Page 108 of Best Friend's Father Claimed

“I’m falling in love with you too,” Iconfess.

Before this moment, I would have been afraid of saying those words, but it’s true. It must be true, because never in my life, with anyone, have I ever felt the need to say those things, to confess what happened to me, but Jesse changed the game, and I’m so glad hedid.

“I don’t think I can ever be okay,” I warn him. “I’mbroken.”

“You’re not broken,” he tells me, “and you’re not weak. You’re so strong to have made it this long, to have held on to it all on your own, but you don’t have to do this on your own anymore, Eric, because I’m here, and I’m not goinganywhere.”

“I don’t know what to do, and I don’t want to drag you down because I’m fuckedup.”

“Hey, hey,” he says, stroking his thumb across my cheek. “A really smart guy once told me no one ever gets to where they want to be without a littlehelp.”

I remember speaking those same words to him, and it fucking tears me upinside.

What did I ever do to deserve someone likeJesse?

“God fucking dammit,” I say, wiping the back of my hand across my face. “This wasn’t how tonight was supposed togo.”

Jesse smiles. “This wasn’t how any of this was supposed to go, but here we are.” He keeps stroking his thumb against my cheek, soothing me. “We’re going to get our Ty back, and we’re going to get through all this. I promise you,Eric.”

An ease sweeps through me. Things might look bleak right now, but the relief of everything that’s happened—confessing our secret to Ty, confessing my secret to Jesse—it’s as though a massive weight has been lifted off me, like maybe, just maybe, there’s a way to break through all thedarkness.

Jesse pulls close, his lips meeting mine, and I don’t resist him. I can’t. I want to get lost inhim.

As we embrace, locking our lips together, feeling our hands up and down one another, I truly appreciate knowing that for the first time in my life, I’m notalone.

TO BECONTINUED…