won’t even start showing for another couple of months.
“You can’t tell Beth.”
His eyes snap back up to mine, an argument already forming in his eyes.
“Please, Kit. I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t,” he vows, but he can’t predict the future.
“I can’t take the chance. Your family is all I have.” The last part comes out on another sob, and honestly, I should be used to crying by now, but I’m a little embarrassed with my inability to keep my shit together.
Kit crosses the room and takes a seat beside me on the couch. The second his arms wrap around me, I get this crazy sense of being home. His touch is comforting, not unsimilar to when Brooks hugged me in his office, but there’s a world of differences in this embrace. I tuck my head into the curve of his neck and cry.
“I think I should go,” Brooks says, making me pull my face from the comfort of Kit’s body.
“Wait,” I tell him before he can open my front door. “Nothing is changing. We can’t tell Beth. Everyone still has to believe that Brooks is the father.”
“No fucking way,” Kit growls.
“That’s the worst idea ever,” Brooks snaps. “Do you know how fucked up it is that everyone at the office thinks I fucked my best friend’s girl?”
“I’m not his girl,” I remind him, hating the way Kit stiffens before pulling away from me.
“I’m the father of your baby,” he says, his anger starting to rear its ugly head.
“And that news would destroy more than the lie now that you know the truth,” I tell him, hating that he’s no longer willing to comfort me.
“Everyone at the office—”
“Thinks I’m a whore,” I say, interrupting Brooks. “It doesn’t matter. I should be a little pissed you told everyone that we slept together in the first place.”
I throw that accusation at Kit.
“He didn’t,” Brooks confesses. “I brought it up in front of the guys.”
“That so?” I ask, giving the secrets teller all my attention.
He at least has the wherewithal to look a little guilty.
“It wasn’t your secret to tell,” I say, giving him a look that reminds him that I’ve kept his secret.
I’d never tell a soul about what I saw in that hallway. Unlike the man across the room, I wouldn’t blow up someone’s world like that.
“Sorry,” Brooks mutters.
“I’m going to be—”
“I don’t want anything from you, Kit. I don’t need you to be involved.”
Brooks grumbles something undecipherable as I turn to face Kit.
“Nothing in your life has to change. I don’t expect that from Brooks either.”
Kit’s eyes narrow. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”