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Chapter 30: Things Left Unsaid
publish date:
2026-10-05 13:55:10
Latest chapter
Falling For My Father's Best Friend Chapter 43: Only You
Noel waited until Friday night, when Benjamin had gone to a dinner with old colleagues and Gabriel's house was quiet around them. He had rehearsed the question on the drive over and decided the best approach was to sound mildly curious, the way someone might ask about a traffic delay. He was leaning against the kitchen counter with a glass of water when he said it."Did Priya ever finish that Hendricks memo? She seemed off after the strategy meeting yesterday."Gabriel, who was slicing a lemon at the other end of the counter, did not look up right away. "She finished it this morning.""Good. I just noticed she left in a hurry.""She asked me to dinner," Gabriel said, in the tone he might have used to report a filing deadline. "I told her no.""Oh." Noel turned the glass a quarter turn on the counter. "That's a pretty direct thing to do at work.""It was.""Was she okay about it?""She said she understood." Gabriel set down the knife and finally looked at him, and something in his expr
Falling For My Father's Best Friend Chapter 42: An Opening for Someone Else
Benjamin was emptying the dishwasher when he started counting on his fingers. "That's four dinners this week," he said, pointing a plate at Gabriel. "You have a perfectly good house across town, you know."Gabriel looked up from the glass of water he had been holding for several minutes without drinking. "I like your cooking.""You like my wine." Benjamin slid the plate into the cupboard and laughed at his own joke. "You might as well move in properly. Take the guest room, save yourself the gas. You've been eating at this table since before Noel could hold a fork, so it's not like anyone would notice the difference."Noel sat at the kitchen table with his laptop open to a brief he had read the same paragraph of three times. He opened his mouth to say something easy and found that nothing easy was within reach. What came out was a laugh that arrived a second late and sounded like it belonged to someone else."You'd regret it within a week," Gabriel said. "I'd have you on a chore chart
Falling For My Father's Best Friend Chapter 41: Walking on Eggshells
POV: Noel (Third Person)Benjamin was frying eggs when Noel came down the next morning, humming to himself, clearly delighted to be standing in his own kitchen again."Sit," Benjamin said. "I'm making enough for three. Gabriel's coming by later, so I figured I'd practice.""Don't make them dry," Noel said, sliding onto a stool. "He'll defend them anyway, but..."He stopped. The rest of the sentence was already formed, a joke about Gabriel's eggs and the argument they'd had over them more than once, an argument that belonged to a kitchen on the other side of town."But what?" Benjamin asked, glancing back."Just don't overcook them," Noel said. "I like them soft.""Soft it is."Benjamin turned back to the pan, and nothing in his face had changed. Noel picked up his coffee and held on to it a little too hard. He had not lied. He had only swapped one sentence for another. But the swap had cost him something, a small flash of effort he could feel in his shoulders, and the day had barely s
Falling For My Father's Best Friend Chapter 40: The Secret Between Them
POV: NoelBenjamin's car pulled into the driveway a little after noon, and Noel was at the front door before the engine had finished cutting off.His father climbed out looking rumpled and tired and entirely pleased with himself, a garment bag over one arm and a suitcase that had clearly lost an argument with the airline dragging behind him."There he is," Benjamin said, dropping everything on the porch to pull Noel into a hug. "Let me look at you. Still in one piece.""Gabriel kept me fed. Mostly.""Mostly?" Benjamin laughed and clapped him on the back. "Help me with this bag and I'll tell you about the hotel that lost my reservation twice."Noel carried the suitcase inside, and Benjamin talked the whole way through the hallway and into the kitchen. The hotel. The opposing counsel who had apparently brought his own chair to every meeting. The flight home that had been delayed so long he'd eaten dinner at the gate. Noel laughed in the right places, and a lot of the laughter was real.
Falling For My Father's Best Friend Chapter 39: Before He Comes Home
POV: Third PersonBenjamin's voice on the phone sounded lighter than it had in weeks."Good news," he said. "Case is finally wrapping up. I should be home in a few days.""That's great, Dad." Noel meant it, the relief in Benjamin's voice easy to catch and reflect back. "Glad you're almost done.""You surviving over there? Gabriel treating you alright?""I'm perfectly fine. You'll see for yourself soon enough.""Good. Can't wait to be home." Benjamin's voice carried real warmth, and Noel felt a small pang of guilt threading through his own happiness, everything he wasn't saying folded quietly beneath the ordinary conversation.They said their goodbyes, and Noel set the phone down, staring at nothing for a moment.◊◊Gabriel found him like that a minute later. "What happened?""My dad's coming home. A few days."Gabriel went quiet, something careful settling over his expression. Noel knew him well enough now to read it, the small shift that meant Gabriel was processing something he didn
Falling For My Father's Best Friend Chapter 38: A Rhythm of Their Own
POV: Third PersonIt wasn't an accident anymore.That was the thing Noel kept noticing, the days after their conversation in the kitchen. The tension still built the same way, in glances across the table, in the careful attention Gabriel paid him through the ordinary parts of the evening. But now, before anything happened, Gabriel checked in. Plainly, without making it feel like paperwork."You still good with this?" Gabriel asked one evening, close enough that Noel could feel the question in his chest as much as hear it."Yeah.""You'd tell me if that changed.""I would." Noel meant it, and something in him settled just from saying it out loud, from knowing exactly where they both stood before anything else happened.◊◊He found, over the following days, that the certainty of it mattered more than he expected.Gabriel established small, simple expectations before their private time together, nothing elaborate, just enough that Noel knew the shape of what was coming. There was somethi
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