They both let out a sigh and waited in silence.
Mitch rested his head against the back of the wall. The silence in the apartment was deafening to him.
The door opened. He and Chase both got to their feet. Leah stared at them with tears in her eyes. She didn’t speak a word.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“They all say positive. Not one of them has read negative,” she said. Without another word, Mitch and Chase went to her. Their arms surrounded her. Mitch stared at his friend past her shoulder. She wasn’t crying. The despair inside her was tangible.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said.
Her voice was vacant.
“I think we need to get you an appointment with the doctor to make sure you’re safe and healthy,” Chase said.
“And you need to stop doing the long hours. Maybe I can talk to work about that.”
“I don’t care about that. What do we tell our parents? I’m pregnant by one of you, and I don’t know which one,” she said. The tears began falling then.
Mitch helped Chase walk her over to the sofa. He didn’t like her lack of weight. Leah had always been a full woman. Her curves were part of who she was. This woman was not normal to him. She felt ill in his arms. He wanted to get the meat back on her bones in no time.
“I think you’re worrying unnecessarily. Our parents will be happy for us,” Mitch said. His cousins back in Law Castle had made their relationship work. He didn’t see the problem with making their relationship work. They were best friends and had no secrets among them. All of their secrets included each other.
“They accept our friendship, Mitch. I don’t think they’ll accept us in a relationship. What about you two? One of you knocked me up. Don’t you want to know who the father is?” she asked.
Mitch looked at Chase, who shrugged his shoulders.
“Nope, we don’t care.”
Chase took her hands. “Leah, this is not bad news.”
“We didn’t plan for this.”
“No, but Mitch and I sure planned on Friday night happening.”
She gasped. “What?”
“Well, we didn’t actually count on your forgetting about it or you being totally drunk. We love you, Leah. Always have and always will.”
Mitch saw the bewildered look on her face. She really had no idea how they felt.
“That’s because we’re friends,” she said.
“Guess again.” Mitch spoke up. “We’re friends, but we’ve discussed our feelings for you. When we were younger, he and I, we fought over you.”
“What? When?” She looked at both of them in turn. “I don’t believe this.”
Chase chuckled. “Believe it, baby. We fought over you several times. We both were crazy about you. Mitch’s dad and mine said you should be the one to choose. Only you never did. You went out with other guys instead.”
“Were these the days when you had bruises all over your face?” she asked.
Mitch laughed then. They’d told Leah at the time that they’d walked into lampposts on the way to park. “Yes.”
“I can’t believe you kept something like this from me.”
“That Friday night you confessed to being in love with both us. You told us you didn’t want to carry on being friends. You wanted more. Was any of that true, or were the cocktails talking?” Mitch asked. He watched as she stared at her hands locked in her lap.
His heart pounded as he waited for her answer. He was more nervous about this answer than he was about finding out if she was pregnant.