Difficult Situation! What do I do?

Ok so my friend has been crushing on this guy for a bit of time now but he doesn’t seem to be very interested. He’s an extremely nice guy, maybe a bit too nice so he’s said to her that he likes her but doesn’t want to be in a relationship. That’s the backstory between them. We’re all in the same friend group so me and him hang out a lot and I’ve noticed that I definitely view him as more than just a friend. I’m always extra excited when he’s around and I always make sure he’s invited to the plans we’re making. Last night we all hung out and in the car he was sitting behind me and my arms were rested on my head and he took them and held them for the entire car ride which was like an hour. He was like caressing them with his fingers. My friend was sitting right next to me and I felt really bad but I couldn’t let go of his hand. Then we started texting in the car and he said stuff like how he just wanted to be with me right now. I’m not sure if he just said all that to be nice because he didn’t wanna hurt my feelings because that’s what he did with my friend but I asked him to just be honest with me because I’ve had men lie to me in the past and that sucks more and he responded that he was being honest and it’s the truth. I’m still a little skeptical but the main problem is that say we do like each other, I know it can’t work because of my friend. I know I can just talk to her but I feel like that will change our friendship and I’m not the type of person to let a boy get in between but at the same time I can’t help the way I feel.