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She was quiet for a minute. I waited. “He told me he still has feelings for me,” she finally told me, her voice still muffled by the pillows since she hadn’t turned to look at me.
“Babe,” I said softly as I uncrossed my arms and moved toward the bed. I kneeled down. “Baby, look at me,” I gently coaxed.
She slowly turned her head to look at me. “Do you still have feelings for him?” I asked her.
She hesitated. “No,” she answered, lying through her teeth.
I brushed my hand over her hair. “Baby girl, I’m the one person in this world you can’t lie to,” I reminded her.
She grabbed my hand in hers, fear flashing in her eyes. I swallowed thickly. I didn’t like seeing fear in her eyes—not for anything. “I never realized how much I needed you in my life until you were finally back in it again. Jessie, I don’t want to lose you,” she whispered, her voice breaking, tears burning in her eyes.
I stood up to my full height and lifted her up from the bed so I could sit down and hold her on my lap. “West, you’re not going to lose me,” I told her honestly. “Lincoln and I…we have already sort of had this discussion,” I informed her. She frowned up at me. “I’m not an idiot, West. I know you had feelings for him before you got arrested again, no matter how hard you tried to fight against them.” I brushed my lips to her forehead when she tensed in my arms. “So, tell me the truth. Do you still have feelings for Lincoln?”
She stared down at her lap. “Yes,” she whispered.
I cupped her jaw and tilted her head back so she was forced to look up at me with those beautiful green eyes that I loved so damn much. “What if I told you that I was willing to allow you to be with Lincoln as well?” I asked her.
Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “Jessie, I don’t understand. You and I are together. Wouldn’t that be cheating?”
I shook my head at her. “No. You get to be with me and him—not anyone else, baby girl.”
Her pink lips pulled into an even deeper frown, but she still looked adorable as fuck. “But wouldn’t that give you the right to cheat on me?” she asked, not following.
I released a soft laugh. “No, baby girl, and even if it did, I would never want anyone else but you. You’ve been it for me for years, West.”
She ran her hands down her face before she abruptly stood up from my lap. “I won’t do it, Jessie,” she told me as she let her fierce green eyes meet my dark ones. “Because even if I took this opportunity to be with Lincoln as well—and trust me, Jessie, I really do want to—I could never put him on the same level that I put you on. At the end of every day, you’ve always been my rock, the one person I could rely on. I feel so much for you, and not all of those feelings are there for me for Lincoln. It wouldn’t be fair to him.”
I stood up from the bed and gently grabbed her beautiful face in my hands to place a soft, slow kiss on her lips. She sighed, relaxing into me almost instantly. “That’s fine, West. But just know that if your feelings for him ever grow to a level that you feel you want to act on them, I’m okay with that,” I assured her. “I want you to be completely happy, baby.”
I brushed my lips with hers one more time before I left the room to come help bring all of her things in with Lincoln.
She needed time to think, and I’d let her have that.
Lincoln shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he stood on West’s front porch, looking out over the darkening sky. “I think I’m going to give her some space,” he told me out of the blue. I glanced over at him. “I’d love to spend time with her—at least be a friend to her—but I think she needs some space after the big ass bomb I dropped on her earlier today,” he told me.
A car slowing down in front of West’s driveway caught my attention, halting my response before the words could even begin to leave my lips. I pushed my shades up to the top of my head to study the car. “Fucking hell,” Lincoln swore. “That’s Jay.”
I clenched my jaw, watching as he quickly sped off down the road. I shook my head. “No way in goddamn hell she’s staying here by herself,” I growled.
Lincoln nodded in agreement. “She may not want me around right now, Jessie, but she’s not getting rid of me—not with his ass lurking around.”
