Her Best Men: A Brother's Best Friends Reverse Harem

by Rye Hart

  “I love him, Talia,” I said. “I really, really love him.”

  “That's great,” she said and smiled.

  Even through the thick haze of jealousy that surrounded her, I could tell she was happy for me. Genuinely happy for me. Which was nice, because I was happy too – and having my best friend in my corner only made me happier.

  We finished our lunch and were waiting for the check when the subject of my mom finally came up. Talia's mother was my mom's best friend, so she'd heard some things already.

  “Has your mom even reached out to you?” she asked.

  “Nope,” I said flatly. “Not that she'd know how to reach me since she cut off my phone. But, I highly doubt she gives a shit about me, to be perfectly honest.”

  Talia's eyes softened and there was a sympathy in her expression that was as deep as it was genuine. She didn't disagree with me, but I knew she felt bad for me – and I hated that even more. I almost wanted her to tell me I was wrong, that my mom was sitting at home, completely worried sick about me. Her agreeing with what I said only made me feel worse.

  “I still can't believe she did that,” Talia said. “What a crazy bitch.”

  “Tell me about it,” I muttered. “I'm sure she'd really freak out if she knew I was involved with her ex. I know it would only reinforce what she already thinks about me, and why I did what I did.”

  I rolled my eyes and finished the last of my tea. Talia still didn't argue with me or tell me I was wrong, which made me think she hadn't heard any contradictory information. Hell, my mom apparently hadn't even asked her about me – which said a lot.

  Tears started to well up in my eyes, but I didn't want to cry in front of Talia. At least not in public. I sure as hell didn't want to cry about my mom. She didn't deserve my tears. So I wiped them away and put on a fake smile.

  “Ready to go, chica?” she asked, picking up the bill even though I told her she didn't have to.

  “Yeah, it was nice seeing you though,” I said, pulling her into a tight hug. “We should get together once more before school starts, at least.”

  My mind started counting down the weeks, and that's when it hit me – we were already halfway through July and I hadn't had a period yet. It occurred to me then, that I hadn't gotten my period since moving in with Jude. My heart raced as the realization hit me, and Talia could see something was wrong.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I –”

  I bit off my words, not sure what to tell her. I contemplated not telling her anything at all, but she was my best friend and possibly the only person I could talk to right now. She looked at me with an expression of concern on her face – I could only imagine what mine must have looked like.

  I shook my head and let out a long breath. “I just realized I'm late.”

  “Late for what?” Talia cocked her head to the side, a confused look on her face.

  “Late-late,” I said. “As in my period. That kind of late.”

  Her face gave everything away, even though she tried to remain calm. Her voice shook only the slightest bit – which was probably a hell of a lot better than I could have done in that moment.

  “Well, how late are you?” she asked softly.

  I did the math in my head. “A week,” I replied. “Give or take a few days.”

  She nodded. “Alright. Well, that doesn't mean anything. You might just be a little late. It's scary, but it happens,” she said. “Are you on the pill?”

  “IUD, remember?”

  “Oh yeah, but still just as good. I'm sure you're fine,” she said. “We'll pick up one of those pregnancy tests and just ease your mind, okay? I bet it's probably stress or something like that though.”

  I nodded. My pulse was still racing, but she had a point. I had an IUD. I was safe. These things happened, and I was probably just late. Still, better to be safe than sorry.

  ***

  “I'm pregnant,” I said. “I. Am. Pregnant.”

  I stared at myself and practiced those simple words over and over in front of a mirror. Things hadn't gone as planned, and the tests came back positive. I even verified it with my doctor, just to be sure that the stupid drug store tests weren't defective – even though I'd taken about fifty of them over the last few days. All of them positive. I wasn't sure how this could be happening to me.

  My IUD had apparently fallen out somewhere along the way. There was no sign of it inside of me anywhere. No harm done to my insides either. It had simply, just fallen out. Vanished like it had never been. It wasn't a common occurrence. In fact, it rarely happened at all. It had happened to me though. Right when I was in the middle of sleeping with four different men and trying to finish college, so I no longer had to rely on one of them just to survive.

  Now, all of that – my future – hung in the balance. I wasn't sure where this left me. Where it left any of us. Jude wasn't the type of guy to throw me out on the street, I knew that. However, if it wasn't his kid, what did that mean for us when the baby was born? Would Jude and I split up? Would Nathaniel, Dominic or Zane want to raise a child with me? Nathaniel, maybe. Dominic would care for the child, and probably me as well. Zane would handle his responsibilities.

  I knew the second I got the positive results that I didn't want to lose any of them. Especially not Jude. Things were still new between us, but the merest thought of losing him nearly killed me. I couldn't lose him. Please, God, I begged. Let this be his baby.

  The front door opened and closed, and even though I was expecting Jude to come home, I jumped anyway. My heart raced, and I had to focus on my breathing. I needed to not panic or freak out when I told him that I was pregnant. Knowing those words would be coming out of my mouth – and not knowing how they'd be taken by Jude – was tearing me apart inside.

  I let out a silent breath and told myself that I was strong. That I could do this. That I'd get through this and survive – no matter what.

  “Ember?” Jude called up the stairs.

  “I'm in your bedroom,” I said.

  My voice cracked and wavered, but only a tiny bit. His footsteps echoed through the house, and I counted each and every step of his until he reached the top. When he approached the landing, I heard him turn toward the bedroom, his footsteps drawing ever nearer.

  He entered the bedroom while I was still facing the mirror, staring at my reflection.

  “Everything okay, love?” he asked.

  He walked over to me and wrapped his big, strong arms around my waist, pulling me into him. Closing my eyes, I leaned back and relaxed into his body, feeling like I was in heaven simply because I was in his arms. For a second, I forgot about the news I had to break to him. As soon as I remembered though, I started trembling and tears welled up in my eyes.

  “Ember?” he asked, his voice filled with concern. “What is it?”

  He turned me around to face him, staring deep into my eyes. Those sweet, deep blue eyes. He loved me so much that he'd never leave me – right? Even if it meant raising another man's child? I didn't want to say anything. Didn't want to risk losing what I had. What we shared.

  But, I knew I couldn't keep it a secret. Knew I had to tell him – and it was killing me a little more with each passing moment.

  “I have something to tell you,” I said, my voice slow and halting.

  I stroked his tie, trying to avoid his gaze. His eyes narrowed, and he looked at me with an expression that was more worried than anything. I just needed to spit the words out.

  I cleared my throat and inhaled the cool morning air, letting it out slowly as I tried to keep hold of my nerve. My composure. My dignity.

  “Jude,” I finally said, surprised at how clear and strong my voice was. “I took a pregnancy test. Several in fact, and I'm –”

  Before I could finish, his entire face changed. It was like someone had lit a candle behind his eyes, letting them glow and sparkle from within. His hands on my arms tightened as he pulled me in close, hugging me tightly to his chest.
<
br />   I stared up at him and finished what I was trying to say, “I'm pregnant, Jude.”

  The smile on his face made my heart ache and the feeling of relief flooding my body was powerful. Overwhelming. Jude's smile was the sweetest, most genuine smile I'd ever seen before. The look of love in his eyes melted my heart and gave me the glimmer of hope that everything was going to work out. That everything was going to be okay.

  Although, I admit that I wasn't entirely sure yet, that it would be.

  “You've just made me the happiest man in the world,” he said.

  “But –” I started to point out that it might not be his.

  “I've always wanted to have a family, Ember,” he said, a genuine excitement in his voice. “I know it's early, but I will be there for you and our child. I love you more than you'll ever know and I'm going to do right by you both.”

  Our child.

  He was already calling it our child.

  My heart broke even more. He was a smart man, he had to realize the odds, right? Was he just not thinking?

  I couldn't break it to him. Not then, not in that moment when he was bursting with joy and covering my face in kisses. I knew I'd have to broach the subject eventually, and we'd have to figure out the next steps. For now, however, I got caught up in his joy. I smiled and kissed him back, feeling the excitement rush through me. There was a child inside of me, and as soon as I knew it existed, I already loved it.

  The idea of raising a family with Jude, the man I loved, was head. Intoxicating. It made my heart stutter and my breath catch in my throat. I was so caught up in the sensations of having his body pressed to mine, the very idea that it might not be his child slipped from my brain entirely as we embraced.

  “I love you so much, Ember,” he said.

  “I love you too, Jude.”

  “We're going to have a baby,” he said.

  “Yes,” I said, wiping away the years. “Yes, we are.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jude

  “I was thinking we could turn the office into a nursery, since it's connected to the master bedroom,” he said. “And your old room can become the new office. Just switch them around.”

  “That sounds amazing,” I said.

  My smile wavered a bit when Dominic and Zane came into the dining room, interrupting us. All the guys knew I was expecting – it was no big secret or anything. But, no one had said anything about the possibility of it being their child. Nobody even really addressed it with me at all. They just sort of carried on like everything was normal. even though nothing was going to be normal ever again.

  Dominic stopped by where I was sitting and kissed me. It wasn't all that uncommon these days to have his lips pressed against mine, but after the announcement that I was with child, I almost expected the sharing to die out a bit.

  Then again, I could be carrying Dominic's child for all we knew.

  “Good morning, sunshine,” Dom said, joining us at the table.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  My cheeks were bright pink, and I couldn't believe how embarrassed I felt in that moment. Deep down, I felt ashamed. Like I should be wearing a giant scarlet A on my chest. After all, I was pregnant with one of these men's child – and I didn't have the first idea whose child it might be.

  “So what were you talking about?” he asked. “Thought I heard something about a nursery?”

  Jude discussed his plans for the office and the nursery with his friends, and I just sat there listening. Feeling dumbfounded, not to mention more than a little terrified, among the mix of emotions swirling around within me.

  I studied each man in turn, trying to figure out who might have impregnated me. Looking at them all, trying to figure out whose sperm had hit my egg. You'd think there'd be a gut feeling, some sense of intuition, or something – but no. Nothing came to mind. No whisper in the back of my mind, primal attraction, or some mental and emotional compass pointing to the father. There was just nothing.

  I'd fucked all of them, multiple times – and without condoms since I thought I thought I was protected because of my IUD.

  “How you feeling?” Nathaniel asked me.

  I stared at him for a few moments, blinking at him, unsure if he was truly talking to me.

  “As good as can be expected, I guess,” I said softly. “All things considered.”

  Nathaniel reached across the table and squeezed my hand gently, shooting me one of his famous, charming boyish smiles.

  “You're not alone, you know,” he said. “You're not going to have to do this by yourself. Just know that.”

  “Thank you, Nathaniel,” I said.

  The look we shared between us helped me relax, for a moment. But, the talking and planning continued around us. The normalcy of the whole situation was grinding on me. I know how ridiculous it sounded, but they were all carrying on like there was nothing amiss. Like there was nothing wrong and today was just like any other day.

  Except it wasn't.

  What color should we paint the nursery? Maybe Jude should look at a bigger house? The voice in the back of my head was urgent. Insistent. Nothing about this whole situation was even in the same universe as normal.

  “A bigger house than this?” I asked. “It's plenty big enough for us.”

  “All of us?” Dominic asked with a sly wink.

  “What do you mean all of us?”

  I looked at Jude. He put his coffee cup down and cleared his throat. He exchanged a funny look with his friends and then turned back to me.

  “We've been talking for a while about going in on a place together,” he said. “It makes sense, since we're all like a family anyway.”

  I looked around the table again and the guys were all nodding. It was already feeling unreal to me and that was just making it all that much more surreal.

  “Would you be okay with that, Ember?” Jude asked. “All of us living together?”

  I stared at him for a long, anxious moment. It had never occurred to me before that very second that we could all live under the same roof. Each of these men meant something to me now, but compared to what I had with Jude, what I felt for them paled slightly. The idea of all of us living together under one roof wasn't even something that had occurred to me – and with a baby on the way, it only meant things would be more crowded.

  Except, of course, if one of them was the father...

  “Is this because of the baby?” I asked, finally swallowing my pride just enough to choke those words out.

  “It's true we could use all the help we can get,” Jude said.

  “I didn't mean it like that,” I said. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “What I mean is – because we don't know who the father is?”

  The room went silent for a long few minutes. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop. I opened my eyes again and all four men were staring back at me. Dominic was grinning, even Zane had a slight smile touching the corners of his mouth. Nathaniel had his boyish grin and Jude – well, Jude – looked amused as hell.

  “Ember, I'm the father,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “You don't know that, Jude,” I whispered, as I clenched my hands in my lap, trying to avert my gaze. “There's no way we could know that.”

  “Yes, there is,” Jude said. “Because you're mine, Ember. You're mine and this is our baby, to raise together.”

  I shook my head, the heat rising my cheeks. My eyes were stinging. He just wasn't getting it. There's no way he could definitively know that it's his child. Yes, I'm his. But, this baby very well may not be.

  “I've slept with every man in here,” I said.

  My words became slurred. I realized, in that moment, that I'd felt some guilt for enjoying it. Guilt for being with these different men, and now I felt dirty. I didn't even know who the father of my child was, what kind of woman was I?

  “It could belong to any one of you, for all we know,” I said, my voice barely more than a whisper.

  Nathaniel slid over to
sit beside me, placing an arm over my shoulder, a gentle smile upon his lips. Jude was on the other side of me, holding my hand. It all felt so good, to be comforted by these men, whom I cared for a great deal. But, that also only exacerbated the situation – any one of them could be the father of this child and none of us, not even Jude, knew whose it was.

  “Ember, let me tell you something important,” Jude said, leaning down to whisper in my ear. “I can't have kids of my own.”

  He lifted my chin and made me look at him. His eyes glistened and sparkled, filled with unshed tears. Happy tears, as evidenced by the smile on his face. He rested his forehead against mine and kissed the tip of my nose, that smile playing upon his lips never faltering. His expression giving me no indication that he was being anything but genuine. Sincere.

  He knew. Of course he knew. All along he knew that he couldn't have actually fathered this child. He wasn't stupid.

  “It wasn't my brother that had Leukemia, Ember. It was me,” he said softly. “I'm infertile thanks to the chemo treatments I had to endure as a child. So, I already know it's not mine, biologically speaking. And honestly, I don't care who impregnated you, Ember. The child is ours.”

  He kissed my lips, and I fell into him. Even Nathaniel let me go, letting Jude take me into his arms completely. It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. A physical, palpable weight had been lifted off of me.

  When I finally pulled back from our kiss, I looked around at the men at the table and smiled. All of my men, there to support and take care of me. Jude was mine – one hundred percent mine. In that moment, I knew I would never be without a family again. My mother may have disowned me, but in the process, I gained a tribe.

  Before long, I'd have a child of my own. One that would never doubt his or her mother's love. My baby would also have something I never had. Not just one dad, but four men willing to step up and care for it. Four dads that loved and cherished it. Four men who would all look after it like the child was one of their own.

  Life couldn't get much better than that.

  EPILOGUE