My crush's dad died?

[Anonymous]

So I have had a crush on my dad's best friend's son for the past ten years, we grew up together and some of my best memories are with him and his family. As much as I would love to date the son (my crush) I understand that now may not be the time. But he's been acting super strange around me, especially when he's with his friends. I have suspicions that he likes me. At the funeral I sat in the row across from him and he kept looking at me and when I would look back he would smile and look away. I texted him a couple days after his dad passed, a lengthy message with my condolences, and he replied with a fairly lengthy message thanking me. We hardly ever text though, and I feel like it is on a need to know basis. I feel awkward texting him first (he rarely texts me first) because our text conversations don't last very long. I do not want to come off as clingy or annoying, and the last thing I want to do is tell him that I like him and be rejected and have everything blow up. He doesn't need that right now, and if he doesn't like me back, I will be forced to live with the shame everytime our families see each other. Alternatively, instead of texting him, I was wondering if I should try and see if he wants to do something. We have never hung out just me and him, so I don't want him to feel weird about it, he may even turn me down or not reply if I sent him a message about it. Any thoughts or ideas? I love this kid to death and I would do anything to be with him.

Updates

+1 y

Update: I texted him yesterday saying "Hey, how are you doing?" Because it is an open question rather than just asking if he is okay. He never replied and I feel like shit.

[RasmusAiken]

Right now he's mourning the loss of his dad. Just tell him that when he's ready to talk about losing his dad you are willing to be there for him to listen. Then just wait and give him space.

[Asker]

That's a great idea. That's what I was thinking. But when I texted him after his dad passed, he thanked me and then I sent another message saying if he needed to talk I would be there for him. But no reply. Should I text in a week? Or should I just let it go and see if he texts me sometime? I highly doubt he would, he hardly ever texts first, I can only think of two instances when he did, and it was more like a "need to know" basis type of thing

[RasmusAiken]

Give him maybe another week to ten days and either text or call him to see if he'd like to 'get together just to talk.'

[Dorrky]

I think asking to hang out is a great idea :)

[Asker]

The only problem is we've never hung out just me and him before. Even when I'm at his house with my family he's always downstairs studying or hanging out with his brother. He will come upstairs to get something to drink or whatever and barely glance at me, not say a word and then go back downstairs. I feel like if I ask him to hang out he wouldn't even reply to the message. I've only ever talked over the phone with him once and it was one of those "need to know basis" things. We were going on a trip with our families.

[Dorrky]

I get that, be bold <3 he may not have realized that you would like to become closer to him