Page 92 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends

“Be quiet!” Ethan snaps.

“The baby… are they okay?” I whisper to Andrew as worried tears well up in my eyes. So much is going on right now, but I can’t tell if the baby is okay or not. I don’t know if I fell on my stomach or did something wrong.

I don’t know anything right now other than my life feels like it’s falling apart.

“The baby is okay. We checked,” Andrew promises me.

Relieved tears fill my eyes as I nod. Before I can beg them to stop fighting and talk to one another, their voices overpower me again, leaving me silent and hurting. This is turning out way worse than I ever imagined it could be.

“We can’t trust you to take care of her and the baby,” Ethan tells the guys. “You’ve managed to let her run herself into the damn ground!”

I shake my head, wishing he would look at me. It’s not the guys’ fault. I was the one who hid so much of my stress from them, and it caught up to me.

This is my fault.

“What’s going on? Is she okay? Is my baby okay?” Mom’s voice sounds from the doorway.

Hearing the fear in her voice makes me want to sob, but part of me wishes that my parents weren’t here right now. Not when everything is crumbling to pieces.

“She’s okay, Mom,” Andrew replies as Mom and Dad rush to my right side to check on me. “The baby is okay too.”

Mom’s eyes widen. “Baby? What baby?”

“She’s pregnant,” Ethan says before motioning to the guys with a furious look on his face. “It’s one of theirs.”

My stomach twists with anxiety as he blurts out the shocking news to my parents without an ounce of grace. He’s so furious that he doesn’t even care what he says.

They’re past the point of being civil. It feels likewarin this hospital room, and I’m stuck in the middle of the battlefield.

Dad’s jaw drops. “Excuse me?”

“This is a very long story that needs to be told over a calm conversation,” Max replies as he lifts his hands innocently.

“Calm conversation,” Andrew laughs without a hint of humor in his voice. “You all had sex with my sister and knocked her up, and you don’t even know who the dad is. That’s chaos!”

Mom places her hand over her mouth in shock.

“How did this happen? What in the world?” Dad says as he shakes his head in bewilderment.

Tears leak from the corners of my eyes as I stare at all of them, feeling like I’m being torn in two as the ones I love the most rip at each other’s throats. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Itcan’tbe like this.

I need my family, and I need the guys that I love.

I don’t want to choose, but more and more, it sounds like they’re about to make me.

“Hey! My patient needs to rest! Take the fighting outside!” an older nurse snaps at everyone as she storms into the room. She points her finger toward the door and gives everyone a firm glare. “You can come back when you get yourself together.”

“Come on,” Andrew grits out before leaving the room with Ethan.

Ryan shakes his head bitterly and follows them with Max right behind him.

Josh brushes his hand against mine. “We’ll be back.”

I swallow hard, my heart aching so much that it physically hurts.

“We’ll be right outside, honey,” Mom tells me before kissing me on the top of my head. “Right outside.”

I barely manage a nod as I watch my parents step out of the room with everyone else. As the door shuts, their muffled voices sound out in the hallway, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. I doubt it’s anything kind or understanding.