The Rules of Dating My Best Friend's Sister(60)

I desperately needed to get out of my damn apartment before I lost my mind. Thankfully, this afternoon was poker with the guys. It was Brayden’s turn to host.

When I showed up to his apartment, I’d apparently done a crappy job of hiding how I was feeling.

“You look down. What’s going on?” Brayden said as he stepped aside for me to enter.

“Nothing,” I muttered, heading straight for his kitchen to grab a beer.

I then took a seat at the table, where Owen and Colby were already situated. The usual pizza boxes were stacked off to the side. The smell of pepperoni made my stomach growl.

Everyone had been busy lately, so it had been a while since the guys and I had caught up, just the four of us.

Colby dealt the cards. “So what’s new with everyone?”

“I’ll go first,” Owen said, grabbing a cigar and lighting it. “I currently have a client looking for a building to house his, wait for it…” He paused. “Private sex club.”

“Well, damn.” I laughed.

“I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement in regard to the exact nature of the establishment. So keep this among us. But this is certainly a new one.”

“What type of space fits that criteria?” Brayden asked.

“There are apparently certain necessities, like enough private rooms and a certain ceiling height for sex swings in the common area.”

Brayden bent his head back. “And I thought I was going to be the one with the most interesting story to tell tonight.”

“Why? What’s up?” Colby asked.

Brayden spoke as he arranged his cards. “So…I went on a date with this girl last night who I met on Tinder, and apparently she didn’t trust me, so she brought her friend as a buffer. The entire time, all I could think of was how beautiful and funny her friend was. I wished I was on a date with her.”

“Well, that’s awkward.” I laughed.

“Yeah, tell me about it. I got a vibe from her friend, too—you know, that the feeling was mutual.”

“That’s a tough spot to be in,” Colby said. “What can you do in that situation?”

“Pretty much nothing.” Brayden shrugged.

“Do you know the friend’s full name?” I asked.

“Only her first name, Julia. But what would it have mattered if I had her last name?”

“You could look her up online after some time passed. Slide into her DMs,” I said.

“Yeah, well, so much for that.” Brayden chugged his beer.

I scratched my chin. “What if you reach out to the girl you were on a date with after some time has passed and ask for her friend’s name?”

He arched a brow. “You don’t think that’s tacky?”

I lit one of the cigars I found on the counter behind me and blew smoke out. “Who the fuck cares? It’s not like you’re dating her.”

“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know.” Brayden sighed. “Anyway, what’s new with you, Colby?”

“Well…” Colby flashed a big, goofy grin. “I happen to be holding in my pocket the very first photos of Baby Lennon.”

“No way.” I reached my hand out. “Hand them over!”

Colby took out a few ultrasound pics. “As you guys know, Billie doesn’t want to find out the gender. It was really difficult for me not to ask the ultrasound tech about it. But I promised, so I didn’t. Plus, Billie said it’s too early to tell.” He placed them on the table. “I’ve been trying to figure it out by looking at the photos. Any guesses?”

Brayden pointed to a certain spot. “That’s a total dick! It’s huge.”

Colby chuckled. “See, that’s what I thought at first, but Billie says it could be the umbilical cord. I don’t know what these things normally look like. I never saw Saylor’s images. But that does look like a penis to me.”

“It’s a pretty sizable one.” I winked. “Must take after his uncle Holden.”

Owen blew out some smoke. “I’m gonna laugh when it turns out to be a girl because that’s so obviously not a penis. It’s an arm.”

The guys and I went back and forth, debating the sex of Colby and Billie’s baby. I was thrilled that they’d passed right by me in the rotation of updates about what was going on in our lives. Because if I’d told them the truth about what happened at the club with Lala, it wouldn’t have gone well.

But I jinxed myself, because as soon as Colby returned the photos to his shirt pocket, he looked over at me.

“Holden, what’s going on with you?”

I fidgeted in my seat. There was a lot on my mind that I wanted to unleash, stuff I really did want my friends’ take on. I just didn’t want to get shit for even asking. But in a split-second decision, I did it anyway. “How the hell do you know if you’re in love with someone?”

All three of their heads turned in my direction at the same time, but no one said anything. They looked at each other, then back at me. You could’ve heard a pin drop.

Colby leaned in. “Why are you asking that?”

I rolled my eyes. “Take a wild guess.”

“Well, I know where my mind is going,” Owen chimed in.

I put my head in my hands. “I don’t even know if it’s love I’m feeling. All I know is that every single time I’m around her, I make a goddamn fool of myself. I can’t seem to make the right decisions…or think about anything else.” I lifted my cards and arranged them mindlessly. “I’m all messed up.”