Page 91 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends

“Her vitals are fine! And so is the baby,” Andrew snaps at Ryan. “Now, answer our questions!”

“Let’s just take a damn breath,” Max says in a firm voice. “We just want to make sure that she and the baby are okay. We can have this conversation later at a more appropriate time.”

“I think it’s inappropriate that you know more about my sister and her pregnancy than her own family!” Ethan bites out. “So, how about you explain why that’s the situation?”

“Because the baby is one of ours!” Josh blurts out.

My heart jolts to a stop, leaving me breathless as I manage to shift my eyes over to my brothers, who stare at the guys like they just spoke in a different language.

“What the fuck did you say?” Ethan questions as his eyes narrow.

Josh holds his hands up to motion for Ethan to calm down. “It happened unexpectedly. We didn’t plan for anything to happen.”

“Did you take advantage of her?” Andrew asks as he balls his hands up into fists, his face starting to redden.

“Are you fucking serious?” Ryan growls, starting to move toward the foot of the bed to get closer to my brothers.

Max grabs Ryan by the arm and drags him back into place. “Stop! We’re not getting in a damn fist fight in a hospital!”

“You heard me! She worked for you! You could’ve demanded sex for her to keep her job!” Andrew tells them.

“You really think we would do something like that?” Josh asks him, sounding genuinely hurt. “We’ve always cared about Emma.”

That sets off Ethan.

“I bet you guys did, you bastards,” Ethan growls as he starts to step toward the end of the bed.

I manage to gather the strength to reach out and touch Ethan’s arm, making him stop in place. My mouth feels so dry that it’s hard to speak. All that I can do is give him a pleading look.

“Em, are you okay?” Ryan asks as he steps closer to my side, his hand reaching for mine.

“Don’t touch her! Back up!” Andrew snaps at him. “I don’t want the three of you anywhere near her. Look what happened!”

“We care about her,” Max assures them. “And we care about the baby. We don’t care who the dad is. We’re all going to be involved.”

Ethan scoffs and motions to me. “Does this look like she’s being cared for? She passed out from exhaustion and overexertion!”

“She was stressed about telling you two the truth! She couldn’t sleep over it!” Ryan grits out. “I tried getting her to relax. I tried getting her to sit down and take it easy, but she was worried about you two!”

“Stop!” I try to shout, but it comes out too soft. I force my hand up again, my palm trembling. “Please—stop fighting.”

“Don’t turn around and blame us!” Andrew tells him. “This is your fault. All of you. We’ve made it clear to all of our friends that she’s off limits!”

“Why?” Josh replies as he throws his hands up in frustration. “Because it’ll make things awkward? Because you don’t want to think about what we’re doing behind closed doors?”

I grimace at his words, knowing that’ll add fuel to the fire that’s blazing hotter by the second. I need to jump in, but it feels like my body is weighed down by a truck right now. I can’t even find the strength to lift my head to sit up.

“Fuck you,” Ethan says. “She should find someone good for her on her own. Someone who hasn’t had an influence on her while growing up. It’s not like you guys are angels.”

“Oh, fuckyou,” Ryan scoffs. “You’ve done worse shit than us. Stop making excuses. You just don’t want to think about your best friends being with your little sister.”

I let out a weak groan and lightly swat at Andrew’s arm, trying to get his attention over their fighting and shouting.

Andrew grabs my hand and looks down at me. “I’ll get them to leave. They shouldn’t be here.”

I frown and shake my head. “Stop… please…”

“She doesn’t want us to leave,” Max tells Andrew. “If you’d just listen to her!”