“You don’t need to be sorry, man,” I assure him. “You know we’re here for each other, especially when we’re falling apart.”

“I know, but that’s not what I’m completely sorry for,” he says. When my brows knit in puzzlement, he adds, “I’m sorry for kissing her.”

“Oh.” I press my lips together, unsure of how to reply. On one hand, I don’t want him kissing her for reasons based on my own jealousy. On the other, Jaxon kissing someone is a fucking huge deal, and I don’t want to mess that up for him. “It’s okay.” The words are like sharp fragments of glass on my tongue.

He raises his brows. “You’re okay with me kissing her?”

Shrugging, I step back and sink down onto the edge of my bed. Then I sigh. “Do you want me to be honest right now?”

Jax nods. “Of course I do.”

I chew on my bottom lip. “I want to be okay with you kissing her—I know it’s a huge step for you—but I can also see some complications arising with you two living under the same roof. Plus …” I waver, unsure if I want to say the rest aloud.

“You like her, too,” he finishes for me.

I do.

Tonight, when she let me touch her skin … her lips … I thought about it … about tasting her. But I didn’t because I was trying not to cross that line. That line that I always cross. I didn’t want to do that with Raven.

She deserves better.

She really does.

Sucking in a breath, I nod. “I do, which is so weird because it doesn’t seem like I’ve known her long enough that I should even be able to feel this way toward her.”

“Unless she’s Willow,” he stresses.

“Even then, it’s been over ten years since we’ve seen Willow. She’s a completely different person now.”

“She’s not completely different. She does things that are the same.”

He’s right. Raven does do similar things that Willow did, like hitching her pinkie with Jaxon to comfort him.

“I’ve noticed that, too.” I trace my tongue ring along my teeth as I consider alternatives to this situation. I could just tell Jaxon not to kiss Raven. It feels wrong telling him what to do, though. And I would be a shitty friend to tell him he can’t kiss Raven when he’s struggled with intimate stuff for years. Still, that doesn’t make it any harder for me not to want to kiss her, too.

“I’m sorry for freaking out over this.” I rise to my feet. “I have my shit together now.”

He shakes his head. “I’m not going to let you do that.”

I pull my brows together. “Do what?”

“Put your feelings aside to make sure I’m okay. You’re always doing that.”

“Am not.”

“Are, too.”

I roll my eyes. “Whatever. It doesn’t really matter what I do because, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter unless you can think of an alternative where neither of us have to dismiss our feelings.”