There. I said it. And now the words are irreversible.
For a moment, she just stares at me. Then something in her softens.
“I’m in love with you too.”
It’s so simple, the way she says it, nearly knocks the breath out of me.
For a split second, something in me lifts—reckless and desperate—like maybe this changes everything.
Then it crashes back down.
“No.” I shake my head, shifting back, forcing space between us before I lose whatever control I have left. “Charlotte… we can’t.”
Her brow furrows. “Why not?”
She keeps looking at me, waiting.
“You know why. We just…” I pull my hand away from hers. “We don’t get to do this.”
“Why not?”
“Because siblings don’t fall in love. And they definitely don’t—” I stop myself from finishing, but it doesn’t matter. The kiss is still there between us.
“But we already did,” she says.
“It was a kiss,” I say quickly. “That’s all.”
Even as I say it, I know it’s not true. A kiss isn’t all this is. I’ve felt this too long. Thought about it more than I should have. Wanted things I had no right to want.
Charlotte is watching me. “You’re trying to make this smaller. Like it doesn’t matter. But I kissed you. And you kissed me back.”
“You didn’t know the truth. I did. I should’ve stopped it.”
She shakes her head, like she’s trying to make sense of it. “But you didn’t stop it. It happened. And I liked it.”
I liked it too.
“This can’t be happening.” Her hand comes up to cover her mouth, but it’s too late. The first tear slips down her cheek, and something in my chest cracks at the sight of it.
“Hey, come here.”
I reach for her without thinking. She doesn’t hesitate—just folds into me, her face pressing into my shoulder as the rest of the tears come.
For a while, neither of us says anything. We just hold on.
All those years of distance, the tension, the things we never said—they seem to unravel in silence as the weight of this settles between us.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she says against my chest.
“I know.”
“I tried not to feel it, but I couldn’t make it stop.”
“Same.”
My arms tighten around her, because I do understand. Too well. We both tried to ignore it, push it down, pretend it wasn’t there. And it didn’t matter. It grew anyway.
Now it’s here, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
