Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2)(76)

I loved it.

I loved him.

And then I froze where I sat.

Oh my God…I loved him.

But how could I not? He was the most lovable man alive. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in Jacob’s life who didn’t love him.

But I loved, loved him. Not in a friendship way. Not in an admiration way. In an if-you-weren’t-in-love-with-someone-else, I’d-take-achance-on-you way. An I’d-give-you-everything way.

But he was in love with someone else. And just yesterday they’d been whisper-fighting in a room full of taxidermy animals, and she’d left her lipstick on his collar and her perfume on his shirt. She’d sent him home shaken and sad because she still had the power over him to do that.

So I should just stop thinking about it. Because me loving him didn’t matter as long as he loved her.

I handed him his phone back. “Here.”

He gave me my phone back too. “I have to know, did you go with the DivaCup?”

“Ha. Do you wish we would have stuck with the mullet questions?”

He shook his head. “No. I like your super invasive, completely inappropriate get-to-know-you activities.”

I laughed a little.

He held my gaze. “Anything you want to know about me, you just ask me.”

Will you go back to Amy when the time comes?

Do you have any sort of feelings for me at all?

If you could love me back, would you never hurt me or leave me?

If we were pregnant, would you Google it?

I smiled at him for a long moment and his eyes flickered again to my lips.

“Hey,” he said, talking to my mouth.

“Yeah?” I said, talking to his.

“Do you want some bourbon?”

I looked up. “You have bourbon?”

“Yeah. I brought it for Daniel and Alexis, but then I saw she was pregnant and I started second-guessing if it was inconsiderate to give it to her, so I kept it. We could open it.”

“You don’t drink, though.”

“I drink. I just don’t drink when my anxiety is high.”

“We’re in a house-hostage situation—it’s not high now?”

He shook his head. “No.”

A grin spread across my face. Then we both hopped out of the bed at the same time.





Chapter 32

Jacob



We were sitting on the floor in front of the fire with our backs against the hope chest at the end of the bed. It had been an hour since I’d procured the bourbon from my duffel bag, and Briana was very, very drunk.

We were playing a drinking game with a deck of cards we found in the nightstand. We had to fling one into the fireplace, and if we missed, we had to take a drink. The score was one to four, not in her favor.

She was leaning into my shoulder and I pried the bottle out of her hands. “I think we’re done with this,” I said, putting on the top and setting it next to me.

“I wish we had Cheez-Its.” Her retainer made her lisp.

I chuckled a little and she lolled her head to look up at me. “Don’t laugh at me. With your…your perfectly symmetrical face and your nice teeth and the puppy-dog thing.”

I smiled. I didn’t know what she meant about the puppy-dog thing, but I’d take the teeth and symmetrical face any day.

I had never been so happy to be trapped in a room.

She was wearing my shirt. It would smell like her when I got it back. I couldn’t wait. It was a little short, though, and I kept getting glimpses of things I probably shouldn’t be seeing. I was happy about this too, but also knew she was too buzzed for modesty, so I’d pulled the blanket off the bed and wrapped her in it.

She hiccupped.

“Do you need to throw up?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I never throw up. Ever.”

“Ever?”

“Nope. Not even norovirus can take me down. I have a cat—a cat iron—a cast-iron stomach—have you ever heard of the two beers and a puppy litmus test?”

I shook my head, smiling at her. “No.”

She rubbed her nose. “You ask yourself would you have two beers with this person and let them watch your puppy for a weekend? Some people are a yes/yes. Some are a no/no. My ex was a yes/no. He was fun to be around, but I couldn’t rely on him.”

“Amy was a no/yes. She was reliable but she wore me out.”

“I’ve been thinking that for me you’re a yes/yes,” she said. It came out “yeth/yeth.”

I smiled at her gently. “You’re a yes/yes for me too.”

“Good. Because I want to tell you something. Because I think you should know what kind of person I am, you know? Like, what I’m capable of?”

“Okay…”

“You might not like me after.”

I gave her an amused look. “I’m sure I will like you.”

She shook her head. “No. This is really bad. Like, it’s so bad. It’s about what I did to Nick. When I found out.”

I peered down at her. She looked so serious I pivoted to face her. “Tell me.”

She looked at me a moment like maybe she was reconsidering. Then she leaned over my lap and grabbed the bourbon, pulled the top off, took a swig, and set it back down.