Page 46 of Uxpectedly Ever After

Kasen's gaze swings to Banks, who hasn't flinched once. "You got my sister pregnant? After I asked you to look out for her? And then hid it from me for fuckingweeks?"

Banks meets my brother's glare head-on. "Yes."

"This isn’t how we planned to tell you," I jump in, because I can read the look on my brother’s face and he’s about to jump over this table and strangle his best friend. "We’ve only known for a little while and needed time to process it ourselves. Butwe’re telling you now because we wanted you to hear it from us before anyone else."

"So you've been keeping this from me this whole time? While we've all been hanging out like nothing's changed?" Kasen's voice is tight with hurt beneath the anger.

"It's not what you think," I start, but Banks cuts me off.

"I'm in love with her."

Wait, what?

My head whips around so fast I get a little dizzy. Banks's eyes are locked on Kasen, his jaw set in that stubborn way of his. The man thinksI’mthe stubborn one, but he gives me a run for my money.

“Excuse me?” my brother says, and oh man. His voice has this deadly quiet to it. That’s when you know he’s big time angry. Not when he’s yelling but when he gets like this.

"You heard me," Banks says like he didn’t just drop a nuclear bomb on me in the middle of my brother’s brewery. " I love your sister, Kase. Have for years. And I know you're pissed, but Clover’s it for me. Her and our baby. I'm not going anywhere, no matter how you feel about it."

My heart is trying to break out of my chest it’s beating so hard.Banks loves me?Since when? And why the hell is he telling my brother before telling me?

Kasen's expression is unreadable. Then, without warning, he stands up and points at Banks then toward the door. "Outside. Now."

"Kasen—" I start to protest.

"It's okay," Banks says, squeezing my hand before sliding out of the booth. "We'll be right back."

I watch in horrified fascination as my brother and the father of my child march out the front door of the brewery. Through Timber's windows, I watch them facing off on the sidewalk—Kasen gesturing wildly, face flushed with anger, while Banksstands like an immovable object, arms crossed over his chest, nodding occasionally.

"Why are men the worst?" I mutter to myself, digging around in my purse to find another mint. It doesn’t help and my eyes water with the effort not to throw up. "I’m a grown-ass woman who can have a baby with whoever I want, for fuck’s sake."

I’ll light a candle for whoever my brother decides to procreate with. He’s such a caveman, the poor girl’s going to need all the help she can get.

I’m sure I look like a crazy person talking to myself, so to feel less crazy, I pull my phone out and start scrolling through my socials.

When five minutes turn into ten, I start wondering whether I'll need to dip into my bar fund to bail both of them out of jail tonight. But just as I'm about to go out there and tear them both a new one for being alphahole idiots, they walk back through the door. Kasen still looks pissy, but it’s not as bad as it was when they left. Banks’s jaw looks a little swollen on one side but his eyes are soft when he slides into the booth beside me and grabs my hand.

"So," my brother says, sliding into the booth like he never left. If it wasn’t for his swollen knuckles and the tightness in his jaw, I’d think he was almost happy. "I'm going to be an uncle."

As much as his display a minute ago annoyed me, seeing him now, ready to accept my baby, and his role in its life, is everything. I didn’t dare hope in my wildest dreams this would happen today. And just like that, I’m fighting back tears.Again.Stupid pregnancy hormones. "Yeah, you are. And while I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner, I'm not sorry for how I handled it. We were trying to figure things out first—without the testosterone-fueled showdown I knew would happen."

Kasen reaches across the table and takes my hand. "That’s fair. I'm still pissed you kept this from me, but I’ll get over it."Then he shoots a look at Banks that could turn a lesser man to stone. "And if he doesn't treat you right, or keeps anything else from me, I'll still break his face."

I yank my hand away. "Oh for fuck’s sake. I don't need you to threaten violence on my behalf. I'm perfectly capable of breaking his face myself if necessary."

"I'd expect nothing less," Banks replies, wrapping his arm around me and kissing the top of my head. "But it won't be necessary."

The look he gives me is so sure, so full of whatever emotion made him say he loves me out loud to my brother before saying it to me, that I momentarily forget I'm annoyed with him. Almost.

"You better have a ring ready," Kasen grumbles.

"Excuse me?" I snap back to reality with a vengeance. "Nobody said anything about marriage. Did you two work out my dowry while you were out there too? How many goats am I worth these days?"

"You're having his baby!"

"Welcome to the twenty-first century, Kasen. People have babies without getting married all the time. It's almost like women have autonomy over their own lives now."

"But—"

---