All Chapters of Falling For My Father's Best Friend: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Noel found Benjamin in the study, going through paperwork with the kind of concentration that meant he didn't want to be interrupted. Noel interrupted him anyway."Who's Adrienne?"Benjamin looked up, and for a half second something flickered across his face before he smoothed it over. "Where did you hear that name?""Doesn't matter where. I'm asking you." Noel stayed in the doorway, arms crossed, not moving further into the room. "You knew her. Mom knew her. Nobody's ever mentioned her existence to me, not once in twenty two years.""Noel, it was a long time ago. People your mother knew back then don't have anything to do with you.""That's not an answer."Benjamin set down his pen. "What do you want me to say?""I want you to stop doing this." Noel's voice stayed level, but there was an edge under it now that hadn't been there before. "Every single time I bring her up, you change the subject, or you give me half a sentence and then find something else to talk about. I'm done with th

POV: Noel LaurentNoel didn't remember deciding to go to Julian's. He just found himself outside the apartment door, his knuckles already raised to knock before he'd thought it through.Julian opened the door, took one look at him, and stepped aside without a word.Noel appreciated that more than he could have said. Nobody asked him what was wrong. Nobody demanded he explain himself before he was allowed inside."You want water, or something stronger?" Julian asked, closing the door behind him."I don't know." Noel sat down heavily on the couch. "I don't know what I want.""That's fine too."Julian didn't push. He got Noel a glass of water anyway and set it on the table without comment, then sat down a careful distance away, close enough to be present, far enough that Noel didn't feel crowded.The quiet stretched out between them, and for once it didn't feel like something Noel needed to fill.◊◊Eventually, without quite meaning to, Noel started talking."My mom's alive," he said. "S

Julian's question followed Noel around for days.Are you here because you want to be, or because it's easier than being anywhere else.He turned it over while he worked, while he lay awake, while he tried and failed to focus on anything that wasn't his own tangled head. He didn't have a clean answer. He knew that not having one was, in itself, an answer Julian deserved to hear.When Noel went back to the gym, the change was immediate and unmistakable. Julian greeted him the same as always, friendly, polite, nothing cruel in it, but something had gone careful between them that hadn't been there before. The teasing that used to come easily now arrived a beat late, a little forced, like both of them were reaching for something that had quietly slipped out of reach.Noel tried a joke about his form on the bench press. Julian laughed, but it wasn't the same laugh. It was the laugh of someone being polite, not someone who was actually enjoying himself.Noel felt the absence of their old eas

"Towels are in the hall closet," Gabriel said, gesturing toward the door across from the guest room. "Extra blankets are in the chest at the foot of the bed if you get cold. Bathroom's just through there.""Gabriel. I've stayed here before.""I know." He paused, as if recalibrating. "Just want to make sure you have everything you need."Noel almost laughed at the formality of it, Gabriel narrating the house like a hotel concierge instead of someone who used to let himself into this kitchen without knocking. He kept the observation to himself. Neither of them seemed willing to risk a joke landing wrong tonight."I can take your bag," Gabriel offered."I've got it.""Right." Gabriel lingered in the doorway a moment longer than necessary. "Let me know if you need anything.""Yeah. Thanks."Gabriel left, and Noel stood alone in the middle of the guest room, listening to his footsteps fade down the hall, wondering how two people who used to talk easily about nothing at all had somehow run

Benjamin's call came in the middle of the afternoon, while Noel was stretched out on the living room couch pretending to read something on his phone."How's it going over there?" Benjamin's voice carried the familiar, easy cadence of someone checking a box rather than genuinely worrying. "Gabriel treating you alright?""He's fine. I'm fine. Nobody's burned the house down.""That's reassuring, considering your track record with the stove.""That was one time."Benjamin laughed. "You behaving yourself?""I'm twenty two, Dad, not fourteen.""Doesn't mean you're not a menace." There was warmth in it, the kind of teasing that had always come easily between them. "He keeping you fed?""Surprisingly well, actually.""Good. Tell him I said thanks for putting up with you.""Will do," Noel said, and the conversation wound down naturally after that, Benjamin mentioning something about his flight back being pushed another few days, Noel saying that was fine, take your time, and then it was over,