I exhaled like I’d been underwater for days. Words came out jagged, usable at first. I forced them through my teeth anyway. “We almost kissed.”
Jax made a soft noise—more surprise than anything else. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that. I mean, I know I said it a minute ago, but I was just making s**t up to goad you, man. I didn’t mean it. When did this happen?”
“A month ago.” My throat felt raw. “It was… in the library. She had already decided, she wanted to. She saw the war within me. And then she whispered she couldn’t.” I swallowed. “I felt relief. But I also felt like someone had sucked all the air out of the room.”
“Both can be true,” Jax replied.
I nodded, stared at my hands. The tremor had turned into a small shake. “I told myself I was what she needed. A guardrail. That’s all. Then
