A look of concern crossed his face. “Damn it, you don’t have to sacrifice anything to be with me. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You’re trying to teach me a lesson by proving that you don’t need me? Mission accomplished. I get the message. But here’s the thing, I do need you.”
Carly could have physically beaten down the little voice in her head that screamed in excitement at the sound of those three little words. I need you. How long had she waited to hear him say that? “Too little. Too late.”
“You don’t mean that.” He stumbled back when she shoved him again. She’d obviously caught him off guard.
“Yes, I do.” She crossed her arms. “Do you get it now? Are you willing to believe that I don’t want this? I don’t want you.” Her voice trembled, but she was proud she’d managed to get the words out at all.
He was breathing hard, looking torn between rage and devastation. “You want Dylan?” He shook his head. “You’re telling me after all the years you’ve loved me, you want him to be the father of your baby? Him? When I’m standing here begging you for a chance to let it be me?”
Her stomach pitched. If she thought she was strong enough to fight him, she’d been deluding herself. When Brett pulled out the heavy artillery, Carly didn’t stand a chance. Thank God Sophie chose that moment to clear her throat and let them know that they’d been so wrapped up in their conversation that they hadn’t heard her sneak up.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” Brett demanded without turning around. “Can’t you see this is a private conversation?”
“Mama sent me out to let you know dinner will be ready soon.”
“You mean she sent you out to spy on us,” Brett said through clenched teeth.
Carly looked past Brett, and her eyes met Sophie’s. As angry as she’d been with Sophie, she’d never needed her best friend more. “Brett, I need to talk to Sophie. Could we have a minute, please?”
“Now?” Disbelief etched lines in his forehead. “We’re in the middle of—”
“No, we’re finished,” Carly said firmly, hoping he heard the deeper meaning in her words.
He hesitated before muttering to his sister, “Try to talk some sense into her.”
Sophie looked at her brother’s retreating back before turning her attention to Carly. “Oh. My. God. I did not just hear him say he wants to be the father of your baby, did I?”
“He’ll say whatever it takes to get me to change my mind about Dylan.”
“Dylan?” Sophie claimed the tire swing next to Carly and dragged the toe of her boot in the sand. “I knew you guys were seeing each other, but are you telling me it’s getting serious?”
“He told me he’s ready to have a baby.”
“With you?” Sophie asked, her eyes round with shock. “But that’s crazy. I mean, I know you’re not exactly strangers, but having a baby together is a huge step.”
“It’s not like he’s asking me to marry him,” Carly said, feeling the need to qualify Dylan’s proposal. “He knows how much I want to have a baby, so he’s offering me what he feels is a better option.”
“I guess anything is better than going to a sperm bank.” Sophie winced when Carly scowled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just that’s so impersonal, not knowing anything about the father of your child.”
“Yeah, well, this way I would know everything about him.” The more Carly thought about it, the more sense Dylan’s proposition made.
“But what about Brett?”
Carly clenched her jaw just hard enough to kill the sob in her throat. When she was satisfied she had her emotions under control, she said, “You don’t think I’m taking any of that seriously, do you? Come on, I’m smarter than that.”
“I don’t know.” Sophie looked up at the house. “I’ve never seen Brett like this. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s a bit of a mess.”
Carly shouldn’t have felt guilty—he’d burned every last bridge on his own—but she still felt a sharp twinge of remorse. “Brett’s like a spoiled kid who doesn’t want to share his toys. He didn’t care about me until he found out Dylan wanted me. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“Like crap.” Sophie sighed. “So what are you going to do?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
Chapter Nine
Brett stormed into the High Rollers’ office where his partners had gathered for an emergency meeting over the holiday weekend. Throwing open the door to the boardroom, Brett barely registered the looks of shock on their faces as he lunged across the table.
“What the hell—” Dylan didn’t even finish his question before Brett dragged him out of his chair and slammed him against the wall.
“A baby?” Brett growled, closing his hand around Dylan’s throat. “Are you insane?”
Their friends gathered around, trying to pull Brett off and talk him down, but he wasn’t backing down until he’d convinced Dylan to abandon the idea of getting Carly pregnant. Dylan caught him off guard with a knee to the ribs, giving him just enough time to push Brett away. That was when all hell broke loose. Fists flew, blood splattered the walls amidst grunts and groans, and the sickening thud of bone on bone echoed through the room. Brett didn’t know who was holding him back, only that two men were on each of them, trying to keep a lifelong friendship from ending in a bloodbath.
“Stop!” Jaxon shouted. “Have you guys lost your goddamn minds? This is a place of business!”
Brett took little satisfaction in the blood dripping from Dylan’s split lip and the swelling on his cheek. Dylan had landed just as many shots, and Brett knew there would be no winner, only two losers battling over a woman neither of them were likely to have. Especially after she found out about this.
“How could you?” Brett demanded, glaring at his former friend. “How the hell could you offer to get her pregnant? Did you think, even for a second, about what that would do to me?”
“Back up a minute,” Matt said, releasing Dylan to step between them. “Can someone please tell me what the hell this is about? ‘Cause I gotta tell ya, I’m lost.”
“Carly.” Brett spit her name, unable to hide the raw pain in his voice. His anger had continued to fester through the night until it reached a boiling point that morning. He was way out of line bringing his personal problems into the office, but he couldn’t help himself. He had to deal with Dylan before the situation ate him alive.
“Carly?” Matt looked from one man to the other. “Your Carly?” he said to Brett.
“Yeah,” Brett said, rolling his shoulders when his well-meaning captors released him.
“She’s not his,” Dylan argued.
Dylan and Brett shared a glare that prompted Jaxon to say, “Knock it off, or I’m gonna have security throw both your asses out on the street.”
“You and Carly?” Matt asked Dylan. “Since when?”
“It’s a recent thing.” Dylan massaged the shoulder Brett had slammed against the wall and swore softly. “You told me you were cool with it, man. Then you come in here and attack me? I think you’re the one who’s crazy!”
“I didn’t tell you to get her knocked up!” Brett shouted, his rage rising again. “Take her out to dinner, for drinks, to a movie, but don’t think you’re gonna get her into bed again, ‘cause that’ll happen over my dead body.”
“Who the hell are you to tell me—?”
“I’m the last guy she slept with.” Spilling the truth felt good even though Brett knew Carly would never forgive him. He couldn’t go on pretending they were just friends on the outs.
“What did you say?” Dylan asked, narrowing his eyes.
“You heard me. We slept together.”
“Uh, guys?” Jaxon said to the group. “I don’t think we need to be here for this.”
Zach didn’t look convinced. “You think we can trust them not to kill each other if we leave them alone?”
“I’ll post a guard outside the door, just in case.” Jaxon st
abbed a finger in Brett’s chest. “When you’re finished here, I want to see you in my office.”
Brett knew there would be some fallout from this. If any of his partners had pulled a similar stunt, he would have been the first one to call him out. But he was in no mood to hear Jaxon take him to task. “Not today.”
“I’m not asking. I’m telling,” Jaxon said, ushering their partners outside.
Dylan sank into a chair at the head of the table, his head falling into his hands. “I can’t believe this. What a mess.”
Brett looked at his friend, bloody and battered, and realized he had no one to blame but himself. If he’d realized how incredible Carly was years ago, Dylan would never have had the opportunity to move in on her.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” Dylan asked, looking up.
“Carly asked me not to.” He licked the blood on his lip. “She said it was a mistake.”
Dylan leaned back, closing his eyes as he gripped the table. “If I’d known—”
Brett heaved a sigh. “I know. You never would’ve messed with her. I know that, man.”
“Here’s the thing,” Dylan said, running his thumb over his red, raw knuckles. “I meant what I said to Carly. I could really imagine us doing this parenting thing together.”
Brett had assumed that once his partner heard the truth that would be the end of the story. Apparently not. “So you don’t care that I slept with her?”
“Maybe if you’d told me the truth before I started to develop feelings for her…” Dylan threaded both hands through his hair. “Goddammit, Brett, what am I supposed to do with this? You blindsided me. I thought it was impossible for me to get over Sabrina, but Carly’s the first girl who’s made me believe maybe it is possible. I don’t want to give that up.”
Brett couldn’t blame him. He’d almost choked his best friend to within an inch of his life because of the girl. He of all people knew how special she was.
“What does she want?” Dylan asked. “Have you asked her?”
Brett was afraid he might ask that. “Apparently not me.” He sat at the opposite end of the table, giving them the space they needed. “But that doesn’t stop me from wanting her.”
“You had years to tell her how you felt about her. Why now?”
It was a legitimate question, but one Brett felt ill-equipped to answer. “That night…” He cleared his throat. His response wouldn’t be any easier for Dylan to hear than it was for him to say. “When we made love, I just knew.” He swiped a hand across his forehead, not surprised it came away with red streaks.
Brett squeezed his eyes shut. “I don’t get it. This happened recently?”
“The night before she agreed to take the job.”
“Jesus, that is recent.” He shook his head. “So why didn’t she want anything to do with you after it happened?”
“I said things I shouldn’t have said. I’d been drinking, not that that’s an excuse.”
“What did you say?”
Their eyes met across the table, and Brett still saw his best friend. If Dylan and Carly ended up together, he didn’t know if their friendship or partnership could survive. “I accused her of trying to get pregnant on purpose. I knew she wanted a baby, so when she stumbled into my sister’s apartment, half-drunk, and we… had sex without protection, I just assumed that had been part of her plan.”
“Hold up a second,” Dylan said, raising his hand. “You didn’t use a condom?”
“No. My bad.”
“That’s gotta be a first for you.”
“Yeah, it was.”
“So how the hell do you know she’s not pregnant right now?”
For the first time in his life, Brett selfishly thought a baby might solve all of his problems. “I suggested we get the morning-after pill, so she did.”
“Wow, I can’t believe this.” Dylan closed his hands over his eyes, wincing when he brushed tender flesh.
“I’m sorry.” Brett hadn’t expected to apologize, but seeing Dylan in pain made him realize—again—that he was to blame. “This isn’t your fault. You had no idea about Carly and me.”
“I know you want me to tell you this changes everything, but I can’t.” Dylan’s hands almost curled into fists before straightening. “I need to hear what Carly has to say. I need to know how she feels about you, about me, before I can decide what to do next.”
Brett swallowed repeatedly, wanting more than anything to argue.
Dylan spread his hands. “I hate that you two kept me in the dark about this, but this happened before Carly even agreed to go out with me. She wasn’t obligated to tell me about it. You, on the other hand”—he pointed at Brett—“you had to have known if you told me you had feelings for her when I told you I wanted to ask her out that I would have backed off.”
“I didn’t even know then. This kind of came out of nowhere. It blindsided me.”
“Here’s what I don’t understand. How could you have an amazing woman like Carly in love with you for years and be too dense to realize someone like her doesn’t come along twice in a lifetime?”
“That’s why I can’t lose her.” Brett didn’t often show weakness, especially in front of his friends, but he was done holding back. “I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if I do.”
“What if she’s really over you?” Dylan asked. “If she just doesn’t want you anymore? Do you love her enough to want her to be happy, even if that means being with me?”
“I can’t answer that.” He couldn’t even think about it. It hurt too damn much.
“Well maybe you’d better come up with an answer ‘cause it’s a real possibility.”
Brett wanted to hurt Dylan for refusing to back off, but if their situations were reversed, he wouldn’t have let go either. They’d both been single long enough, been played by too many masters and manipulated by too many gold diggers to walk away from a good woman.
Brett winced when he took his cell phone out of his pocket and saw that it was shattered. “I know you’ve been lookin’ to settle down for a while, but this is all new to me. I need time to figure out where to go from here, how to convince Carly I’m not the man she thinks I am.”
“Then you’re tellin’ me you intend to pursue her?” Dylan’s body was tense, as though it took everything in him to stay rooted to the chair.
“I don’t have a choice. I told you walking away isn’t an option. If I give it everything I’ve got and she still decides she wants you, I’ll have no choice but to bow out. But I’m not gonna do that until she knows I’m in love with her.”
“You son of a bitch,” Dylan said. “You don’t fight fair. That girl has been in love with you since she was old enough to know what love is. How the hell am I supposed to compete with that?”
“I’m hoping you won’t.” Brett tried to smirk, but his broken lip wouldn’t let him. “I am sorry about what happened today, but I want Carly, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make her mine. Even if that means going through you.”
Dylan closed his eyes. “This is crazy. I never thought I’d be competing with my best friend over a woman. This goes against everything we believe in. How the hell did this even happen?”
“It happened because I’m a stupid idiot.” Brett massaged his temples when he felt the mother of all headaches coming on. “Don’t think I don’t know that.”
“I need time to think,” Dylan said. “To talk to Carly and figure out how she feels and what she wants.”
“Fine. Even if she claims it’s you she wants, don’t expect me to go quietly, ‘cause I won’t,” Brett said, standing.
“I won’t give you a choice.”
***
When Brett walked into Jaxon’s office a few minutes later, Jaxon tossed a bottle of aspirin at Brett’s chest and muttered, “Take these, dumbass.”
“Thanks.” Brett had cleaned up in his private bathroom and changed into the clothes he kept there for emergencies, so he looked a hell of a lot better than he felt. He
twisted the cap off the bottle, tapped two tablets into his hand, and poured a glass of water.
“What the hell were you thinking, coming at Dylan like that?”
“How would you feel if some other guy wanted to get your woman pregnant, Jax?”
Jaxon leaned back and kicked his feet up on the desk. “I’m gonna let that question slide since you’re already battered and bruised.”
“I’m serious. How would you react?”
“I’d kill him.”
“Good, then you understand how I feel.”
“Here’s the difference,” Jaxon said, lacing his hands behind his head. “Sela’s my wife. Carly’s not even your girlfriend, is she?”
“Carly’s my…” Everything. Brett sat across from his friend, feeling more tired than he could ever remember. “She’s my friend, but she’s so much more than that. When she was a kid, I wanted to protect her. If I saw some jerk at school sniffin’ around her, I’d tell him to back the hell off.”
Jaxon chuckled. “Maybe that should’ve been your first clue. You were jealous.”
“She was just a kid,” Brett said, rolling his eyes. “Four years is a lifetime when you’re that age.”
“Yeah, but she was probably still more mature than you.”
At least Jaxon was cracking jokes instead of lecturing him. Brett supposed he should be grateful for that. “She had a tough time growing up. Her mother didn’t give a shit, and my parents ended up taking her in like one of their own.”
“She was lucky to have them.”
Brett knew Jaxon was thinking about his own childhood. Carly wasn’t the only one lucky to have his parents; Brett was too, and he intended to tell them that the first chance he got. “They loved her. They wanted her to be a part of our family.”
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