Drop Dead Gorgeous(108)

But I will face it head-on now.

I grab his face, bringing him nose to nose with me. “I know.”

That gets me one of those sweet smiles, and he kisses me deeply but gently, careful with my cheek that’s still sore and probably looks a frightful mess. I kiss him back, telling him with my touch what I’ve already known.

He’s a good man. He’s my man, and I’m his.

The tenderness heats, fueled by what we almost lost, until Jacob clears his throat to remind us that he’s here. And we’re in a hospital. Babies are delivered here, not made.

Pulling back reluctantly, Blake whispers against my lips, “I love you, Miss Walker.”

I feel the words as much as I hear them, both resonating into my heart. But . . . “You can’t love me.” Blake growls at my argument, so I quickly finish, “Not yet. We haven’t even been on a proper date yet.”

He laughs, and a second later, I do too, matching his joy. We have time . . . time to date, time to love, time to trust.

“I think I fell in love with you one minute after you tried to kill me with your car. If it wasn’t then, it was when you saved my ass by easily winning our trivia competition wearing the cutest pajama pants I’ve ever seen.” He pauses and hums thoughtfully. “Actually, that might’ve been lust, not love, because those pants are sexy as hell on you.”

“The fuzzy skull ones?” I say with a grin, and he nods, pointedly looking down the lumpy, bumpy expanse of the hospital bed where I’m covered by a thin blanket.

“Still here, guys,” Jacob reminds us again. “Think I’ll head home, though. Seems like you’ve got this covered?”

Blake reluctantly tears his eyes away from me to shake Jacob’s hand. “I’ve got her.”

Jacob smiles at Blake before looking at me, all our history together in his eyes. If anyone knows what it’s like to feel alone in the world, it’s Jacob. “It’s about damn time. She’s wearing me out.”

He doesn’t mean a word of it. We’ve taken care of each other for a long time and would continue to do so without hesitation. But adding Blake to our little circle feels good. It feels right. A puzzle piece we were missing, and for the first time, I’m not worried that something awful is going to happen to him just because he’s important to me.

Jacob opens the door and nearly runs smack into Holly, who’s holding Olive’s hand. “Oh,” she gasps.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. C’mon in, Hols,” Jacob says, suddenly not going anywhere. In fact, he escorts Holly in, giving her an appreciative once-over before taking over with Olive easily. “Hey, Olive, wanna see the new game I got? You try to keep the ice-skating penguins from falling into the icy water. If you’re good, they do pirouettes. If not, they get eaten by seals.” He tickles Olive, mimicking the seals’ chomp-chomp-chomp sounds, and she squeals happily.

Holly smiles warmly at Jacob. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” he says with a shrug as he guides the little girl over to a chair in the corner and shows her the game. He thinks it’s no big deal, but I know that happy smile on Olive’s face means a lot to Holly.

I still think Jacob is way too young for Holly, but maybe that’s because I see him as the teen he was when he came to Grandma and Grandpa’s.

But he hasn’t been that kid in a long time. He’s grown into a fine man, mature well beyond his years—other than the pranks he pulls on me, and Holly would be lucky to have a man who appreciates her the way Jacob does.

“Oh, noooo,” Jacob moans, “not the seals! They’re gonna get you!”

Olive wiggles her butt in the chair, turning the phone one way and the other to get away in the game.

“Whew, that was a seal-iously close one,” Jacob deadpans, and Olive beams happily, celebrating her penguin’s escape.

“You’re silly,” Olive tells Jacob.

“I think you mean seal-y,” he says with a smirk.

Oh, God, Holly is done for. Jacob’s got dad jokes.

Holly looks to me with wide eyes and begs, “Tell me what happened.”

I’m not sure if she means all my shit or how she missed the fact that Jacob’s all grown up.

“I think we’re gonna go to the vending machine, see what snacks we can find to get good and sugared up while you two talk. ’Kay, Holly?” Jacob asks, already holding Olive’s hand and stepping toward the door.

He knows that Olive doesn’t need to hear this story, and when Holly nods, he leads the girl out to the hallway, closing the door softly behind them.

“Short version . . . the dog trainer did it. Killed Richard, poisoned Yvette, kidnapped me, and had Yvette all sorts of messed up because the poison was messing with her mind, making her confused and suggestible. He was telling her all these awful things about the insurance, making them out to be the bad guys, and getting that slimy lawyer for her. Really hyping her up about the whole thing. She really thought he had stepped in to comfort her after Richard’s death and had fallen in love with her,” I finish sadly. “But the doctors are treating the poisoning, and she’ll be okay. Me too, no broken bones. Just a bad bruise and a little concussion watch that this guy has already volunteered for.” I cut my eyes to Blake, who’s watching me closely, probably cataloguing my speech patterns and speed to monitor for any changes.