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Me: Now, what do we do with it?

Trey: We either burn it all to the ground

Trey: Blackmail the mother fucker and take over

Trey: Or

Me: Or???

Trey: We take the high road and use it as leverage for him to let you silently walk away and start your life over.

Everything that was already running through my mind. I know I won’t ruin the business because that’s not who I am. I love my damn job, but I also am fully aware that unless I force a takeover, I’m not going to have one. But even if I do that, will he ever really and truly go away? I know what I’m doing without thinking too hard about it.

Me: We’ll talk about it and get a plan together.

Trey: I got you no matter what. Where you go, I go

Even though I still don’t have the answers I want, with the evidence of a lifetime that could end all of this bullshit, I take the long-ass drive all the way back across the state, feeling a whole helluva lot better than I did this morning and one step closer to starting the life I’ve always wanted.

CHAPTER 19

carter

Me: I can’t sleep

Finn: Me either

Me: I miss you

Finn: Who knew you’d be the needy one?

Me: For real, wtf did you do to me Nash?

Finn: Made you fall in love

Me: It’s disgusting

Finn: Truly

Finn: Sucks not being able to sleep when all I want to do is be there with you

Me: Open the door Finn

I can hearhis footsteps as he jogs down the hallway and whips open the door. Finn looks at me, bleary-eyed and tired, but with so much emotion it makes my heart swell.

“What are you doing here?”

I shrug. “I couldn’t sleep,” I tell him matter-of-factly.

“So you drove thirty minutes in the middle of the night?”

“You can’t come to me, where you should be, so I came to you. A few hours of sleep with you is better than none at all away from you.”

Finn’s face softens, his breathing shallow, a look of awe on his face. Without another word, he reaches for my hand, leading me to his bedroom, where I strip down to my boxer briefs and crawl into bed next to him. We reach for each other on autopilot, both wanting nothing more than to just be close, to feel the comfort and warmth that we bring each other. I’m so at home right here. I want to protect this little bubble we’ve built, but it’s not good for us. We need to get out and live—together. I know that we need to stick it out, wait until we have better control of everything with his dad, but I don’t want to wait any longer. Even if I am scared shitless about coming out to everyone.

“I can’t keep this up much longer,” I confess, hating the position we’re in, hating that my speaking the words out loud just makes the pressure of everything that much harder.

“My sweet man,” he breathes as his hand strokes across my forehead, brushing the strands out of the way. “Me either. Even if we didn’t have all this other shit going on, coming out is a big deal, are you sure you’re ready for that?”