childhood friend has feelings for me?

TL;DR – Friend from childhood has feelings for me, and I'm developing them too, but I'm not completely over my last guy. Everything is telling me that this is right, but I can't tell if my feelings are confirmed or not. Should I give it time until I even make this decision since it's so early? Any advice?

My childhood friend of 14 years (we'll call him Ben) admitted he has had feelings for me since we were kids. After seeing him again, I felt myself develop a crush on him… Anyway, I guess he finally got the balls to make a move so we've been texting the past couple days and have spoken on the phone. It went really well, and it's so easy to talk to him since we've known each other for over a decade. He slightly flirts with me, but for the most part, its friendly conversation. Another thing, he's in the military and has leave in a couple months, which is a good thing! (Despite covid lol).

But my problem is, I don't think I'm completely over the guy I was seeing before Ben. Not that Ben and I are "talking" (hate that term), but I do feel a connection with him. My thought process is that since he won't even be home for months, it gives me time to sort out my feelings about the past guy because Ben is smart enough to know a relationship can't start when he's across the country and we only talk on the phone. It's just nice right now to get to know each other again. From what i've heard from one of our mutual friends, Ben really likes me and doesn't want to "screw things up."

Although I do feel myself developing feelings for Ben, I don't want to hurt him just because I'm not completely over my past guy.

Something that comforts me is that this is ~exactly~ how my parents met. Childhood friends, my dad had a huge crush on my mom, but they didn't get together til they were almost done with college. Everything seems to be pointing in the right direction towards Ben, but I just can't confirm my feelings about him yet. I know its early, and I should probably wait a little while before I make a decision on this, but… yeah.

Any advice on what to do or if anyone has gone through this before?