Chapter 42: Chapter 42

Rolf nodded, but made no indication he was moving from where he stood.

Neil nervously looked around, then took another step closer to Rolf. Now that Rolf stood before him, Neil found it hard to look him in the eye. “I’m sorry. I…uh…I should’ve told you about Jordan.”

“Ja,you should have,” Rolf said solemnly.

“He never meant to me what I meant to him,” Neil said, then regretted it as that was the situation Rolf had been in with Hans. The boy had never felt for Rolf what the big man had felt for him. It could have been the very thing Hans himself might have said to Rolf.

Suspecting it would make things worse if he tried to retract the statement, Neil went on. “I had this plan. I thought if Jordan and I were separated, he’d find someone else and move on, and I wouldn’t have to hurt him by telling him myself we weren’t on the same page. It was stupid.”

“Ja, it was.”