The Perfect Couple

Prologue

It was the winter of 1998 and Jessie paced around her kitchen excitedly as she waited for her best friend Ellie to answer the phone. She couldn't wait to tell her the news!

Finally, Ellie picked up. "Hey!"

"Hey, guess what?!" Jessie exclaimed.

Ellie chuckled. "What?"

"I'm pregnant!!"

"Oh my gosh, really?!" Ellie touched the small bump on her stomach, smiling. "Our little nuggets will be best friends."

"I know!"

The now-25-year-olds had been dreaming of this moment since before puberty. They'd always wanted to get married to handsome young men, live in big houses next door to each other, and raise their babies to be best friends.

Jessie got married at 21, to a man she met in college. Parker was studying to be a doctor at the time and he was just a year older than Jessie. He fell in love the moment he saw her at the end-of-semester carnival in 1992. Something in her glittery brown eyes intrigued him and he couldn't wait to get to know her better. They started hanging out almost every day that summer, and it was obvious to everyone that they would get married. Parker proposed a year later, and they were married in 1994.

The first time that Ellie came along on one of their dates, she started having feelings for Parker's best friend Andrew, the other "third wheel." Both of them wanted their friends to have some time alone, so they took advantage of that by walking alone together on the trails while Jessie and Parker had a picnic in the park. It was love at first sight, just like their friends' relationship. When Jessie and Parker got married, they were the maid of honor and best man, and as soon as they reached the alter, Andrew knew he had to marry Ellie. As soon as their friends left for the honeymoon, he proposed, and they were married ten months later.

Since Andrew was an engineer and Parker was a doctor, they both made a lot of money and were able to afford the houses their wives had always dreamed of. Their hometown was in Georgia, but they bought a summer home together in Myrtle Beach.

Now, Ellie was three months pregnant and Jessie, too, would be having a little girl. The two of them started talking about how they would dress their babies, and how they would decorate their bedrooms, and what their names might be. It was all so exciting, and they couldn't wait for the babies to be born!

Six months later, Ellie had a little angel named Josiah.

The girls went to work buying him clothes and everything else he would need in the next couple months. Jessie found him a onesie that said, "If you think I'm cute, you should see my aunt," and they just had to have it! Ellie referred to her best friend as "Aunt Jessie" when the baby was around, because she wanted Josiah to call her that when he was able to talk.

Three months after Josiah was born, Jessie went into labor. After 12 hours, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. They called her Lillian. "Her middle name is Elaina," Jessie announced with a smile, and Ellie cried happy tears because that was her full name.

The babies got along so well and played together with such contentment that Jessie and Ellie knew it was meant to be.

As they grew up, Parker and Andrew joked that they would fall in love. Their wives laughed at this, but in their hearts, they wanted it to be true more than anything else.