Page 10 of When You Became Mine

My eyes filled with tears. That was what would make us all better.

“I know, Hampton. I want him back as much as you do.”

“No, you don’t fucking know. You don’t know anything!”

I pushed to my feet and crossed the space between us. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I rested my forehead on his chest and whispered, “Then tell me.”

He pried my arms off and set me away from him.

I was stunned. He’d never once refused to hug me, to touch me, and comfort me. But now, when I needed it more than ever before, he was being an asshole.

“What’s your problem?” I huffed, careful not to raise my voice. I wanted to yell. To shout at him. To scream at someone, anyone. But the only person in front of me was the only man I could never bear to hurt.

“I’m sorry I kissed you, okay? I don’t know what came over me. I just thought—”

“You thought what?” he snapped with a sharp edge to his voice.

I answered cautiously, careful to not get cut. “I just thought I could take your mind off things for a while. Take my mind off Jack.”

He scoffed. “Well, kissing me definitely wasn’t the way to get my mind off him.”

“Then tell me what the hell I can do!” I whisper-yelled, my frustration getting the better of me.

His head jerked and his eyes met mine. “Nothing! You can’t do anything! Unless you can bring him back from the fucking dead! Or put me in the ground with him!”

“Jesus, Hampton, don’t say that!”

“I can’t do this, Pip. I can’t just move on without him. I need him to come back. We didn’t have enough time.”

“We all want one more day with him,” I said softly.

“Not the way I do,” he murmured, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes again. “I love him, Piper.”

I nodded. “I know.”

But then he uttered words that changed my life forever.

“No, I am in love with Jack. And he was in love with me.”

Stunned into silence, I stared at him, my mouth hanging open. I’d known Hampton Reed since I was just a baby, but for the first time in my life, I felt as though the guy standing in front of me was a complete stranger.

In love?

“I don’t understand,” I said, my mouth so dry the words came out as barely a whisper.

He screwed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve been in love with your brother since we were in middle school. And as of two months ago, he was in love with me too.”

“What?” I breathed, unable to fully grasp his admission.

He shoved a hand through his hair and I followed the movement, watching as his fingers sifted through his chestnut brown locks, the way I’d always dreamed of doing myself. The way my brother had probably done to him.

Humiliation washed over me.

“You’re…” I didn’t finish the sentence, unable to bring myself to say the word out loud.

“Gay. I’m gay.”

Hampton took a step toward me, but I shook my head. Holding up a hand to halt him, I squeezed my eyes shut and sucked in a deep breath.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com