This Time Around

<p>Blake-</p><p>I thought I was done with love. One night with the wrong guy was all it took to unravel me-proof that I'm not as tough as I seem. So I swore off men convinced I needed to work on myself. Heal myself. But life has a twisted sense of humor. Just when I settle on solitude I crash-literally-into Luke.</p><p>My best friend's older brother. The one I've always wanted but never let myself peruse. He's everything I told myself was off-limits: older accomplished heartbreakingly unattainable. And worse-he sees right through me. Every time I try to keep my distance he looks at me like I'm the one thing he's been waiting for.</p><p>But crossing that line could cost me everything. Even if not crossing it is already tearing me apart.</p><p></p><p>Luke-</p><p>I didn't spend years pining after Blake. That's not how it happened.</p><p>Back then she was just my sister's best friend. A little wild always around always laughing too loud. I had a wife a life I thought made sense.</p><p>Quietly slowlymy marriage was crumbling around me; over long before I admitted it out loud. And somewhere in that silence there she was-Blake. Not trying. Not even looking at me that way. Just... being her.</p><p>And suddenly I couldn't stop seeing her.</p><p>It wasn't some big romantic moment. It was a tangle of small ones.</p><p>Now five years later she's here. Still trying to pretend we're just friends. Still keeping me at arm's length. But I've already lived through loving the wrong person. I know what that feels like.</p><p>This-what's between us-it's the first thing that's felt real in a long time.</p><p>And I'm not walking away from it.</p><p></p>