Page 73 of Accidentally Falling For My Best Friend
“Can I help you?” I say in a sugar-sweet tone as Beck pushes his way past me, making himself comfortable on our couch. “Come on in,” I huff sarcastically.
“Where’s Parker?” he asks, sounding concerned as he looks around the space to find it empty. I’d updated my family that Parker was doing okay and when we’d be comingback, but I guess I didn’t give any other details, too distracted by finally getting to be with him for real.
“He moved out,” I say, attempting to keep a straight face so I can fuck with my brother. I sink onto the armrest of our other couch, trying to look defeated while wondering how long I can keep this up before Parker comes out here.
“What?” Cody croaks out in alarm. “We were so sure that he was in love with you too…” he trails off, and I feel a little guilty for not telling Cody the truth, but Beck rudely woke me up, and he didn’t stop him, so they can both deal with me messing with them for a minute.
“I do love him. He’s just being a brat because you woke us up,” Parker guesses correctly as he joins us in the living room. He sits down on the couch right next to me, before surprising me completely by pulling me onto his lap.
“Hi,” I whisper, turning to sit sideways on top of him with my legs stretched out on the couch so that I can look at both him and our uninvited guests.
“Hello,” Parker responds in a soft tone, sounding amused before gently cupping my chin to guide my mouth to his.
“Well, it looks like you two finally figured your shit out,” Beck comments in a smug tone, but he also looks genuinely happy for us.
“Sorry. I couldn’t resist,” I say, looking at Cody.
“I’m just so excited that you two are together,” he replies.
“Took you long enough,” Beck teases.
“Have you told anyone else?” Cody asks, bouncing on the edge of the couch now.
“We haven’t even left our place since we got back from the airport. I had assumed that you guys would have told the family when I ditched Christmas, though,” I say looking back at Beck.
“I would never out anyone,” he says firmly.
I smile warmly at him in response. I really have the best family.
“Our other brothers and parents are all still staying at our grandparents’, you know how they like to pretend like we aren’t all local and have us spend the week there. We actually came here as a well-being check and to see if you’d be up for coming back there since you left before everyone exchanged presents. Which you would know if you’d checked your phone,” Beck informs us.
“Perfect. We can tell everyone at once. Want to see if your mom can meet us there?” I ask Parker and he nods, smiling as he pulls out his phone.
34
PARKER
December
We text Adrian and Jordan too to see if they’re available to join us.
We pick them up so that the four of us can follow Beck and Cody back to the suburbs, since they live in the same neighborhood as Oakley’s grandparents now.
The whole car ride over, Adrian updates us on everything that’s been going on with Hudson living with him. We still catch up pretty regularly, but it’s been a while since he and Oakley have had time to really talk. It’s pretty clear to me that Adrian is obsessed with him, but as far as I know, Hudson has only publicly dated women.
“In the beginning, all the poor man would talk about was wanting to be a dad,” Adrian explains. “It was never ‘I miss my ex-wife,’ or ‘I hate being alone,’ it was always, ‘I’ll be so old now if I ever become a father,’ or ‘what am I going to do with my life if I can’t be a dad’. I was sick of him complaining without taking any action, so one day I printed out a bunch of information for him on surrogacy, fostering, and adoption, and reminded him thatyou don’t need to have a partner to be a parent. He seems to be doing much better now that he’s working with the adoption agency.”
Adrian might sound put-out by Hudson, but I know he loves helping other people solve their problems, and a “hot, broken hockey player” as he’s called him, is probably his ideal man. Adrian casually mentions all of the things he’s been doing with Hudson as a part of the adoption for “moral support” and it sounds like he’s just as involved with the process as Hudson has been.
I’m grateful for how chatty Adrian is so that we don’t feel obligated to tell him and Jordan that we’re together before we get there. When we arrive, I hang back with Oakley to talk to him about how he wants to do this.
“So do we work up to it, or announce it when we walk in?” he whispers as we’re walking up the drive.
“How about we just walk in holding hands?” I suggest as I take his hand in mine, pleased when he smiles up at me adoringly and nods.
With it just being immediate family here today, we’re the last to arrive. My mom is chatting with Oak’s parents near the kitchen island and his grandparents are talking with his three other brothers in the attached living room. Beck, Cody, Adrian, and Jordan all say their hellos before sitting at the kitchen table. Their house has an open concept, so we’re all able to essentially be in the same space which makes this easier.
It’s Adrian who notices our hands first. “Oh my fucking god!” He stands from his chair so quickly that he almost knocks it over as he slams his hands onto the table in front of him. “Sorry, Grandma Caldwell, but Oakley and Parker are holding hands and if that doesn’t call for some swear words, I don’t know what does. Are you seriously telling me that you let me rant for the entire car ride when you two were hiding that?” he asks, wavingboth arms in the direction of where we’re joined. I can’t help but smirk at him, and when I glance at Oak, he’s got a giant smile spread across his face.
