I’m not giving up on you as a friend, either. I’m not looking for someone special right now—nobody deserves my kind of baggage—but I’ll respect your request for the future. Regardless of what it brings, though, I will always need what our friendship has given me. You are, and always will be, the first man I ever loved, but beyond that, you are also the best friend I have ever had. That value is too precious to throw away.
I’ll just put it up on a shelf for the time being.
Yours,
Randy
* * * *
Sighing, Tate rubbed his tired eyes. It all sounded like a rationalization, that Randy had spit back at his father what he’d wanted to hear. The kind of love they’d shared, the desperation that had driven them back together…that didn’t just disappear overnight.
Except the next few pieces of corr
