“I don’t know if he loves me back, but it doesn’t change howIfeel,” I say, not breaking eye contact, and something flashes across his eyes—like he’s figured something out that I don’t know, and his face pales. “I never wanted to hurt him,” I whisper.
Easton doesn’t respond, but the look on his face stabs at my core like someone has just ripped something away from him, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Then it hits me.
“You love him,” I say, and I can’t believe I never saw it before.
Easton rears back like I struck him, stumbling a step away from me. “He’s family,” he says, but his voice is almost distant.
“You’reinlove with him,” I say, leaving no doubt of what I mean this time.
His face seems to pale even further like he’s as surprised by what I’m saying as I am.Did he not know? How is that possible?Easton puts a hand in his pocket and grasps something, almost subconsciously.
His shock only lasts a minute before he narrows his eyes at me, his face twisting back into a scowl. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says, except there’s no way I can unsee it now. From the way he’s so overprotective of him. Even the way he looks at him. I’d never paid much attention to it before, but it makes sense now. In the months I’d been following Sebastian, I’d seen them together countless times, yet I’d been so preoccupied with Sebastian I overlooked just how intently his best friend watched him.
There are smudges under his eyes that weren’t there three weeks ago, and despite the stress both of them have been under recently, I have to wonder if this is contributing.
“Easton—”
“No! You were wrong about Vincent, and you’re fucking wrong about this,” he says before pushing past me.
“Wait!” I call out, and he stops, but he doesn’t turn around. “Please don’t tell Sebastian I was here. I… I was asking Ethan to help me find his birth mother. I know he thinks she left him, but maybe… maybe if he knew why, he could find some closure. But you know as well as I do that if he knew, he’d try to put a stop to it. So please, just let me try.”
Easton’s shoulders rise and fall with his heavy breaths, but after a moment, he walks away without saying a word, and my stomach sinks.