Everything to Lose

You’ve heard the story about the best friends since childhood, the boy and girl who secretly love each other but are too scared to admit it, right?

Well, have you heard the one where the twin brother of the boy steps in and kisses the girl to make his brother jealous?
No?

Then let me enlighten you.

Wyatt Gibson has been my best friend since we were in diapers, and I’ve loved him since we were ten.

But when Wyatt left for college and I stayed back in our hometown of Newberry Springs, Texas, I gave up on the idea of us ever ending up together, even though he kissed me the night before he left.

Flashforward eight years and now I’m helping him run his business as I dance around the fact that I’m hopelessly in love with him and probably always will be.

But giving in to those feelings means risking everything dear to me in my life—his family, which is very much my own, and a lifelong friendship that I cherish more than wondering what it would be like to be his in every way.

Life was normal until Wyatt’s twin brother, Walker, decided he was tired of us tiptoeing around each other, and devised a plan to make Wyatt admit his feelings as well.

So he kissed me.

And even though I knew it would hurt Wyatt, it felt good to play with fire—to go against the safe boundaries that I’ve lived my life within out of fear of everything changing.

But everything did change.

Everything became hazy and dangerous all at once.

And suddenly, I went from having everything…to having everything to lose.