“Because that’s the moment I fell in love withyou!” he shouted, voice dripping with desperation as he whipped his head around to face me. “I’ll never forget that night. You were so sick, you were barely awake every time I checked on you, and the only thing you asked each time washow’s Kaylee.You were so singularly focused on taking care of your little girl and I was already half in love with you. But that night, I was just gone for you, Liv. I’ve been gone ever since.”
“Why haven’t you ever said anything?” I asked, voice small and weak.
“Because losing you and Kaylee would destroy me. I was too afraid to take that gamble. Even if I thought I might win, the cost was too high if I lost.”
I nodded. That was at least something I could understand. The fear of losing him when my daughter loved him so much had always been my greatest barrier to confessing my own feelings too.
He sighed and cupped my face gently with both hands. “Olivia Riley, I am so in love with you.” I closed my eyes, relishing in the words I’d wanted to hear for so long and wondering why it sounded like a big, giantbutwas coming next. I opened my eyes and Jace continued, “I have been in love with you for years and I’m not goinganywhere. I want to talk about this. I want to figure out what this means.”
“But?” I asked, tears falling faster.But Kayden?
“Nobut, Olivia.” He took another deep breath. “Two weeks ago, the father of your child showed up and you know I’m committed to him too. I don’t know what that means for all of us, but I do know the man I’m falling in love with wants a relationship with his daughter. And the woman I’m already desperately in love with needs her best friend as she navigates letting someone else into her daughter’s life.”
His eyes filled with tears as he struggled to keep it together. “At the end of the day, Liv, there’s a little girl who I love as if she were my own who is going to need all of us to be strong and steady for her. I’m going to keep loving you, because I don’t know how not to. And when you’re ready, we’ll talk about this. I don’t think you’re ready tonight, sweetheart, and you don’t have to be.”
I nodded, feeling relieved and sad at the same time. I’d wanted this moment for years, so why did it feel like the timing was all off? Once again, Jace knew what I needed better than I ever could have articulated. He was right. I wasn’t ready to talk about this tonight, not with everything else going on.
“I love you too, Jace,” I said. He closed his eyes, seeming to relish my confession as much as I had his. “You’re right. This situation is complicated. I have no idea what any of it means and I’m not ready to figure that out tonight. But you shouldn’t have to wait until we figure itout to know that I’m in love with you. I’ve waited years to tell you that too.”
He cupped my face and pressed his forehead to mine. The moment of silence that passed as we held each other felt like the most honest conversation we’d ever had. Eventually, he let me go, we wiped our tears, and he turned the car on. We drove silently to his moms’.
“I’m going to leave this here,” I said setting the paper bag with our takeaway from the party on his front seat as I got out of the car. “If it’s supposed to be for my next partner, then I might as well leave it with him.”
Jace smiled sadly at me. “Okay.”
He got out of the car and took my hand as we walked to the condo building. When we got inside, he dropped my hand and called the elevator for us. Again, we rode up in silence.
“Jace?” I asked quietly as we stood outside his moms’ condo. “You don’t have to keep anything from Kayden for me. I want you to be honest with him.”
He pulled me into a hug. “Thank you. He already knows how I feel about you. That’s why he made that comment the other day.” Jace kissed the top of my head and lingered with his lips against my hair. His grip tightened and I snaked my arms around his waist. “I love you so much, Olivia, and I should have told you that a long time ago.”
“It’s okay, Jace,” I said, squeezing him tighter. “I should have told you too.”
He kissed my temple as I turned my head to rest my cheek against his chest. “I promise I won’t ask you to talk about us, but I need you to tell me as soon as you’re ready.”
I nodded against him and held on for a few more seconds before we let go of each other and knocked on the door. I was pretty sure everythingbetween us had shifted forever whether or not we were going to talk about it. We’d crossed lines, our secrets were out in the open, and we couldn’t possibly go back to how we were yesterday.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jace
I knocked on Kayden’sdoor and ran a hand through my hair while I waited for him to answer. I’d worked most of the gel out of my hair with the way I’d been pulling at it since leaving my moms’ and I probably looked like a mess.
Kayden pulled his front door open, shirtless and in sweatpants. The sight of him after the day I’d had sent a blast of desire through me twice as strong as usual.
You can probably thank Olivia for some of that.
He nudged his glasses up his nose as he grinned, clearly happy to see me on his doorstep. “Hey, babe.”
I hadn’t even bothered to see if he wanted me to come over because my heart had been pounding as I considered the lines Olivia and I had just crossed and how Kayden would feel now that we weren’t just talking in hypotheticals.
He leaned in for a kiss and my body ignited when his lips brushed mine.
“Fuck, Kayd, you look so hot,” I said, grabbing his waist and tugging him against me as I deepened the kiss and slipped my tongue in his mouth.
He moaned and pulled back with an amused smile. “You’re going to have to tell me what happened on your so-calledfakedate because you’re coming back from it a very real kind of horny.”
“I’m sorry,” I said with a sigh as I ran my hand through my hair again. “Shit, this is so complicated.”
