All Chapters of In Love With My Son's Best Friend: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

FRANKLIN’S POVThe king-size bed felt too big, almost cold on my side even with Sarah right there. She was out cold, breathing slow and even, that little half-smile still on her mouth like she was dreaming something good. I lay on my back staring up at that fancy ceiling, all the swirls and gold trim, and it was like the air itself was heavy. Nineteen years. It sat on my chest and squeezed.This wasn’t the trip I’d told June about. Henderson account my ass. I was twenty minutes from my own house, hiding in this ridiculous suite with my wife’s best friend who also happened to be my other family.God, I hated how that sounded now, even in my own head. It had started so small. Just a way to breathe when June was pregnant with Marlene and Adrian wouldn’t stop crying and everything felt beige. Sarah got it. We were adults. We had rules. Then the rules grew a person. My daughter, Olivia.She is fifteen years old, sharp as hell, with my mother’s stubborn chin. June still thought she was the

FRANKLIN POVI didn’t let her catch her breath. I just grabbed a fistful of that dark hair and yanked her head back until her neck stretched out long and vulnerable under my mouth. I bit down right there, below her ear, hard enough that her pulse slammed against my tongue, fast and frantic.Salt on her skin, that faint sweet trace of whatever she’d worn last night still clinging, mixing with the heat pouring off her. She made this noise… God, this broken little gasp that turned into a sob, and it hit me low in the gut, made my cock jerk against my zipper.“Frankie,” she managed, my name splitting open like she couldn’t hold it together.I shut her up with my mouth on hers, rough, teeth clashing first, then my tongue pushing in, taking. She tasted like want, like desperation, and her hands were everywhere, clawing at my shoulders, nails digging through the shirt, stinging in a way that felt too damn good. I growled into the kiss. I couldn’t help it. That pain… it was the only thing tha

JUNE’S POVI pulled that rose from my hair so fast it hurt a little, the stem catching on a strand before it came free. The petals were soft, too soft, like they were mocking me. My scalp still remembered his fingers, the way they had lingered just a second longer than they should have. I stood there in the hallway holding it, feeling stupid and furious and something else I did not want to name. This had to end. Right now. Before I did something I could not take back.I went looking for him without thinking it through, my feet moving on their own. He was out back, of course. Always the porch when he needed to breathe. The night air hit me as I stepped outside, cool enough to raise goosebumps on my arms, but it did not touch the heat under my skin. I let the screen door slap shut behind me, louder than I meant to."Luca."He did not turn right away. He just said my name, quiet. "June."I walked over, the rose crushed in my fist now. "This." My voice came out rough. I held it up between

LUCA’S POVIt pissed me off. My grip on the basketball tightened until my knuckles ached. She was not fighting it. She was not even feeling torn. She was just accepting me as if I were part of the furniture. The fun friend for her son. The cute and harmless flirt for her daughter. She was putting me in a neat little box labeled not a threat and sealing it shut.That casual wink I gave Marlene suddenly felt sickening. I was not getting under June’s skin. I was playing right into her new story. I was helping her forget all about us.Adrian bounced the ball, oblivious. “Another game? Or are you too tired from all that flirting?”“Shut up, man.” The words came out harsher than I meant them to. I snatched the ball from him. “Let’s play. And this time, try not to lose.”I drove to the hoop with a violence that had nothing to do with the game. The net snapped like a punch. I was playing against a ghost now, against the memory of her serene and forgiving smile in the window. And for the first

JUNE’S POVGod, I could not get the images out of my head. Luca’s cold, challenging stare was burned onto the back of my eyelids. Then it would switch, right there behind my eyes, to Marlene’s hopeful little face, and then the crushed look that followed. My own kitchen started to feel like a cage. The air was thick, you know. Thick with the smell of Franklin’s pathetic failure and my daughter’s innocent heartbreak. I just had to get out.Without even really thinking, I grabbed my keys and my purse."Just running to the store," I called out. My voice was way too chirpy for the hollow quiet of the house. I did not wait for an answer. I did not look to see if Franklin was still wheezing in the den or if Luca was watching me from some shadow. I just fled.The slam of the car door was the best sound I had heard all day. My own space. My own noise. I started the engine and just drove. I did not have a list. I did not need milk or bread. I just needed to be gone.My hands were tight on the w