Chapter 27

I have always teased him about being hot for Jake as a prepubescent teen, always joked I had seen the error of my ways and fallen madly in lust with Arrick when I met him. Not that any of it is true, and he knows that as well as I do. It was just some stupid game we played, another way to tease each other mercilessly, another tick to our barrage of ‘in-jokes.’

Arrick doesn’t need to know that I did, in fact, have the worst kind of teen crush on him when I first got to know him years ago and that Jake never even got a look in. To me, Jake has always been Emma’s. From the minute I met them, I’d seen how they were made for each other, crazy in love and afraid to see it. Despite how hot most of the Carrero men in his family seem to be, Arrick was the one who gave me butterflies. Then he became my best friend, and the butterflies developed into something different. He became my dependency.

“Sorry, dude, but you know black hair and green eyes are a hot combo.” I wink as I hold