Page 25 of Craving the Mountain Man
"You serious about her?" Dylan asks, and this time there's no mistaking the edge in his voice.
It's not a casual question.
It'sthequestion.
The one that will determine whether I'm about to lose my best friend along with everything else that matters to me.
I know whatever I say next is going to shape the rest of this thing, this life I've started to build with his sister.
I wipe my hands on a rag, buying time, trying to find words for feelings I've never had to articulate before.
"I didn't plan on this," I say quietly, meeting his eyes. "I didn't think she'd show up looking the way she does, talking the way she does, turning everything in me upside down."
Dylan doesn't flinch. Just waits. It's always been his way, to give people enough rope to either hang themselves or climb to safety.
"But I'm not screwing around with her," I continue, the words coming easier now. "I wouldn't risk our friendship if I didn't mean it and I wouldn't risk hurting her if this was just temporary."
"You love her?" he asks, voice calm but tight.
Love.
I haven't said it out loud. Not even to myself, not really. I've danced around it, called it other things, like want or need. But Dylan's cutting straight through the bullshit and demanding me to be honest with him.
The truth is, it's been there, growing beneath my ribs for days now. Taking up space in my chest until there's no room left for anything else.
So I nod.
"Yeah," I say hoarsely. "I do."
He exhales hard through his nose, dragging a hand over his jaw. For a moment, he looks exactly like he did at seventeen.
Then he nods.
"Good."
That stuns me.
Of all the reactions I was expecting, anger, demands or even threats, acceptance wasn't on the list.
He shrugs, reading my expression. "I know you, Mills. You're stubborn as hell, but you don't do anything halfway. If you say you love her, you mean it. And I can live with that."
Then he steps closer, and his face hardens just a notch. This is the Dylan who built a successful consulting business from nothing, who can read people like books and isn't afraid to call them on their shit.
"You hurt her, though?" he says, jabbing me in the chest with his pointer finger. "You pull away or freeze her out or make her feel like less than she is? I will take your damn jaw off. Best friend or not."
The threat is delivered. This is a man who will destroy me without hesitation if I break his sister's heart.
And I respect the hell out of him for it.
I meet his eyes, letting him see the truth there. "If I ever hurt her, you won't have to."
Because it's true. Losing Cassidy would destroy me in ways Dylan never could.
Dylan studies my face for a long moment, then nods. The tension in his shoulders eases slightly.
"Then do the hard part, man. Tell her.” He claps a hand on my shoulder, the gesture carrying the weight of forgiveness and blessing and warning all at once. "She deserves someone who chooses her."
***
