Confusion- seeing my best friend romantically

So I’ve had a weird month, 4 weeks after my breakup my best mate confessed to me that he fancied me and has done for a while but he’s just got out of a relationship himself.
I said I would be option to exploring but taking it slow so we had been taking for a while before meeting up.
I met his family and we had our first kiss and was touchy feely with each other after a few drinks but it felt natural.
The day after he begins to act different and I notice and ask what’s wrong he says he not acting different intentionally he’s just tired. The day after he’s still acting weird and no kisses at the end of his texts. I immediately think he regrets everything so I text him and he replied with im trying to process everything and what’s happening so I ask that we need to have space. I’m just so confused