I'm In Love With You

Claire blinked at Alex in shock. She had no idea he thought of her as family at all, let alone from that far back! 

She was having a hard time processing any of this. She knew she was his most important person but didn't realize how deep his convictions actually went. Or that they were anything beyond her being the first person to care about him. 

He thought she was special. He included her in his goals for the future now that he had them. She was fairly certain this was the second time he had called her beautiful too. How was she supposed to react to that?

Alex said he wanted to be her family for real but that wasn't possible because no matter how much he loved her, he wasn't in love with her. If he wanted to be her family officially, he would have to marry her but she couldn't put herself through a marriage with a one-sided love. That would hurt even more than his leaving her would.