Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)(37)

I shook my head. “I know you don’t want anyone to know. And I won’t tell anyone. Not even Benny. But I have to know, for myself, if it’s you. Please. Is it you?” My voice cracked on the last word.

He peered at me quietly. The moment stretched a thousand years.

I tried to read his expression, tried to glean the answer from the tic in his jaw or the resigned set of his eyebrows, the searching in his kind brown eyes. I had to know, I had to know.

I watched his lips part and then he said it: “Yes.”

I threw myself at him.





Chapter 17

Jacob



She dove at me.

I caught her and staggered back a few feet before I regained my balance.

She hugged me like I’ve never been hugged in my life. It was like she was collapsing at the end of a finish line.

“Thank you,” she sobbed. “Thank you thank you thank you.”

“I…it’s okay,” I said. “I wanted to.”

She wept into my neck, and my instinct was to wrap her in my arms and comfort her, even though I knew these weren’t sad tears. And when I folded them around her, she clutched me tighter and everything I was going to do, the organ donation, the surgery, the recovery, was worth it for this one moment alone.

I’d thought that any show of gratitude would make me uncomfortable. But for some reason I didn’t mind it now that it was happening, and I think it was because it was happening with her.

I liked her.

And I liked making her happy and I liked seeing her this way and I liked this hug.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t been hugged—really, really hugged—since Amy. And even then, I couldn’t remember the last time we’d held each other in any way that felt like this. She’d been so frustrated with me and I’d felt so distant from her, the intimacy had ended long before the relationship did.

I’d been deprived of this basic human contact and now that I had it again, I realized how much I needed it. As I breathed out, Briana filled in the space and I just felt…still. Calm. Grounded.

“I wasn’t even nice to you,” she whispered into my neck.

“You’re nice to me,” I said quietly.

She pulled away and peered up at me with wet eyes, her chin quivering. “Jacob, how can I ever thank you for this? There are no words.”

I dug in my pocket and handed her a tissue from the pack I always carried.

She took it and dabbed under her lashes. “Thank you.”

She was calming down a little. Catching her breath.

I studied her while she regained her composure. So beautiful. Even crying, she was beautiful. I felt like I should look away from her, but I didn’t even know how. I still felt the hug, even though it was over, and it disabled something inside of me again, just the way she did that first day in Benny’s hospital room. I was rendered frozen and speechless and completely at her mercy, and I had to wonder with a touch of awe and amusement if she had bewitched me. If I was under some spell. Because I’d never felt like this before, this compelled to do something for someone I just met, this drawn to anyone.

Maybe she’d started that coven after all.

She sniffled and looked up at me. “Jacob, you have changed his whole life. Like, I know you know, but you don’t know. My brother is alive again. He’s him again.”

I gave her a soft smile. “Good.” Then I tilted my head. “How did you find out?” I asked.

She wiped under her eyes. “Gibson. I think he slipped.”

I nodded. “Ah.”

I guess that was a fair mistake. He didn’t know I was donating anonymously. I hadn’t even seen him yet today.

We’d managed to keep this under wraps for an entire twelve hours.

“I would really appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone else,” I said.

She shook her head. “I won’t. I promise you I won’t. Are you mad at him for telling me?”

I slipped my hands into my pockets. “No. It was an honest mistake.”

“You should text him and tell him. He’s probably freaking out.” She sniffed.

I nodded. “Okay.”

She gazed into my eyes. “Do you know what today is, Jacob?” she asked, peering up at me. “It’s the day my divorce is final. I don’t know if you knew that, that I was married?”

“You had a wedding ring in some of your pictures.”

She nodded, looking down at the tissue in her hands. “I didn’t think that there was anything that could have made today okay.” Her eyes came back up to mine. “But then this happened.” She smiled up at me, blinking through tears. “This is one of the best days of my life, on one of the worst days of my life. And all I’m going to remember when I think about it is you and what you’ve done. Thank you so much.” She choked on the last word.

I didn’t know what to say. So I didn’t say anything at all.

Silence was always my default response. Sometimes things are easier to understand when unsaid. Sometimes words complicate things and make them murky. This moment didn’t need them.

We just stood there. Me with my hands in my pockets and her dabbing at her eyes, gratitude coming off her in waves.

For so long I’d wanted this kind of admiration from Amy—and even this wasn’t really real. Briana was just grateful and excited, and it would wear off. But it felt good anyway.