The Best of All (Best Men #2)

Prologue ZOE

Prologue

Z OE

Two and a half years ago

There was something bittersweet about walking alone through the labor and delivery wing when all you’d ever wanted was to start your own perfect, happy family.

It was even more bittersweet when you were still trying to get used to an empty ring finger and a wide-open stretch of future as a newly single woman.

The divorce was probably the best decision I’d ever made. Marrying him in the first place? Not so much. Sometimes the yearning for something leads to really shitty decisions, as I’d learned. Like picking a husband who, in the end, was a grade A douchebag with great acting skills and the emotional bandwidth of a teaspoon. The only things that man truly loved were his bank account and his healthy hairline.

There was a reason why I fell in love with him. Plenty of them, actually. Not even my best friend questioned him at first.

He was so handsome. Successful. Loved his mom. Brought flowers on our first date. Held open the door and didn’t even attempt more than a sweetly lingering kiss when he dropped me off.

He did all the right things for someone like me in the beginning. When I say someone like me , I’m referencing the little girl who devoured books with happily-ever-afters as soon as she was able to snatch them off the library shelf.

When you’ve gone your whole childhood with your nose in a book, inhaling fairy tales where the knight slays the dragon, saves the princess, and rides off into the sunset with her, it gives you a great imagination.

Too great, actually.

Because I’d done a bang-up job of imagining that Charles would be the perfect husband. Instead, I’d ended up right where I started—single, and still living with the ache buried deep under my ribs.

That ache had a name, of course. It was a tangible yearning for something.

Something that I’d willingly sacrificed because I couldn’t handle sticking with a marriage like that any longer. Leaving him, right though it was, meant hitting the pause button on the things I really wanted: growing old with a partner who loved me and raising a houseful of children together.

We had tried for kids for a few years. But it never happened.

That was the bittersweet part of starting over. I could truly walk away from Charles without looking back. But as I stood outside my best friend’s hospital room, the slight tang of bitterness faded into a wispy puff of air the first time I heard Mira Grace Spencer cry.

All that was left was the sweetness.

With an obnoxiously large stuffed duck tucked under my arm, I knocked gently on the door.

“Come on in,” a deep male voice called.

“It’s me,” I said. As I turned the corner, the sight of my best friend’s husband cradling a tiny bundle in his muscled arms had my heart absolutely melting into a puddle.

He barely took his eyes off the loud, squawking baby in his arms to greet me, but I did get an exhausted smile. “Hey, Zo. Amie’s in the bathroom with the nurse.”

Only a few hours old, Mira’s scrunched pink face was probably the best thing I’d ever seen.

“Oh, Chris,” I breathed. “Look at her.” I pushed up on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek. “She’s perfect.”

“She is.” He glanced over at me, grinning when he saw the duck. “Holy shit, Zoe, that thing’s five times bigger than she is.”

I laughed, settling the duck into the chair in the corner of the room. “If I’m gonna be the favorite aunt, then my bribing begins now.”

The bathroom door opened, and Amie’s groan had me turning around.

“There’s the hottest mama I know,” I said.

She shuffled closer, exhaustion stamped all over her face. “You’re here,” she said, accepting my hug with a happy sigh. “How frickin’ gorgeous is my kid? I’m not imagining it, right?”

“No,” Chris said firmly.

I laughed. “Not even a little. She’s incredible.”

The nurse came out of the bathroom just as there was another firm knock on the door.

“That’s probably Liam,” Chris said. “He said he’d stop by on his way out for the team flight.”

My smile dropped immediately.

Amie caught the instant change on my face. “What is it?”

I shook my head. “Just ... haven’t seen him since ...” I paused, wiggling my empty ring finger.

“Come in,” Chris said.

When the door pushed open and he walked in, I just knew my cheeks flushed pink. “He’s going to be obnoxious about it,” I whispered to Amie.

“I will punch him in the balls if he is,” she whispered back. “And no one will mess with me today, because I just pushed an eight-and-a-half-pound human out of my hoo-ha.”

Liam’s eyes tracked the room quickly, stopping first on Chris holding Mira. His face softened, maybe as much as I’d ever seen it soften. But in the next heartbeat, his gaze landed on mine.

And it held for a long beat—until those eyes of his darted down to my frickin’ ring finger.

My chin lifted.

I dare you, I thought. As I did, my heart hammered away in my chest. It had a horrible tendency to do that whenever I interacted with Liam Davies for too long.

Maybe he had a stronger sense of self-preservation than I’d originally thought, because he didn’t say a word about my freshly finalized divorce, my newly single status, or the horrible, horrible truth that he had every right to gloat.

While I waited for him to say something, the nurse broke through the growing cloud of antagonism in the air.

“Amie, just let me know the next time you need to use the bathroom. I want to watch for more blood clots, okay? That last one was about the size of a baseball.”

Liam’s eyes closed. “Fucking hell, I do not want to hear this.”

At the sound of his voice, I had to fight a small shiver. He’d always had the most delicious accent I’d ever heard in my life. Ruined, of course, by the fact that he was an absolute prick who couldn’t be nice if his life depended on it. I wasn’t entirely convinced that the man hadn’t come straight from Ebenezer Scrooge’s direct lineage.

Amie laughed, smacking him in the stomach when he leaned in to give her a light peck on the cheek.

“Well done, Mum,” he said gently. “You popped out a human.”

She eased herself into the bed, and I didn’t miss the way Liam stared pointedly at the ceiling.

“What are you looking at?” I asked.

His eyes never wavered. “There’s not a chance in hell that I want to see her bits right now if there’s talk of blood the size of baseballs. I’ll wait until she’s properly covered, thank you.”

I rolled my eyes. “She’s wearing a robe.”

“Those robes don’t cover shit.”

Amie laughed again. “I’ve also got some serious granny panties going on under here. They’re awesome. I’m gonna steal, like, five pairs and take them home with me if I can.”

The baby was quiet now, and Chris approached with a gentle smile on his face. “Who’s next?” he asked.

I didn’t even wait to hear what Liam had to say; I elbowed him out of my way. Hard too. Right in the stomach. He let out a small umph .

Chris and Amie laughed.

So very carefully, Chris eased the tightly swaddled bundle from his arms into mine. When she was settled against my chest, I sighed contentedly, heart bursting into a million little pieces.

“Hello, sweet girl,” I whispered, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Happy birthday.”

It was amazing how instantly you could love someone, I thought. She wasn’t any part of me physically. Wasn’t even my child. But her button nose, rosy face, tiny wisps of dark hair, and small, spiky eyelashes—every single bit of her—made me feel overwhelming, heart-churning love.

And, yeah, my ovaries were wailing a little, but they’d get over it. Eventually.

This certainly helped, because now I had someone to love and spoil.

My eyes burned, and I blinked back tears when I realized everyone was watching me. Amie sniffled in her bed.

“I’ve already cried so much,” she said. “Don’t make me start again.”

I exhaled a watery laugh. “I can’t help it. You have a baby .”

Chris grinned, nudging a stoic Liam with his shoulder. “Want to hold her next?”

“Absolutely not.”

My jaw dropped open, even though Amie laughed delightedly. “Oh, come on, Liam! You can do it.”

He tucked his hands inside his pockets and shook his head, eyes darting over to me and Mira. “She’s too little. I’ll break her or something.”

Chris laughed. “You’re not gonna break her. You can sit in the chair, and Zoe will hand her off.”

“I’d rethink this if I were you, Chris. His attitude might be contagious, and Mira’s first words will be bloody fucking hell ,” I said, mimicking his British accent.

Amie laughed so hard that she clutched her stomach and groaned. “Oh, that hurts.”

Chris swiped a hand over his smiling mouth as Liam glared daggers in my direction.

I smiled sweetly. His eyes narrowed ominously.

“How’s life treating you, Valentine?” he asked, voice smooth and dangerous.

My smile fell.

“Liam,” Amie said in a warning tone.

He gave her an innocent look. “Just making polite conversation.”

Innocent, my ass.

“You look ... different.” His eyes—vivid, mossy green, and completely unreadable—passed quickly over my face and down my neck until they landed on my hands, where I held Mira against my heart. “Like you’re missing something.”

Asshole.

My chin notched up. “You cannot bait me, Davies. If you’ve got something to say, just say it. Politeness has literally never stopped you before.”

His dark eyebrows arched slowly. “You’d be shocked at how many thoughts I keep bottled up in my head.”

“A truly terrifying prospect indeed.”

Chris and Amie traded a loaded look.

Liam’s gaze dropped momentarily to my favorite shirt—the one I usually wore just to piss him off. Today, of course, was just a happy coincidence.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” he asked quietly.

I smiled again, shifting the warm bundle that was Mira so he could see the red-and-black Wolves logo. I’d had the shirt since high school, and even though I’d lived in Denver since college, I took particular delight in wearing my home team gear whenever I was around Liam.

“Want me to get you one? I’m heading back to Seattle to visit my parents next week. I’m sure it comes in a size big enough for your ego.”

His eyes flashed.

The moment was broken when Mira started squirming, her face furrowing ominously.

“Uh-oh,” I muttered.

“Batten down the hatches,” Chris said.

And then she let out a mighty wail. I tried shushing and rocking, but she wasn’t having any of my soothing techniques. Chris took pity on me, walking over with a smile. I transferred her into his waiting arms and let out a slow breath.

Liam watched the crying baby with a slightly pinched expression.

Chris stopped next to him. “Care to see if you’ve got the touch?”

“Are you mad?” he asked. Then he glanced down at Mira. “What do you want me to do about it?”

Amie covered her smile with one hand and watched.

Liam studied the baby, then reached out to pat the top of her head. “There, there. You can stop now.”

Chris, somehow, swallowed his snort of laughter. Amie didn’t.

I rolled my eyes. “No wonder you’re single,” I muttered.

His eyes sharpened. “What was that?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

There was no chance in hell I’d repeat it. It was like dangling a chunk of bloody chum over top of a shark. He’d snatch it down faster than I could blink, and I’d be the one left in the cross fire.

And more than anything, I hated the lingering feeling under my skin when he studied me just a little too closely. Because he was all quiet and broody and never actually used adult human words to explain why he was doing it. He’d just grunt or make this annoying low humming sound that could mean a million different things.

Years of dealing with Liam had never left me feeling any more comfortable in his presence.

Especially when he’d turned out to be so aggravatingly right.

We locked eyes as Chris handed the baby to Amie. She’d untied the front of her robe, smiling up at Chris when he draped a muslin blanket over Mira and tucked it behind Amie’s shoulder.

As soon as Mira latched on to Amie, the room fell quiet.

“Want us to go?” I asked.

Liam tucked his chin down toward his chest and rocked slightly on his heels.

Amie winced slightly at whatever Mira was doing under the blanket, then shook her head. “No, you can stay.”

“I need to be heading out,” Liam said. “Flight leaves for the game in about an hour.” Chris and Liam were teammates in Denver, had been for more than a decade.

Chris nodded. “Give ’em hell for me.”

“Fucking Kansas City,” Liam said. “I’m sick of them winning.”

Chris laughed.

The two men were so different. I’d thought it a million times. They both played defensive end, a position meant to intimidate and terrify quarterbacks everywhere. That meant their builds were almost identical—long legs, strong arms, big hands, a broad chest, and slim hips.

But that’s where the similarities ended.

For as big and intimidating as he was on the football field, Chris was warm and funny and kind. One of the most welcoming people I’d ever met. He had this tendency to adopt people into his life, maybe because he and Amie had been only children, both without parents now, and it was his way of building a family.

No matter where it came from, they’d embraced me without question. The same with Liam, much to my chagrin.

Chris and Amie were Liam’s family just as much as they were mine. Which was why I had very little choice but to cross paths with him, no matter how much of a dick I thought he was.

“Before you go,” Amie said, shooting Chris a quick look, “Chris and I wanted to ask you both something.”

Liam glanced over at me, and I fought the flush in my cheeks when he, yet again, looked down at my empty ring finger. But his expression never changed.

“What is it?” I asked.

Chris set one of his big hands on Amie’s shoulder and smiled. “We’d love it if the two of you would be Mira’s godparents.”

I laid a hand on my chest and let out a soft exhale. “Really?”

Liam’s jaw clenched. “What does that mean?”

Amie adjusted Mira slightly under the blanket and winced again. “It means you’ll look out for her. Be there for her when she needs it. Chris and I don’t have family; she won’t have aunts and uncles and cousins running around as she grows up. But we’d like her to have you guys.”

My eyes welled instantly, and this time I didn’t fight it. “Of course. I’m honored; thank you.”

Chris and Liam were locked in some wordless conversation, and I couldn’t help but note the tension held in Liam’s big frame. His shoulders, already so broad and heavily muscled, were rigid.

Chris held out his hand, refusing to concede to whatever little battle was happening in Liam’s head. “Stubborn asshole that you are, you’re the closest thing I have to a brother,” he said, his deep voice even and steady and sure.

“Fuck,” Liam muttered quietly. Then he clasped Chris’s hand. “You’ll probably regret asking me this when I give her completely bollocks advice.”

“I don’t doubt it for a second,” Chris said.

Amie laughed from the bed, a contented, happy laugh too. I tore my gaze away from Liam’s serious face, his undeniably handsome features.

My ring finger had never felt more naked than when I was around him.

And somehow I knew that this one hospital room visit ... it shifted something big between the four of us.

Of course, I never could have guessed how much. That wouldn’t come until a long time later.