I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 46
Cole staggered beneath Ryan’s punch but did not retaliate. He had imagined this confrontation too many times to mistake anger for a fight he should win.
Kaitlyn stepped between them and told Ryan to stop. Her brother ordered her to stay out of it, as though the conflict belonged solely to the two men.
Cole warned him not to speak to her that way. Even facing the loss of his best friend, he would not allow Kaitlyn to be dismissed.
Ryan stared at him in disbelief. The Sinclair family had practically raised Cole. Ryan had asked him to keep Kaitlyn safe for one semester, and Cole had slept with her.
The accusation reduced their relationship to betrayal and sex. Kaitlyn insisted Cole had kept her safe, repeatedly and at real cost.
Ryan asked how Cole could do this to him. He could date anyone on campus, yet he chose the one woman Ryan considered off-limits.
The phrasing angered Kaitlyn. She had not been chosen from a list to injure her brother. She had loved Cole before either man acknowledged she was old enough to choose.
Ryan suggested Amber’s warnings about Cole might be true. The insult finally provoked him, though he still refused to strike back.
Cole told Ryan he did not understand. Ryan rejected the familiar address of brother and declared their friendship over.
He ordered Cole to stay away from the Sinclair family permanently. The command struck directly at the childhood fear Cole had revealed during their game.
For a moment, silence threatened to make obedience inevitable. Losing Ryan meant losing the only family Cole had known.
Then he looked at Kaitlyn. Her face held fear that he would choose safety again. Cole understood there could be no more hiding.
He told Ryan he could not stay away from her. The answer intensified his friend’s fury.
Ryan demanded to know why. If lust had caused the betrayal, distance should be possible. Cole’s response came from deeper than defense.
“Because I love her.” The words silenced the bathroom, the hallway, and the watching party guests.
Ryan asked again as if he had misheard. Cole repeated the declaration without lowering his eyes.
Then he turned to Kaitlyn. He told her he loved her and apologized for every time fear made him hide his feelings.
He promised he would never conceal them again. The admission was not designed to defeat Ryan; it was the truth Cole had intended to speak before the party.
Kaitlyn’s anger dissolved beneath relief. She told him she loved him too. For the first time, the words belonged to both of them in daylight.
Ryan stared between his best friend and sister, forced to confront a possibility he had never considered: this was not betrayal disguised as romance. They were genuinely in love.