Page 164 of In at the Deep End

“I just don’t want to watch you hurt him. Because if you really believe this ends the way all the others did…” His eyes met Owen’s. “Then end it now.”

What the…

“Don’t wait. Don’t let him fall for you any more than he already has. Because if you’re already planning the ending…” Callum’s voice cracked again. “Matt deserves to know before he builds his whole future around you.”

Something shifted inside him. Not anger, or even fear, but something far worse.

Possibility.

I’d never planned an ending.

Hadn’t I?

He’d simply assumed there would be one.

There always had been.

Callum turned towards the hallway. He reached for the door, then stopped. Without turning around, he said in a low voice, “I’ve already watched you lose the love of your life once. I don’t think I could bear watching you become the reason someone else loses theirs.”

The door closed behind him.

Owen remained where he was, the house quiet.

He glanced towards the sofa. The cushions were still rumpled despite his attempt to straighten them. He could almost feel Matt beside him.

Could almost hear his laugh.

Callum had just asked him the one question he’d been avoiding all summer.

Not whether he loved Matt, but whether loving him was enough.

Owen stood in the middle of the lounge, his head in a whirl.

He could dismiss some of what Callum had said. The age difference wasn’t new. Matt knew exactly how old he was. He knew what Owen’s life looked like. Nobody had forced him into anything.

Callum hadn’t been wrong about everything, though.

Matt had a dissertation to finish. A career to build. A whole bloody life ahead of him.

Owen had already had his great love. He’d been lucky enough to know what it was like to build a life with someone, to love someone for years and still want them beside you every morning.

He couldn’t ask Matt to give up the possibility of that, not for him.

Owen dragged a hand over his face.

He wasn’t ending anything. He just needed to be more careful about where this was heading.

Give Matt some room. Give myself time to think. Make sure neither of us mistakes what we want today for something we can’t sustain tomorrow.

Nothing had to change tonight. Matt would be back tomorrow. Owen would make coffee. They’d talk. They’d laugh. They’d carry on exactly as they had before.

Only now, Owen would be more careful.

He nodded to himself.

That was the sensible thing to do.

The right thing.