Page 26 of (Un)Rivaled

“Of loving someone?”

I nodded, feeling that familiar prickle in the back of my throat. I closed my eyes, soaking in the night breeze and the sound of the water rippling along the shore. “I think there’s something wrong with me. No matter how much I wanted to say the words, they wouldn’t come. I haven’t said them to anyone, not in a long time. I don’t know if I even can.”

But before I could spiral further, Gray took my arm and turned me until I faced him. His hand fell to my cheek, brushing away the one lone tear that managed to escape. “You’re more than capable of loving someone, Ace. It just needs to be the right person.”

I shook my head. “It’s easy to say that?—”

But Gray cut me off, shifting his fingers to my chin and lifting it so I was forced to meet his eyes. “Maybe you don’t see it, but I do. You are the most loving person I’ve ever met. Maybe you don’t say it with your words, but I see it in your actions every single day. With your sisters, with your friends.” He swallowed. “With me. You protect your heart, Ace. You don’t give pieces of it away easily, but once you do, you’re in for life.”

I bit my lip to keep from crying. I’d never heard someone describe me like that, never had someone see me so clearly. The rest of the people in my life seemed to pass over me, always believing what I projected on the outside. With the exception of Calla, no one made the effort to see past my prickly exterior, never made the effort to really getto know me.

But in just a few words, Gray proved he knew me better than anyone else. And to see he not only noticed it but appreciated me, exactly how I was? It broke the last wall around my heart.

I loved him.

The words rushed out in my mind, as if they couldn’t hold back for another moment. This wasn’t a crush. This wasn’t a weak moment. I was irrevocably in love with my best friend. That was why I could never say it to Wade, why it felt like a kick in the teeth every time I saw him with Calla.

I was head over heels in love with Grayson Anders.

There the words were, right on the tip of my tongue, practically begging me to tell him. But before I could let my emotions get the best of me, Gray’s phone rang. He searched my expression, as if waiting for me to say something. But once I dropped my eyes, he let me go and stepped away.

He clenched his jaw as he looked at the screen. “It’s Calla. I promised her I’d give her a ride home.”

That poured icy water through my racing heart.

While I might have been in love with Gray, he wasn’t mine to love. He was with someone—my sister, of all people. I’d spent my life trying to protect my little sister. I refused to be the cause of any of her pain.

No. I couldn’t tell Gray, not when my feelings could destroy not only our friendship, but also my relationship with Calla.

As Gray started to say something, I jumped off the log and started walking back toward town. I wrapped my arms around my middle, trying to push down the nausea rushing through me. “You should go.”

“No,” Gray insisted as he chased me further down thebeach. “I’m not leaving you here by yourself. It’s late, it’s dark. I can give you a ride home too.”

“It’s fine,” I said, keeping my back to him. “I’m not ready to call it a night, and I want to walk. Besides, you know nothing ever happens in this town. I’ll be safe, I promise.”

He grabbed my hand, the touch electrifying. Sparks traveled through my veins, igniting me like never before. I’d spent months with Wade, and it had never been like this, like a simple touch had the power to consume me.

But he wasn’t mine to claim.

Reluctantly, I released his hand, swallowing down the pain with each step. “I mean it, Gray. I promise, I’m okay. You really should go and make sure Calla gets home okay.”

Gray stood there, still staring at his open palm.

“Devyn, I?—”

I held up my hand, cutting him off. No matter what Gray wanted to say right now, it had to wait. “Go. I know the way from here.” He stared at me for a long moment, as if trying to read the lie in my words. But I blocked them before iron-enforced walls, refusing to let him see how much this was killing me. “I promise, I’ll be safe. If anything happens, you’ll be my first call.”

“Promise me, Devy.”

“I promise, Grayson.” I tilted my head toward his truck. “Go.”

With a long sigh, Gray eventually nodded, walking up the rocky shore toward his truck. It hurt to watch him walk away, worse than when Wade broke up with me. Maybe I was a bit of a masochist, though, because before Gray could climb into the driver’s seat, I called out to him. “Hey, Gray?” He paused and looked back at me. “Thank you. Notonly for being here, but for what you said. It…it means a lot to me.”

He smiled, and I could feel it all the way down to my toes. “Always, Ace.”

THIRTEEN

Gray’s truck ambled down Main Street, and I stared out the window, continuing to pout about being forced into this drive. Okay, maybe forced was too strong of a word, but given the harsh look Gray gave me when I tried to head back inside, it felt like I really didn’t have a choice in the matter.

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