19. Chelsea
CHELSEA
As he catches me against his body, I stare into Sam’s eyes, my voice going away at the tenderness I see in them. My dizziness clears, and my heart races. The sensual tension tightens, but it's not just that.
There's something deeper, something softer that I feel when I look at him.
I can't help but think of the great care he showed me all day, taking me to the hospital after I threw up in his car, caressing my hair while I waited for the doctor, being my rock throughout the visit, and somehow still having time to get his car cleaned before we left.
Eric would have complained. He would have said that I interrupted his workday with my nonsense, that I should have driven myself to the doctor instead of messing up his car.
He would have probably called me dramatic, too, for being scared about my symptoms and wanting extra blood tests to make sure the baby was okay.
But Sam never complained, even about how chaotic today has been.
In fact, he’s taken great care to anticipate my needs, having hot tea and some soup for me, as well as some anti-nausea remedies.
I don't know how he manage to get all this together in such a short time, but I can’t deny that it moves me.
Now, I'm staring at him, fighting the urge to let myself fall against him again, so he can wrap me up in his arms and make me feel safe.
But I have to push myself back, holding my hand against his chest, his quick heartbeat and his hard chest distracting me temporarily from what I was going to say.
God, he’s so hot, and kind, and solid. Why does he have to be hot and kind?
Why can’t he be some asshole that was good in bed or a nice guy who was terrible in bed?
Why does he have to be the whole package?
“We can’t,” I whisper, when I finally manage to get my voice back.
“Why not?” he asks.
“Because,” I shake my head and say, "There are so many reasons why this can’t happen.”
“You’re not giving me any of them.”
Because I can't really think about anything right now. “I’m pregnant.”
“With my child, potentially."
“Yes, but it also might not be. It might be Adam’s or Jake’s.”
He thinks about it and shrugs. “I don’t mind.”
That shocks me into rearing back, eyes widening. “You don’t?”
“No. I don’t need to be blood-related to love and raise the baby.”
“No,” I shake my head. “That’s the thing. This is moving too fast. You’re talking about raising a baby that you don’t know is even yours. Why?”
“Because I want to be with you. And that baby is a part of you now, and if it’s a part of you, then ultimately it’s also my responsibility.”
“You still haven’t explained to me why you want to be with me.”
“I thought I did in the car earlier today. You're the one for me, Chelsea. I can feel it.”
“No, that’s not a good enough reason. You don’t even know me.
All you know is that we have certain things in common and the physical chemistry is there, but that’s not enough to sustain a long-term relationship.
And with a baby on the way, not to mention the fact that you’re one of my brother’s best friend, it’s just too complicated right now.
Any relationship I get in would be complicated, and I just barely got out of a terrible one myself. ”
He narrows his eyes. "From what I saw, it wasn’t much of a relationship, just an asshole taking advantage of your kindness and your soft heart.”
That kinda stings my pride because it highlights how stupid I was throughout that entire relationship, but he’s not wrong, so I swallow it down.
“I’m sorry,” he says instantly.
“For what?”
“I’m not sure, but I get the sense that I hurt you just then.”
How can he read me so easily? I swallow again and smile sadly. “You didn’t hurt me. It just hurt me recalling how stupid I was over Eric.”
“You weren’t stupid. You were giving, compassionate, and in love.”
“Yeah. Those are all nice words for stupid.”
“Don’t call yourself stupid. He’s the idiot for letting you go.”
“Anyway, that’s beside the point. The point is that I just got through a very traumatic breakup, and I’m not ready to date quite yet. Being pregnant on top of all that only complicates things and makes them harder, not easier. You get that, right?”
He stares at me for some time, then nods. "Unfortunately, I do. Though everything seems so simple to me, I like you, you like me, let’s date and see what grows out of that...it’s probably a lot more complicated for you."
"Exactly."
He smiles. "My brain has a way of simplifying human interaction to its most basic components and skipping out on a lot of nuance."
"Yup," I say. "This is probably all a part of the nuance."
“Great, we're in agreement,” he tells me. “So, I’ll wait.”
That surprises me. "That's not what I was saying."
"I know."
“I’m not asking you to wait for me."
"Yes, but you're worth waiting for."
"That..." I don't know what to respond to that. My heart just melts at the statement, and I lose my words.
God, I think I'm falling under his spell too, or the spell of whatever this inexplicable connection between us is. Because he's not the only one who feels it.
I feel it too.
“In the meantime," he continues. "We can be friends."
I smile gently. “Of course. If only for the fact that you have amazing taste in car music.”
He grins. I feel a wave of nausea again, and before I know it, he’s sweeping me off my feet and walking to the bedroom. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you relax," he says, and when my heart skips a beat, he grins at me with a twinkle in his eyes. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep it PG. Friend.”
I plan on hiding my pregnancy from my brother for as long as possible, but I have to admit that the men make it difficult.
I didn’t know how difficult it would be until the general meeting, where we discussed the progress of the marketing campaign and the roll-out strategy.
The minute I walk in, I meet Sam's gaze, and the weekend just comes rushing back to me.
After he took me to bed–platonically–he rubbed my shoulders, massaged my wrists, and gave me a hot compress to help with the nausea.
All of those thing helped surprisingly.
Then he rubbed my feet too, until I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was already gone, and Jenna was there. Apparently, he left when she arrived and told her to call him if I had any trouble again.
I've never had a man so dedicated to making me feel good before. And the fact that he sits there and smiles sweetly at me, as though it were nothing to him, makes my heart skip a beat.
I'm still distracted by the other two, who make matters worse.
Jake begins the meeting by pulling out a chair for me when I walk in, making James growl.
Jake ignores him.
“Are you feeling alright?” he asks.
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine.
“You sure? You passed out yesterday.”
“You what?” James barks.
Shit. I should have told Sam not to tell them. I also didn’t want James to find out about my passing out because he's already overprotective as is, and he’s a total nightmare when I’m sick.
“It’s okay. Just food poisoning,” I say quickly.
“You should have told me. I would have postponed the meeting, you should be home with chicken soup."
“No. I feel fine.”
“Feeling fine and being fine are two different things.”
"Okay, remember what we said, about special treatment and how I don’t want you to treat me any differently from any other employee."
"Yeah, that won’t work here. If an employee of mine had food poisoning the day before, I would also ask them to stay home for the day. We’re not doing anything world-changing here. We’re not curing cancer. We could have waited an extra day to have the meeting."
I try not to grin. "Well, I appreciate it, but I’m fine. Though the meeting can wait, we're coming up on the first stage of the roll-out and I'd rather we not skip that just because I was feeling under the weather yesterday. I'm much better today."
James appears reluctant to continue twisting his pen between his fingers.
Then he ultimately sighs. "I guess you're already here."
But as the meeting continues, the men still pay far too much attention to me. A cough to clear my throat has Sam jumping out of their seat to attend to me. If I so much as wince, their eyes go to me. It looks far too suspicious, and I can tell my brother is growing suspicious, too.
"Okay, what's going on?" he asks, as the meeting winds down. "Is there more to this illness than I should know about?"
"No," I say, giving each of them a warning look.
Adam is the one who speaks up first. "We're just worried that she's not feeling well and wondering if maybe someone else should head the project in the meantime."
I glare at Adam.
"That's not a bad idea, actually," my brother says as I say, "Absolutely not."
"But if you're not feeling well-”
"I'm fine," I snap. "I worked hard on this, on all the presentations, and I'm going to see it through no matter what. I don't need anyone else coming in and continuing for me. I'm fine."
"Okay," James says with a placating hand. "If you say so."
"I do."
Adam still looks unconvinced, and once the meeting is over and James has headed back to his office, I hiss. "What was that?'
"What?"
"Telling my brother that someone else should handle the project. Are you kidding me?"
"If you're sick–"
"I'm not sick!" I tell him. "You know I'm not sick and I'm fully capable of handling my work. I don't need you all to treat me like I'm made of glass. If that's what you're on, then you can fuck off with that, okay?"
All their eyebrows shoot up, and Jake raises his hand with a smile
"I just want it said for the record that I personally would never dream of taking you off the project."
"Me either," Sam says.
Adam glares at both of them.
"Okay," he says. "Let's all calm down. I was trying to be helpful."
I take a breath, easing back, letting logic lead once more. "I get that. But don't attempt to make decisions for me."
"That's kind of his thing," Jake says, earning another glare from Adam.
"Yeah, he's the oldest of eight," Sam concurs. "It makes him feel like he can tell everyone else what to do."
"Oldest of eight?" I gape. "With one mom?"
"Yup."
"Jesus." The poor woman.
Adam glares at Sam. "Are you both done?"
"Not quite," he says.
I shake my head. "Okay. I have some other work to do, so I'll leave first, and send the presentation for you to review then.”
"Okay."
"Okay."
Something simmers in the air that I don't want to evaluate, so I get up and walk out quickly, refusing to think about it anymore.
I barely get settled into my office when there's a knock on my door. James comes in with a cup of herbal tea in hand.
I smirk. "Do you also do this for your other employees?"
"Believe it or not yet. I like to take care of my people."
“Speaking of which, how's Brooke?”
"She's good. Art school is kicking her ass." My brother’s girlfriend decided to drop out in her final year of med school and pursue something she was really passionate about. Art. They’re doing long-distance now while she’s in school in San Francisco, and she pops in here and there to visit.
He purses his lips. "By the way, what do you think of Jake?"
I almost choke on my tea, but recover pretty smoothly, clearing my throat. "Um, I think he's a guy, and he's your friend."
"You know what I mean. Every other woman in this place thinks he's so handsome and falls instantly in love with him if he so much as looks at them."
"He's certainly handsome, but I'm not even remotely looking for a relationship right now."
"I didn't say relationship."
"Ew. I'm not talking about my sex life with you."
"Are you having sex with him?"
"No!" Just the one time.
"Okay." Visible relief appears on my brother's face. "That's good. I think the guys like you, by the way. I can tell from the way they look at you."
I freeze with the cup halfway to my mouth, wondering if this is a warning or if he's about to freak out over his friends potentially being attracted to me.
But his tone is calm when he says, "Now I'm not going to say that I like it, but if you had to pick one, I'd go with Adam. He's a good guy."
"I don't want any of them."
"Right, but I'm just saying...if you did pick one, it can't be Jake. Alright?"
I give him a grim smile. "Yes. Anything else?"
He tweaks my nose. "Nothing else."
But even after he leaves, my thoughts keep circling over James' odd animosity towards Jake in particular. What's up with that? What does he know that I don't?
Perhaps my thoughts are like magic and conjure up the object of their ruminations.
Because later that evening, Jake is at my doorstep.