Chelsea
"It's a girl."
But nope.
The squalling child placed on my chest with a shock of red hair and a tiny, precious body is definitely a girl. But I don't care about her gender. I sob as I hold her, kissing her all over, glad that after the strenuous labor she's finally out in the world, healthy and perfect and mine.
Her fathers surround me, watching us, wonder in their faces. After, they hold her, one by one, that wonder expanding, tears filling their eyes, whispered promises against her forehead.
"My precious angel," Adam says, the tears running down his cheeks. "We're so happy you're here."
Our angel responds by screaming even louder, letting her displeasure be known.
Sam and Adam dote on our bundle of joy while the doctor cleans me back up.
Jake is still holding my hand, as he'd been doing the entire twelve hours of labor.
I'm exhausted. Sweat sticks to my skin, and I probably stink to high heaven.
But love glows on his face as he places gentle kisses on my forehead. "You did so good, my love. So good."
"You're not disappointed it's not a boy?" I whisper, so the others can't hear. Jake had been pretty excited that we were having a boy. He talked little league, fishing, and all the stuff they could do together. Stuff he couldn't do with his own father.
"No," he says. "I think the other two secretly wanted a girl. I didn't care as long as the baby's healthy."
"What about little league?"
"Oh, we're still doing that. Or ballet if she wants. Or both. My daughter's gonna kick ass whether it's in a jersey or a pink tutu."
I manage a weak snort, and he grins.
Individually and collectively, the men split their attention between attending to me and taking care of our baby. The next few hours are a blur of me resting and waking up in brief moments to feed the baby and then finally being taken home from the hospital.
I don't do much except sleep for the first few weeks after labor. Though the pregnancy was relatively tame with minimal symptoms, the actual labor leaves me exhausted for days.
But that's fine, because my men don't let me lift a finger.
Whenever the baby cries in the middle of the night, they're the ones waking up to rock her back to sleep.
When she fusses, they argue with each other on how to make it better.
They love on her constantly, and rather than see it as a burden, they seem to view it as some kind of privilege they compete with each other for.
I don't do much except breastfeed as my husband's strive to win the title of favorite dad.
And James is competing with no one for favorite uncle.
My brother visits often, at first claiming it's to check on me, but at least some of that is because he's fallen head over heels with his niece. He's heavily protective over her already, which of course means that he and the men often clash and bicker about what our baby actually needs.
A few times I've had to step in, though I know that the bickering is how they get along these days.
There's no more animosity between James and the men, especially after they saved my life. He accepts them as my fiancées, and Adam's family accepts us too, for the most part.
When Adam introduced us to his mom, she stared at us for a minute, then laughed loudly and long.
"That makes so much sense," she remarked, and that was that.
His family is surprisingly open-minded, and though they were surprised to hear that Adam is living such an unconventional, 'un-Adam-like' lifestyle, they welcome us into the fold while poking fun at their brother here and there.
With that acceptance, it's been easier to settle into this new normal. I no longer care about the stares we get when we're affectionate in public or whatever people might be saying behind my back. Everyone that matters already knows, and they support us. Everyone else can kick rocks for all I care.
"So, did you hear the news?" James asks as he comes into the living room where I'm reclining, having finally stopped trying to fight to be the one to put his niece to sleep.
"What news?"
"Eric's investigation. It's over."
"Oh shoot. I completely forgot about that.
" After Claire was arrested for shooting me, she was sentenced to years in a maximum security mental health facility.
She had pleaded guilty to everything, confessing that she had been the one to move the excavator which caused the scaffolding collapse that almost killed Jake.
What actually happened was that she had been following me that day because (thanks to Eric’s texts with the third mystery woman he was cheating on her with) she thought I was going to secretly meet Eric, and had seen me enter the scaffolding with Jake.
When I emerged, she snuck into the excavator to prevent me from seeing her and had accidentally set it rolling forward so that it knocked the entire thing over.
And then she’d escaped in the chaos that ensued, but accidentally left the gift card that she had bought for Eric on the scene, and that had nearly implicated him.
After everything came out, it hit Eric's business hard.
Simultaneously, likely emboldened by all the scrutiny, a whistleblower report led to an investigation that showed some discrepancies in the company's account books, which led to a whole separate investigation into tax fraud.
The whole mess made him shut down his company and leave town in disgrace.
I don’t know what Eric's up to right now. He sent me a long apologetic message when he reached where he was.
I didn’t respond and just blocked him. I don’t need that in my life.
"Well, it's nice that it's over."
"Yeah," he says. "He didn't get whacked enough for me though."
I glance at my brother. "He lost his job, his girlfriend tried to kill me, and he owes the government millions of dollars."
"Yeah. Still not enough for me."
I snort. I no longer care whether Eric is getting his just desserts.
Business is booming for my men and James. Our wedding is in just a few months, with Jenna trying to secure one of her designer friends' dresses for me. My family is healthy, and everything is great.
Later, as I watch them play with my daughter, the rainbow of love that surrounds us, my heart is at peace once more.
My dear reader, thanks for reading Secret Baby for My Brother’s Best Friends!
Couldn’t get enough of those three billionaire best friends…
and the baby none of them were ready to share?
Yeah… me neither.
That’s why I wrote a special bonus epilogue—just for you.
Click here to get your bonus epilogue.
Your Next Obsession
My brother’s three best friends.
One forbidden night.
And the twins they were never supposed to know about.
She thought she could keep the truth hidden.
Now all three men are back…
and they’re not letting her run again.