20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Layla

"Oh my god, you're the best," Charlotte says upon answering the door and seeing me holding up a bag of greasy cheeseburgers from our favorite fast-food joint.

She grabs the bags out of my hands and walks away from me. I laugh to myself as I walk inside and close the door. That's why she's my best friend. "Hello to you too!" I shout jokingly.

I walk into the kitchen to find Charlotte sitting at the table, scrummaging through the bags.

"What's up, sis?" my brother walks by with a hammer in his hands.

I don't even ask what he's working on now. He's always fixing or updating something around here. This house is huge and seems to have an endless list of things needing to be repaired.

"Where's Brie?" I ask as I sit down at the table.

"She's taking a nap," Charlotte answers over a huge bite of her cheeseburger .

I know we like this food, but she's on another level right now. She literally moans over her burger after she swallows her first bite.

"Everything alright over there?" I ask with amusement.

"Ugh, I'm finally feeling better and able to keep some food down. I'm just ravenous now. It's like my body has been deprived of food for weeks and wants to make up for its missed meals."

I chuckle as I open the wrapper of my own burger. "Well, you deserve it. I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Your brother must think I'm gross. I can't fit into any of my pants anymore, and I'm eating like I'm preparing for the finals of a food-eating competition."

"I'm pretty sure you could eat all the food in the world, and my brother would still be crazy over you," I tell her.

She rolls her eyes at me, knowing I'm full of shit but takes another bite of her burger.

"It feels like we haven't really had a chance to talk since you've been back from Italy. Are you settling back into work alright?" she asks through a mouth full of food.

I feel bad that I haven't told her what happened in Italy with Josh, but it didn't feel like a conversation to have in passing. I'm sure she'll have a million questions. There's also the weird dynamic of her being with my brother. She will have to keep it from him until Josh and I agree to tell him. I'm not sure how she will feel about that.

"Work is crazy, exactly what it was before I left. "

"Ah, so the entire place didn't crash and burn because you took a vacation?" She raises an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were right." I stick my tongue out at her. "But seriously, going away was exactly what I needed. It showed me that I was hiding in my work, not opening myself up to other things in my life."

"Really? That's so amazing. I love that you got so much out of the trip. To be honest, I was panicking the entire time."

"You were?"

She leans back in her chair, and I get a better glance at her growing belly. It's so adorable.

"Yes! I was totally taking a chance with Josh going. I thought there were two ways it could go. You two would end up killing each other, or…" she gives me a weird look.

"Or?" I drawl out.

"Or you two would finally see that you two have feelings for each other, and something would happen."

My hands freeze with my burger halfway to my mouth as my jaw falls open.

"I know!" she shouts. "I'm the worst. I kinda was hoping you would come back and have this like huge romantic story about how the two of you had sex the entire time and how amazing it was. I'm lucky he didn't ruin the entire trip for you with my stupid hopeless romantic delusions."

I can't contain my laughter. Her hopes for the trip is just so absurdly accurate .

She looks at me like I've officially lost it. "Well, I'm glad you're laughing about it. I thought you'd hate me."

I shake my head at the ridiculousness. I would never hate her. "No," I laugh, "it's not that. It's just that you may not be as far off as you originally hoped."

Her forehead scrunches. I can see her mind working overtime as she tries to put it all together. Then her hands slam down on the table. "Wait a minute. Are you telling me something DID happen between you two?"

I bite my lip, trying not to blush like a damn schoolgirl. "A lot more than just something happened in Italy."

"Yes!" she claps with excitement.

"Shhhh," I reply as I look around the house. "Look, I'd love to talk about this with you, but you have to promise me one thing."

Her shoulders sink. "You want me to keep it from your brother, don't you?"

"Look, I won't ask you to lie to him. If he suspects and asks, you can tell him. But I'm asking you not to offer the information. I think that's a fair deal, right?"

"Yes. That's fair. I promise I won't tell him unless he asks. Now, please, tell me everything. How did it happen? Who made the first move? Was it good? How big is he?"

"Well, it was this like, weird gradual thing that happened over the course of the week."

She leans forward. "Ooh, like how? Did it start with a kiss one night under the stars? "

My cheeks redden with embarrassment. "It kind of started with me accidentally walking in on him when he was—you know," I gesture with my hand.

She gasps in surprise. "Shut up!" she laughs. "You walked in on that? Did you run away mortified? Did you finish it for him?"

"Wrong and wrong."

She contemplates my response. "What the hell did you do then?"

"I told him to finish while I watched."

She inhales sharply. "You did not. I don't believe you." She throws down her fry on her foil burger wrapper.

"I swear, I don't know where the confidence came from. It was like the old me slowly started to return."

"Was it hot to watch?" she asks in a whisper.

I look around again to make sure Asher isn't nearby. "It was soo hot," I whisper back.

She eats a fry and does a weird dance. "I'm so excited. I wish I could drink alcohol. I feel like this conversation needs wine. Okay, so, then what happened?"

I tell her all about our kiss, the night he fingered me, and then our first night together. She grins the entire time while her eyes sparkle with joy. Every word that tumbles out of my mouth is met with contagious enthusiasm.

"This is all so romantic," she sighs blissfully.

I snicker as I drink my water. "I mean, aside from all the dirty hotel room shenanigans, I suppose it's pretty romantic. "

"Oh, please," she waves her hand at me. "The dirtier it is, the more romantic, in my mind. Like when Asher uses his tongue and…"

"Ahhhh!" I scream and cut her off. "Look, I know I get to share my kinky little details with you, but I'm sorry, I draw the line with details of my brother's sex life."

She gives me a pouty face. "I know, but you're my best friend. Who am I supposed to talk to about my sex life?"

"Avery, a college friend, your therapist, anybody but me."

"Fine," she whines. "Moving on. So, what does this mean? Have you two done anything since you've been back? Oh, no, are you two gonna pretend like it was just Italy, then go back to hating each other here? I don't have the energy for that."

Charlotte has certainly gotten a bit more dramatic since she's been carrying life in her belly. She doesn't normally catastrophize like this.

"Calm down. At first, I was definitely weary about what it all meant. He broke my heart years ago, you know that."

She nods her head in understanding. She doesn't know all the details of what happened, I never told anyone. I was too mortified.

"But after talking to him about it, I don't know I guess I had it all wrong. Can you believe I spent ten years hating him when it didn't go down exactly how I thought it did?"

She rolls her eyes. "I only said that to you like a million times. I could tell from the moment I met Josh that he was a good guy. I figured whatever he did, there was more to the story. I told you to ask him about it, make him talk to you. "

"Well, I still think he could've grown a pair and talked to me about it."

"Ok, I think we're getting off topic. One day, I'll make you tell me the whole story. So, you guys talked. Does that mean you're dating?"

I shrug my shoulders. "I guess. We haven't really gotten that far in our conversations. We get too distracted with—other things. But I've spent a couple of nights at his place, and the way he talks to me, it sounds like he has no intentions of being with anyone but me."

"So, you guys haven't talked about telling people about the two of you?"

I laugh. "I just told you, we don't get much talking in before other things happen. We'll get there. It's been two weeks since we've been back."

"Fine. But please have the conversation with him so I don't have to keep this secret for long."

"We'll see," I tell her, not wanting to promise anything. I need to see where Josh is in all of this first.

"Look who's here," Asher walks in, holding my adorable niece with her messy bedhead and tired-looking face.

As soon as she spots me, a bright smile spreads across her face. "Auntie Lay-lay."

I run over to her and grab her from my brother. "There's my girl. Did you have a good nap?"

She nods her head as she starts to play with my hair. There's something about when a kid just wakes up, they are willing to be held. They are super clingy and affectionate. I just love it .

Charlotte heads to the bathroom, leaving me and Asher alone.

He looks behind him to make sure Charlotte is gone. "Thank you for bringing her food and visiting her. I think pregnancy hormones are raging right now. If I ask her if she's hungry, she cries and tells me I think she's fat. If I don't, I'm not taking care of her and the baby."

I let out a snort. "Good luck. I don't think that's going to go away as the pregnancy progresses."

"I know. I'll get used to it. She's the one going through this entire process and carrying our baby. I can deal with some mood swings."

Although he is saying the words, I can see the concern on his face.

"Hey, she's not Lauren. Okay? Even if Charlotte deals with anything post-partum, it's not going to be like it was last time. She loves you like crazy. I promise," I tell him.

He nods his head. "I know, it's just sometimes my brain can try to tell me differently."

"I understand, but our brains can be liars. In fact, most of the time, they are."

"Thanks," he replies, looking down at his feet. I think he's trying to hold back his emotions.

I hate that what Lauren did to him will always be etched into his soul. It's not something that goes away, but he's come a long way. He has generally moved past it, but I imagine he will need to see for himself that Charlotte will love him after the baby comes .

I feel a little tap on my shoulder. "Yes, sweetheart?" I turn to Brie.

"Can we go outside and play?" she asks, looking much more awake now.

"Of course we can. How about sidewalk chalk?" I suggest.

That earns me a cheer of excitement. I walk outside with Brie and get both of us set up with the chalk. Being a part of this little family unit makes me think back to when I used to picture what life would be like if I married Josh.

I was seventeen and stupid, but I had it all figured out in my head. Who knew ten years later, those dreams would start to creep back in?