“You shoved me on the bottom!” I protested.

“You shoved my brother first. I needed to defend him.”

“Nicely, he did name me a liar for claiming Brandi and I have been twins.”

“We have been simply dumb youngsters,” Jack stated. It felt like an admission and an apology unexpectedly.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Simply dumb youngsters who didn’t know any higher.”

“Now we’re older and wiser.”

I snorted. “Older, sure. Wiser… not so certain about that.”

“We got here to our senses ultimately, didn’t we?” Jack argued. “And it solely took two weeks. Alyssa… I believe I’m in love with you.”

I gave a begin.

“I’ve been in love with you because the day we met,” he admitted. “I stayed in love with you, to a point, after the pool social gathering. All these years aside. I didn’t notice it till you got here again into city, again into our lives.”

The way in which he stated our lives as an alternative of my life caught out like a sore thumb. “Jack, I really feel the identical approach. I’ve all the time felt one thing for you, and I’ve by no means been in a position to shake that feeling. I care about you a lot. I don’t need to spend the subsequent eight years of my life questioning what the 2 of us may have been.”

“Me neither,” he stated firmly.

“However… Liam and Mateo…”

“They’re my greatest buddies,” Jack interrupted. “I really like them like brothers. Nothing will come between us. I don’t care in case you have emotions for them, or them for you. That doesn’t change the best way I really feel. It doesn’t change the truth that I believe… I believe I want you in my life.”

Reduction washed over me. “I don’t know what we’re all going to do…”

“We are able to fear about that later. For now, simply stick with me.”

I stroked his hair. “I wouldn’t consider leaving. Not till they kick me out.” I chuckled.

“What’s so humorous?”

“I want I had advised you the way I felt after I was an adolescent. My mom was such a poisonous affect in my life. She made it troublesome for me to belief folks. It was simpler to withdraw into myself slightly than inform somebody how I felt. I used to be frightened of getting damage.”

“I do know precisely how you’re feeling,” Jack stated.

“I ought to have had this dialog with you years in the past.”

“I ought to’ve accomplished this years in the past. Earlier than that pool social gathering.” Holding the again of my neck with stunning power, he pulled me in for a kiss.

There have been no boundaries between us now—solely a deep affection, one which had someway strengthened through the years as we grew individually. We might not have been an ideal match a decade in the past, however we have been each in a greater place, now. We have been the place we wanted to be so as to match collectively.

Jack’s maintain on my head remained sturdy as he deepened the kiss. His tongue swam in my mouth, hungrier and extra determined than I anticipated. It was a kiss that was eight years within the making. A kiss that was too highly effective to face alone.

I pulled away from him and went to the window. No one was out within the hallway; Liam and Mateo will need to have gone to get espresso or one thing. I locked the deadbolt on the door, then pulled the curtains till we had privateness.

“What are you doing?” Jack requested.

“One thing I wished to do on the pool social gathering,” I replied, crawling into mattress with Jack and straddling him. The paper hospital robe smoothed out all of his outlined options, however he felt onerous and durable beneath me.

“However the nurse…”

I bent down and gave him a tough, onerous kiss. “You’re not going to search out an excuse this time, Jack Franco.”

He grinned up at me. “Is that so?”

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