rowdenhghs
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- Parts 21
"If you feel it too... then maybe we were never just friends."
Luke Hughes has never come home without Bailey Parker waiting.
Michigan summers were always the same. Luke, Jack, and Quinn flying back the moment the season ended. Lake days. Late nights. Inside jokes that never faded. And Bailey-his childhood best friend-right there in the middle of it all, like she belonged.
Because she did.
Bailey has always been his.
Not in the romantic way. Not in the way that complicates things.
Just... his best friend. His constant. His safe place.
But this summer?
This summer is different.
Luke is older. The NHL is real. And Bailey isn't just the girl who knows him better than anyone anymore-she's the girl he looks at and has to look away from. The girl whose laugh lingers. The girl he's not supposed to fall for.
They don't talk about it.
They can't.
Because one confession could ruin everything they've built since childhood. Because loving each other means risking the one thing they've never lost.
And yet, every stolen glance, every late-night conversation, every almost-touch asks the same dangerous question:
What if staying silent hurts more than telling the truth?