And hadn’t that news been a punch to the nuts.
Jealousy was never a pretty emotion, but fuck if a shroud of green hadn’t blanketed my vision for far too many moments when he’d told me about Mark dickwad Lonsdale. Okay, I’d met the guy a couple of times when hanging out with Jayden in college, and he wasn’t a dick, but still, Jayden had been the first man I kissed, and there wouldn’t be another.
And that there was the crux of my jumbled emotions.
Aware he was waiting for a response, I nodded. “Me neither.”
“So we what, apologize for the misunderstanding? Explain we’re not in a romantic relationship”—nausea twisted in my stomach and tightened my chest at his words—“and that we’re a hundred percent behind the LGBTQ community…?”
I swallowed hard and took a deep breath to center myself. He was right. We had to do this. Clear up the mess I created.
It didn’t matter that our kiss had rocked my world.
It didn’t matter that his mouth on mine had opened me up to a next-level, mind-blowing collection of emotions for Jayden.
It didn’t matter that my love for my best friend had morphed into so much more than I’d ever envisioned.
“Yeah. We need to touch base with our agents and probably the club PR. Not only will they want to navigate us through this, I imagine they want an update on your health.”
“That first, then our parents?”
I sighed. “Yeah.”
A slow smirk formed on his mouth, the action dragging my eyes to his lips. “You know my mom’s going to lose her shit at me and be all levels of pissed that we’re not getting married, right?”
I dug deep and pulled forth a light chuckle. “You know it, and you know my mom will be the same.”
“Damn straight. I’m a catch.”
I raised my brows, my shoulders relaxing into the banter, enjoying the familiar ground with Jayden. “That right? I would have thought I’d be the catch in this relationship.”
A part of me wanted to smack myself and beg my mouth to shut the fuck up. Each word tasted bitter, which conflicted with the peace bantering with Jayden gave me.
“Well, you know, Momma always told me to marry up. Go for someone smarter than me.” He winked. “Heck, she really is going to be so pissed off.”
Sadness attempted to settle over me. Another version of us, maybe this could have happened, but I’d take Jayden anyway I could. No way would I put our friendship in jeopardy again.
“They’ll all cope,” I offered.
His mouth twisted, not seeming convinced. “Okay, cells on.”
We switched on our cells, our phone services connecting to the Australian towers. It took a few beats, and then the notifications started. And they didn’t stop for at least ninety seconds. Jayden’s brows shot progressively higher as the alerts sounded, his gaze meeting mine.
“Fuck. This is crazy.”
I winced. “We need to deal with this together. Perhaps check a few messages, then whoever we talk to, do it on loudspeaker so we don’t have to repeat ourselves too much. Fuck, maybe we should just do a conference call or something.”
Jayden’s groan caught my attention.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “Just exhausted already.”
Guilt flared to life in my chest. He was meant to be healing. Part of that was making sure he was relaxed, yet here I was, causing a mountain of work for him.
“Sorry, man. You know, I can deal with all this. This was my doing.”
With a shake of his head, two lines appeared between his eyebrows. “No chance. We do this together, Gale.” Once again my heart flipped. This time at the soft use of my first name. “Last season I did almost everything by myself, and I don’t know about you, but it was a stinking pile of dung. I’m so used to you being at my side, with me every step of the way, usually dealing with the aftermath of one of my grand schemes.” He quirked a smile at me, and the pain that had blossomed at his words eased some. “We do this together, okay?”
