Controlled Burn (Blackbridge Security 8)

“Jules just found out that she’s pregnant,” Beth whispers, but it’s loud enough for me to hear on the other side of Kit.

I feel the man stiffen.

“What?” he hisses, his head swinging between his sister and looking across the room.

“She’s not very far along, and she was hesitant to tell the father, but I talked her into telling him. She said she wanted to do it alone, but I did what any best friend would do. I tagged along, and here we are.”

“She came here to tell the dad?” Kit asks, his voice filled with something I can’t quite decipher.

Oh, shit. I recall a conversation between Kit and Brooks about his time with Jules at the wedding. Kit didn’t come right out and say he hooked up with Jules, but it was seriously implied.

“Apparently, they hooked up at my wedding. Isn’t it sweet?”

“Th-they—did you just say she got pregnant at your wedding?” A smile spreads across Kit’s face, and I’m right there with him.

From conversations I’ve overheard through the years, the man has been in love with his sister’s best friend for years. I can see his face light with happiness with what his sister just said.

He hooked up with Jules at the wedding.

She’s carrying his child. I grin, realizing my friend is going to be a father. If I’m lucky, we’ll have kids right around the same time.

We all watch as Brooks takes a step back. He drops Jules’s hands, but then one presses to her lower belly.

No. Fuck. Oh shit.

The smile slides from Kit’s face as he watches all of this.

No one is smiling when Brooks turns around to face us. His eyes go to his best friend, but Kit’s gaze is glued to Jules’s. The mother-to-be looks sad.

“I’m going to be a dad,” Brooks announces with no fanfare.

Beth cheers, clapping her hands. “Going to be such a good-looking kid!”

Brooks swallows, stepping forward, but stops in his tracks when Kit stands and gives them both a disgusted look before walking away.

No one chases after him. Brooks doesn’t laugh and say it’s all a joke. He isn’t smiling the way he did weeks ago when he teased Kit about flirting with Jules in an effort to get out of going to the wedding.

Shit just hit the fan in a serious way.

THE END