“You waited until after surgery to tell me?”
“I wasn’t planning on scheduling the conversation around shoulder dislocations,” I say.
That makes him laugh despite himself, which helps. A lot.
“You’re my best friend,” he says after a second.
“I know.”
“And that’s my sister.”
“I know that too.”
“You see the problem.”
“I see the responsibility,” I correct.
Lisa shifts slightly beside the bed.
“We didn’t hide it because we didn’t trust you,” she says carefully.“We just wanted to tell you the right way.”
“Did you know this?” Zane asks Gwen, still in shock, and Gwen nods.
“I accidentally told Gwen,” Lisa explains. “I made her promise me not to tell you.”
“Ok,” he says.
He looks back at me again.
“If you hurt her,” he starts.
“I won’t,” I say immediately.
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
Another pause.
“I’m in love with her.”
The words come out before I can stop them. Before I even decide whether I meant to say them out loud. But the second they’re there, I know they’re true.
Lisa freezes beside the bed. Gwen’s eyebrows lift slightly. And Zane stares at me.
“You what?” he says.
“I’m in love with her,” I repeat.
There’s no point in pretending otherwise anymore. The silence that follows feels different than the one before. Not tense. Not uncertain. Just big.
Like something shifted in the room that none of us expected to happen today.
Zane exhales slowly.
Then looks at Lisa.
“And you’re in love with him?” he asks.
