Page 11 of Accidentally Falling For My Best Friend (Chicago Awakenings #2)

OAKLEY

May

“ I just got the email from our lawyers: the sale has been finalized and we’re officially the owners of a run-down resort in Bora Bora!

” I announce as I burst into Parker’s room, too excited to wait for him to finish getting ready to tell him.

He doesn't have a shirt on yet, and his abs are popping. “Damn, if I looked like that, I don’t think I’d ever want to put on a shirt,” I comment, forgetting why I came in here.

“What are you talking about? You’re way hotter than me,” Parker scoffs.

“My muscles don’t look like these,” I point out as I poke his rock-hard stomach, laughing as he tries to swat me away.

“Why did you come in here again?” he asks, but his tone sounds amused, not annoyed.

“Oh right! We got the resort! We officially have about eleven months to turn it into the best wedding destination ever before the tourist season starts,” I announce as I bounce up and down, unable to contain my excitement.

“You do realize that we’ll be hiring people to do most of the actual work for it, right? You still need to run a giant international company,” Parker reminds me skeptically.

As if I could forget the job that has literally consumed my focus for half of my life now. “Yeah, yeah, but this will be my passion project! I want to be as involved as I possibly can with the decisions,” I explain.

“I’m sure the designers will love that,” he says sarcastically with a roll of his eyes.

“But I’m happy too,” he assures me. “Now, can you help me find my Werewolves jersey so that we aren’t late?

” he asks, reminding me that we are cutting it pretty close to the time we told the girls we’d meet them.

“Maybe it ended up in my closet again. I’ll go check,” I say.

We send out our laundry, and the people who clean the apartment also put it away.

At six-three, Parker’s significantly taller than the five-foot eleven inches I claim on a good day.

His giant muscles fill out a bigger size than me in most things, so it’s usually easy to keep our clothes separated, but the jersey sizes can be confusing.

Sure enough, the one I know he wants to wear is mixed in with my own collection, so I grab it for him.

“Your sweater, kind sir,” I say in a weird formal British accent as I present it to him over my bent arm, bowing my head.

He laughs like I hoped he would and throws it on over the Werewolves T-shirt he must have put on while I was gone.

I like how silly I can be around him, like I’m allowed to still act like the goofy kid I was when we met, even though I need to have my shit together in front of everyone else to prove that I’m good at my job and have worked hard to excel in the position that I inherited.

I love making him laugh or smile, even if it is just at something stupid that I do.

He spends so much time in his own head, and he worries so much about fitting in around new people, so knowing that I can make him forget about all of that makes me feel great.

Tonight is game six in the second series of the Stanley Cup Finals.

My family owns the team, so we’re planning to take the girls to our box to watch the game.

Neither of them were huge hockey fans going into the finals, but they’ve come to a few of the games with us now over the last few weeks and have had a good time.

My family is amazing and they can welcome anyone, and the girls are so sweet, so there hasn't been any awkwardness over bringing our new girlfriends.

My older brother Beck, who’s the team’s CEO, is bringing his “friend” to the game too, and I can’t wait to meet the guy who convinced my grumpy playboy brother to follow him to a self-help seminar in Florida, of all places. They’re definitely going to end up together.

We swing by the girls’ condo, and they look cute in the oversized Werewolves jerseys we got for them at their first game. My driver takes us to the parking lot where all of the players and staff park, and we make our way through the Caldwell Center to the owner’s suite.

All of my family is here, along with our closest friends, and I love being surrounded by so many people that I care about.

There’s a huge selection of food throughout the large space, a full bar with a bartender, a private bathroom, and through the door in the back is a balcony with two stadium-style rows of plush seating overlooking center ice.

The girls immediately get pulled into a conversation with my mother, and Parker says that he’ll grab us some food, so I take the opportunity to say hello to Beckett before his new man arrives.

Beck is the person I’m closest to after Parker, and I hope that he can find a way to work things out with this guy.

He’s never been in a serious relationship before, but it’s obvious that he cares about him with how his face lights up every time his phone goes off with an alert from this Cody guy, or how often he brings him up in a conversation.

It wasn’t easy growing up with a brother who was only two years older than me and seemed to be perfect at everything. He set a super high standard to live up to. But he’s always cared about me, and even Parker, fiercely, and I know that I’m lucky to have him in my life.

Thank fuck we didn’t have to compete over girls growing up though, because he’s basically an older, cooler, taller version of me. I wouldn’t have stood a chance.

“So, where’s your boyfriend?” I ask when I finally find him talking with his best friend, Jordan, and our youngest brother, Lincoln. Beck is anxiously watching the door of the suite, ignoring whatever Lincoln is saying to Jordan, so I don’t feel rude interrupting.

“ Cody should be here any minute, but he isn’t my boyfriend,” Beck grumbles. “How’s the girlfriend you’re ignoring?” he asks, and I chuckle at his supposed dig.

“Sage is lovely, thank you for asking,” I reply in a bright tone.

“How’s that going?” Jordan asks. He, along with Beck’s other best friend, Adrian, are also good friends with me and Parker, and we usually try to get together once a week or so.

“Great, it’s easily the best relationship that I’ve been in,” I answer honestly.

“Parker and I get to hang out with them all of the time because they live in our building, and they’re so chill it doesn’t feel like I have to go out of my way to impress her or anything.

The best part is that I haven’t had to give up any of my time with Parker either, and the girls never complain about our friendship because they’re just as close as we are,” I explain excitedly.

“Do you all sleep in the same bed too?” Lincoln asks flatly.

“Ha-ha, it’s not like that and you know it,” I say, shoving his shoulder lightly.

“Do the girls sleep in the same bed at their place?” he follows up with a pointed look at where Sage is now sitting in Aspen’s lap, sharing an armchair in the corner of the room, looking at something on Sage’s phone .

“Women are just more comfortable showing affection than most men,” I say with an eye roll. “That’s just a sad fact of our society, and it doesn’t mean anything romantic,” I add with a laugh.

The implication that casual affection equals some sort of sexual relationship has always confused me. More than one person has thought Parker and I were romantically connected because of how comfortable we are around one another, and the assumption has never made sense to me.

“Do you ever spend time with just Sage?” Lincoln pushes.

I love my youngest brother, and I would do anything for him, but sometimes he likes to try to stir shit. I usually ignore his grumpy attitude and respond with as much enthusiasm as I can to piss him off. “Almost every night,” I say with an obnoxious wink.

Even though that isn’t exactly true. We’ve obviously slept together, and it’s fine, kind of on the vanilla side if I’m being honest, but I’m of the opinion that all consensual sex is good sex. And we have a great time when we’re hanging out together, so I know it’s a good relationship.

Even though we all live in the same building, the girls like to spend any work nights in their own place to maintain their routine, which I totally respect. They usually only stay over on weekends. It’s great because then we all get the sleep we need.

I also haven’t taken Sage out on any one-on-one dates, because honestly, the thought has never occurred to me until just now. We’ve always gone out with Parker and Aspen. But, if we’re all free, why wouldn’t we?

Beck’s not-boyfriend, Cody, shows up, and everyone is instantly won over by his bubbly charm. He’s also hot, and I don’t need to be into men to know that. He’s tall with long blond hair, lots of muscles and a nice smile. Good for my brother.

“Here ya go,” Parker says, handing me a plate with all of my favorite foods that he clearly picked out for me, then he joins me talking with Cody for a while.

Cody seems like a really cool guy, and he’s obviously as into my brother as Beck is to him.

His job sounds kind of weird though. He teaches self-improvement classes or something.

I’m honestly surprised that my generally sarcastic and annoyed with the world brother signed up for that sort of thing, but I guess spending time with Cody was enough incentive.

The girls join us on the balcony for the game, and it’s an exciting one with both teams scoring, but in the end, the Werewolves secure the win, advancing them to the semifinal round.

It’s a weekend, so after the game, the girls join us in our condo, and when Sage comes into my room after brushing her teeth, I remember what Lincoln asked me earlier. “Does it bother you that we haven’t gone on any solo dates, just the two of us?” I ask.

“Don’t be silly,” she responds with a smile as she hops onto my bed, pulling the covers over herself. “Why wouldn’t we go out with Aspen and Parker if we’re all free?” she asks.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page,” I clarify as I crawl into bed beside her.

“I’m sure that eventually one of us will be busy while the other isn’t, but we’re both so used to our best-friend-schedule, I love that we didn’t have to change that to start dating,” she adds.

“Me too. I like dating you,” I agree, with a kiss to her cheek.

It really has been my easiest relationship ever.

She’s the only girlfriend I’ve had who’s never complained about my friendship with Parker.

Which puts her right at the top. I’ve always known that the right girl for me would be able to accept how important he is.

I’m glad that Sage might finally prove me right, because at the end of the day, I know Parker will always be my person, and I could never risk our friendship for anyone.