Jacob had felt like lesser before, in the face of Evie, whose shadow he'd not been able to step out of at home. It had led to him doing a lot of crazy, dangerous things to get the attention he had craved then. If he couldn't get it in a good way, he'd settled for the bad way then, even if he hadn't really learned it at the time. Jack had been the one who taught him about negative attention and how sometimes someone would settle for it.
Jacob's heart squeezed a little as Roman said the words. He'd been there. For a second, it was 1868 again, and he was standing over the body of the first bloke he'd had a major attraction to, body and spirit, as opposed to just the body, and knowing he could never tell anyone about it for how they would react, not even Evie.
He reached over at the words, settling a hand on Roman's shoulder and squeezing, just hard enough so his presence was clearly felt.
"THAT is not at all stupid. And the fact you trusted me with it's huge. It's also brave. I couldn't tell anyone, for ages about being into both. I was too scared and unsure. Doesn't mean people have to say things, but...I'm sort of...honored you felt comfortable enough to say it."
A part of him also wondered how much more obvious Roman could have been, but...