Page 69 of Necessary Space

Even though they were all things I’d wanted to do with Miles, Wes was here and he wanted to do them with me. I didn’t know what the future looked like for Miles and me, so I didn’t see the point in waiting.

“When, though?” he asked. “You work all the time.”

“You should have thought of that before you came into town unannounced,” I suggested. “But you’re right. I do work.”

“If you loan me your car, I can go on my own.”

“You can call a car or take the bus, Wes. I’m not letting you drive my car all week.”

The waitress came around with refills and two heaping plates of food. Wes was happy to dive in, but my appetite had faltered. The meal smelled delicious, but I wasn’t been able to shake off the way things had gone with Miles. It was really the lack of communication that had done it for me. More than the jumping to conclusions he’d done, because it was clear his best friend and roommate had been more than willing to encourage him along the asinine idea that Wes could be anyone besides my little brother.

Miles had convinced me he was different.

And I’d been a fool for believing him.

But that didn’t explain why I still wanted to try.

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

Miles

Hendrix’s kiss still searedthe corner of my mouth, barely dampened by the rush of cold air that followed him all but slamming the front door in my face. I took a breath and composed myself, pressing my fingertips against the spot his lips had touched, then I turned.

Grayson held up his hands, offering a display of sincerity and submission that I’d not seen from him in years.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, stepping back as I moved toward him.

I shook my head, dragging my tongue across the front of my teeth and shifting my attention toward the ceiling instead of his face. “It’s not your fault.”

“I shouldn’t have assumed.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “But you did.”

The chain of events from earlier in the evening danced their way around an uncomfortable truth that I’d been avoiding for a very long time. Grayson and I…we couldn’t go on the way we were. He was my best friend, and he knew me better than anyone, but he wasn’t me. He didn’t think the way I did and he didn’t react the way I did. Without taking off the lens of his own life experiences, it was impossible for him to see how things affected me. And if the tables had been turned, the drama he’d stirred tonight was exactly what he would have done for himself.

It might have been what I would have done too.

Once.

But not now, and not with Hendrix.

Perhaps it was my fault for not being open enough with Grayson about what things between Hendrix and me were like. He didn’t understand, and he thought that Hendrix was just another fling. Another person for me to get in over my head with and get my heart broken all over again.

“I’m in love with him,” I pressed my hand against my chest to make sure Grayson understood what I meant, but also to confirm my heart was actually still there and still beating.

“What?” Grayson braced himself against the wall, brow furrowed in confusion.

“I’m in love with him,” I said again. “I thought that when I got tested it would be enough of an indicator for you that things between the two of us were serious.”

He sighed, shoulders deflating.

“There’s room in my life for both of you,” I promised. “Things will be different. I mean…”

If Hendrix didn’t cut me out of his life for being an absolute child, things would be different. But I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. The conversation Grayson and I needed to have would keep.

“I don’t want things to be different,” he muttered.

“He’s not replacing you.”