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“Relevant, my ass,” I say.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says. “Let’s hear the rest of it.”
I clear my throat, shifting in my seat. I wish to God I’d ordered a pitcher instead, or maybe I should have gone straight for the whiskey. It never occurred to me how hard it would be to say this out loud.
“His name is Nic.”
“Nic,” repeats West. “Same as your next-door neighbor, huh.”
“One and the same.”
West’s eyebrows jump up. “So that’s… complicated.”
“It gets worse. Natalie works for him. That’s why she was over there the day we met. Running errands for him.”
West sits back and cocks his head. Waiting.
I blow out an unsteady breath. “I think I’m attracted to him.”
Something flickers in West’s eyes, but it’s gone before I can identify it. “Do you think he’s attracted to you?”
“I think so? There was a… moment.”
“I see,” he says flatly.
“I’m not fucking joking, Weston.” I glare at him for real. “You know what, maybe this was a mistake.”
“Sit the fuck down, Finn.”
I sit the fuck back down, burying my head in my hands. “Look, I don’t like this any more than you do. But I’ve got nobody else to talk to about this.”
“What, Alex wouldn’t answer your calls?”
That has me sitting up straight. “Hang on. Are you—are you jealous? Seriously?”
The dirty look he gives me would have withered a lesser man on the spot, but I’m onto him now. “You’re my best friend, West. You both are, but you—” His scowl intensifies. “You were there, man. You were there for the worst of it. You know me better than anybody except Callie.”
Alex is my oldest friend, yeah. But West was there for the worst year of my life, every step of the way. Even when I hated him for moving on my sister, even when I thought he’d lied to me about Lee, he was still my best friend. That never changed, not for me.
“Apparently, I don’t know you as well as I thought,” he says, but I can tell he’s calmed down some. “Since when are you into men?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “Since when were you into men?”
“High school.”
I damn near drop my glass. “Are you kidding me?”
He shakes his head. For the first time since I caught him with Callie and Lee all those weeks ago, I see regret in his eyes.
“You kept it a secret that fucking long? Why?”
“Why do you think?” he asks. “To avoid awkward conversations like this one, for sure. I didn’t want you coming at me with ‘quit checking me out’ and ‘do you have a crush on me’ and shit. Besides, I like my privacy.”
The silence turns sullen. Or maybe that’s just me. Then something occurs to me.
“Wait. Did you have a crush on me?”
West groans and rolls his eyes. “No, asshole. I didn’t.” His gaze sharpens. “You never answered my question. Since when are you into men? Is this because you have a crush on me?”
