Best Friend's Boyfriend (Be My Boyfriend Book 2)

by Victoria Snow

  I looked around the dive, wondering what had made me suggest it. Thalia had always hated this place. It was dark and narrow and dimly lit and had a vintage vibe to it that no amount of updates or décor could hide.

  At just after seven, the place was still relatively empty. Things didn’t really get going until after midnight and the music started playing. It was great for those nights when I worked the late shift and was still wired when I got off of work at one or two in the morning and didn’t want to go home just yet.

  I would come here, sit in this same booth, and get lost for a little bit in the artistry of the jazz musicians. Sometimes it was lively, sometimes soft and slow, sometimes bluesy, and sometimes so heartbreakingly beautiful it brought a tear to my eye. But it was always fun, and it beat the hell out of going back to my empty penthouse, or worse, going to one of the innumerable clubs that Thalia preferred to frequent.

  I hated house music.

  I sipped my thick, black coffee and waited. There were only three other people there and they were sitting at the bar, so I noticed right away when the door opened, and Poppy walked inside.

  My breath caught in the back of the my throat as she stopped and scanned the room. She wasn’t nervous, arriving on her own. Hell, I’d never seen Poppy nervous in all the time that I’d known her.

  Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail that fell like a waterfall down her back and emphasized the heart like shape of her face. Her eyes were big and bright, despite the shadows that I could see underneath them. The shadows that I instantly hated.

  I had been called in for three double shifts the past week and I hadn’t had a chance to see her, which means I hadn’t had a chance to remind her to slow the hell down. I know she’d been working herself to the bone, I could see it in the exhaustion that lined her beautiful face.

  She was wearing black skin tight pants that hugged her ass in the most sinful way as she spotted me and sauntered over, the heeled boots accentuating the sway of her hips in a way that had my body going instantly hard for her.

  “Hey, baby,” I whispered as I got up to kiss her. I lingered for a moment, drawing out the kiss because I had to. Because I missed her, damn it. I knew it had only been a few days but it had felt like an eternity. I wanted to feel her in my arms. I wanted to know that she was safe and healthy and happy, and I knew exactly how to do that.

  “Thanks for meeting me, Nate.” Poppy said, pulling away, and the serious tone of her voice drove my dirty thoughts straight out of my mind.

  “Yeah, of course,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee, “You want something to drink? The coffee is terrible but the music is fantastic.”

  “Actually, tea would be nice?”

  “Hot or iced.”

  “Hot.”

  “Just give me a minute. It’s coming right up.” I grinned at her as I stood, walking to the bar to ask for a hot tea. The truth was, I needed a moment to settle myself before going back. As much as she said that nothing was wrong, I could tell there was. My mind made up the worst scenarios. That she was going the break up with me. That we were over. That I was going to lose the women I loved with my whole heart just when I’d finally gotten her.

  I forced myself to turn and walk the hot mug back towards where Poppy was sitting. She’d shredded an entire paper napkin while I was gone, and she was halfway into her second, adding ever more tiny white shreds of paper to the growing pile on the table.

  “Here you go.” I said, placing the tea in front of her and she jumped as if I’d goosed her.

  “Thank you.” Poppy shot me a small smile before taking a sip and looking around the coffee shop. “This is a cool place.”

  “You think so?” I was secretly thrilled that she like it. “If you wait a little longer there will be live music.”

  “I would like that.”

  “The real musicians don’t come on until later but there are always some up and comers trying to get stage time. They like to practice, warm up the crowd, that sort of thing.”

  Poppy nodded, scanning the other four or five people in the place.

  “Some crowd,” She joked, finally giving me her first real smile and for the first time since her phone call I was able to breathe. If she was joking with me, it couldn’t be that bad, right?

  “Just wait, a couple more hours and this place will be packed. Standing room only.”

  Poppy laughed, and a little bit more of the tension eased within me. After a moment she grimaced.

  “The photo shoot for the magazine feature is tomorrow.”

  I didn’t say anything, just waited for her to go on, wondering all the while if this was what had been weighting on her mind so heavily. But we’d talked about the photo shoot more than a few times since she’d gotten the phone call and not once had she seemed upset or worried. If anything, she was ecstatic about the opportunity.

  “Everything is almost ready, just have to add the finishing touches to the gown tomorrow on the model and then get through the interview.”

  “Are you nervous?”

  “Nervous? No, I’m excited. It’s an amazing chance to talk about my brand, and what I’m passionate about. I can’t wait.” She trailed off, but I could see the shadows swirling in her ocean blue eyes.

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  “I told you, Nate. Nothing is wrong–.”

  “I can see it all over your face, Poppy. Something is going on, something that you don’t want to tell me and it doesn’t have anything to do with the photoshoot.” I drew in a deep breath, throwing my worst fears out on to the table in between us, “Are you breaking up with me?”

  “What?! No!”

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Then what is it, baby?” I reached across the booth and took her hands in mine, “We can get through anything together, but not if you don’t tell me what’s going on. I’m not good at driving blind.”

  She glanced around Jasper’s and then leaned close so that only I could hear her words and even then, I couldn’t make out her whisper.

  “What did you say?” I asked and she gave me an irritated look before leaning even closer.

  “I said, I’m…I think that I’m…” She paused, drew in a deep breath, “I took a pregnancy test today and it was positive.”

  I stared at her in shock. I’d heard the words this time, but my brain couldn’t seem to make sense of them.

  “Positive?” I repeated dumbly and she nodded, barely looking at me.

  “Yep. Definitely positive.”

  “And that means…” I trailed off as it al finally clicked. Positive. She was pregnant! Poppy was pregnant, and that meant that I…

  I didn’t say a word, just stood, still holding her hands and pulled her along with me as I made a straight shot for the door.

  I didn’t slow down, didn’t stop to listen to Poppy’s complaints about me dragging her around until we were standing outside of the noisy club. And even then, I didn’t stop until I had pulled her around the corner and into the mouth of the alley where it was a little more private than out on the busy street.

  “Tell me again.” I demanded and Poppy huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and giving me an annoyed look.

  “Why?”

  “Please, Poppy? Tell me again.”

  “I’m pregnant. And you are most definitely the father.”

  “You’re sure? About the pregnant part, I mean,” I hurried to add when she snorted at me.

  “Yes, I’m sure. I took the test this afternoon, just before I called you.” She huddled in on herself, looking back at the shadowed alley. “Why did you drag me out here in the dark?”

  “Because, I couldn’t do this if we were still inside or it would have caused a riot and Jasper really hates it when people mess up his club.”

  I wrapped my arms around her, tugging until she fell against my body and in the same moment, dipped my head to steal her lips. Poppy gasped, the sound soft and sweet and it sent a torrent of desire raging through me.
>
  I kissed her, tasting her lips, drawing her tongue against mine as we teased each other. I kissed her until we were both breathless and only then did, I pull back just enough so that I could look down and see her eyes. They glimmered up at me, for the very first time since I’ve known her, uncertain.

  “I just…I thought you deserved to know, and I also want you to know that if you…if you don’t want to be with me, that’s okay. You didn’t sign up for a kid, we both know we weren’t planning for this and I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t hold it against you.”

  “You wouldn’t hold it against,” I repeated, no inflection in my voice. She just shook her head and in the golden light of the streetlamp I could see her lower lip quiver. I cupped her face with both of my hands, making sure she was looking at me, making sure she could see that I meant every fucking word.

  “Poppy, I love you. I am head over heels in love with you. And I never thought that would happen. I thought I was doomed to marry someone like Thalia and have a loveless, meaningless, boring marriage to some socialite just like my parents. And then you came along and turned my whole world upside down.”

  She let out a watery laugh, then bit her lip, that small sign of uncertainty killing me.

  “I meant what I said in there,” I went on, “We can handle anything together, but I can’t drive blind. Do you want to be with me? Do you want to have this baby together?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “No buts.” I stopped her with a kiss. “I know there’s a lot to figure out. And we will do it, together, okay?”

  She stared up at me for a long time, as if weighing every word and after a few more moments, let out a shuddering breath.

  “Okay, together.”

  I was shaking when I kissed her again, still shaking as I held out my hand but hers was steady as she slid her palm against mind.

  “Come on, let’s go back to my place. I think I want to get you alone and naked. So we can talk.”

  She looked at me askance.

  “You’re not going to get much talking done if I’m naked,” She said on a choked laugh and it helped steady me to see her smile again. I smiled back.

  “The talking will come after.”

  19

  Poppy

  I sat nervously in the passenger seat of the expensive car as Nate drove. I stared out of the window, lost in my own thoughts as the city of angels passed by in a blur of neon lights. I caught flashes of street signs and stop lights, but I didn’t really see them. My thoughts were too full to register anything else.

  What the hell am I going to do now?

  That was the main thought that kept repeating in my head like a broken record. I was pregnant. And I had no idea what was going to happen next. I wrapped my arms around my middle without even realizing what I was doing.

  I had always dreamed of having kids one day but it was always in the distance, far in the future, after I had already settled into the success of my business, met the man of my dreams, gotten married.

  But having a baby? The very first year I started my own fashion brand in a cut throat industry that saw anything as a sign of weakness and tried to exploit it? No, that had definitely not been part of the plan.

  I glanced over at Nate. At least I had gotten the man of my dreams part right. He was all that, and so much more than I ever could have imagined. He steadied me, in a way I never realized I needed in my life. And I knew he was right, we could figure anything out as long as we were together.

  It was easy to picture him as a dad, his tall, broad form playing in the back yard, throwing a ball and running after a small human. Our small human. Would it be a boy or a girl? With my eyes and his hair. I could see it perfectly in my mind. Our baby. Our child. Growing up loved and cared for and cherished.

  A shudder ran through me, unfamiliar emotions pushing up like a geyser from the center of my heart and I had to blink rapidly to stop the sting of tears that threatened to fall. This definitely hadn’t been part of the plan.

  What was I going to do? How could run a budding business and raise a baby at the same time? I knew Nate’s schedule as a surgeon was unpredictable. He could get called in any time, and he was already working more than sixty hours a week. Would he cut back? Could I ask him too? Would I?

  I shook off the questions, none of which I had an answer to. They were just making my head ache anyway, turning my thoughts into a tangled mess that distracted me so much it took me a long while to realize that we weren’t headed towards Nate’s place.

  We had passed the turn off miles back, and I only now noticed it.

  “Where are we going? I thought we were headed to your apartment.” I asked, turning to him with a quizzical look and he just shot me a mischievous smile in return.

  “It’s a surprise. Don’t worry, I just want to make a small pit stop. There’s something I want to show you.”

  He turned back to the darkened road and I shrugged, staring up at the moon shining her bright silvery light down on the landscape. I wondered where we were going in the middle of the night. Somewhere closer to the coast, but beyond that it was too dark to make out much else.

  I just laid my head back and enjoyed the feeling of the wind whipping through my hair, focusing on the feeling of freedom in gave me. I clung to the distraction. Anything to avoid thinking about anything else.

  It was a short fifteen minute drive later that Nate was pulling off the highway, down a long, winding road flanked on both side with sandy beaches until finally pulling into a small parking lot.

  “Where are we?” I asked and Nate just shook his head, giving me that same mysterious grin. He walked around the car, opened my door and helped me to my feet, not letting go of my hand as he shut the door and turned down the path.

  “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  His grin widened and I was struck by how sweet and childlike he looked in that moment, excited by the prospect of adventure. I was struck by another vision of our future child, playing and exploring the world with that exact expression on their precious face.

  I didn’t say anything else while Nate walked towards an overlook, I just enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by the warm intimacy of the night and having Nate’s hand wrapped around mine. I focused on the feeling of his palm, callused from work, his fingers, strong and sure and so capable for a moment I just wanted to curl up and let him hold me with those hands of his.

  He pulled me to a stop when we reached the edge of the overlook, and I gasped at how beautiful it was. I could see the ocean, a dark sheet of mirrored glass reflecting the night sky overhead. There were two worlds, two moons, double the amount of start shimmering both overhead and below.

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s one of my favorite places.” Nate said, but there was a catch in his words that had me look at him with questions in my eyes. After a moment, he sighed, still looking out over the water.

  “My dad took me here a few times when I was younger.”

  I glanced at him but didn’t prompt him to go on. I could feel some silent struggle happening inside him and stayed quiet, letting him come to terms with it in his own time.

  “I was maybe six or seven, so young everything else about the trip was a blur but I remember, crystal clear, the last time I was here with my father.” He paused and shook his head as if trying to dislodge the memory, but it was stuck there, in the shadows of his past, still haunting his present, “I begged my parents to bring me, so we could play. I wouldn’t stop. So finally my mother gave in and did. We were just here for an hour or so when my father showed up. He stormed up and grabbed my arm, pulled me towards the car. and he told me that it was time I grew up and stopped acting like a baby. That I was a Williamson and needed to learn what that meant.”

  “We stood here, and he told me that I had a destiny. That my destiny was to uphold the family’s name and it didn’t matter what I wanted. He told me to remember this place because it would be the last time I would ever see it again.”


  “I didn’t see it again, not while I lived with my parents at least. After I moved out, I would sneak out here sometimes, if I had a few hours break between classes, but I always feel guilty. That guilt, that’s what my father gave me. Guilt that I was wrong, that I would never be good enough, that I would always be a disappointment.”

  “I’m so sorry, Nate,” I said quietly, my heart breaking for the little boy he used to be, and the man he was now. “No kid deserves that, and that’s what you were whatever your father said. You were just a kid.”

  “I know that.”

  Silence fell between us for a long time, maybe ten minutes, maybe more. It was comfortable, though, warm and safe like a blanket against a winter storm. Two people, just being together, happy with each other’s company. Content.

  “Nate, why did you bring me here? I mean, it’s beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but…” I trailed off when he looked over at me, his eyes dark and shining in the moonlight.

  “I brought you here because I need you to know that I’m not going to be anything like my own father,” He said urgently, and reached out for my hands. He held them so tight it was almost painful but I knew he wasn’t aware of it, and I didn’t care. “My father was a workaholic, all he cared about was what other people thought and I was never good enough for him. Not for him, or my mother. I won’t be like that, Poppy.”

  “I know that, Nate. I wouldn’t be dating with you if were anything like that.”

  He let out a rough laugh.

  “It’s not going to be easy for me. I never had a great role model for a parent growing up. I don’t really know how to do it. But I promise you, this baby,” Nate dropped one of his hands to rest on my stomach, were our child would grow. “This baby will be so loved, and so cherished. I just want you to know that I’ll try, as hard as I can.”

  “That’s all anyone can do, Nate.” I whispered, choking back the sudden sting of tears. I let out a watery laugh, “Just promise that the little tyke doesn’t have to be a doctor or lawyer.”