Nobody But You(79)

She was with Hud and Mitch and a few other staff members. “The problem with this weekend,” he said, nudging Kenna over to make room for himself, “is that it went so well we’re going to have to repeat it annually.”

“Yeah, that’s not your biggest problem,” Kenna said.

“No?”

“No,” she said. “I tried to find you last night, but you vanished right after you danced on the beach with Sophie.”

Everyone was looking at him, so he shrugged. “Got tired.”

“Uh-huh,” one of the staffers said. “I’d have liked to get ‘tired’ too.”

Everyone laughed, which Jacob ignored. “So what’s my biggest problem?” he asked Kenna.

“Leanne Nelson nearly ratted you out to Sophie about Lucas yesterday,” she said.

Leanne was a Housewives of wannabe, and she’d sell her own child for a good story to tell. And he was an idiot. He’d meant to tell Sophie that the resort had hired Lucas. He really had. But it was important to do it in such a way that she didn’t get hurt. The opportunity hadn’t presented itself to him yet, that’s all.

Or you knew it was going to be a problem…

“You never told Sophie that her ex-husband is the resort’s new attorney?” Hud asked in disbelief.

“Not yet.”

Both his brother and sister looked at him like he’d grown a second head.

“And here I thought you were the smart one,” Kenna said, ignoring Hud’s dirty look. “But I gotta tell you, you’ve made a massively boneheaded move here. Massively massive.”

“Agreed,” Hud said. “Bailey would probably kill you dead. I hope Sophie’s a little more open to sleeping with boneheads.”

“Massively massive boneheads,” Kenna added.

Jacob shoved his fingers through his hair. It was a tell, he realized, a rare tell, and he immediately dropped his hands. “It’s not that big of a deal. I mean, at first I didn’t even realize he was her ex.”

“Yes, but after you did?” Kenna asked in a tone that spoke volumes on what she thought about his intelligence level. Or lack thereof.

“You need to tell her,” Hud said. “And when you do, I’d wear a cup. And maybe a flak vest. But for the record, why didn’t you tell her again?”

How was this so hard for them to understand? “Opening my mouth never works as well as keeping it shut and minding my own business.”

Hud shook his head like he’d just heard more stupidity than he had the tolerance for and slowly stood up. “What the hell is that bullshit? Are you talking about us? About you and me?”

Kenna sighed and stood too. “Are we going to need to draw a line in the sandbox here? Should I call Penny to referee?”

“No need,” Hud said tightly, and turned to walk away.

Jacob grabbed his arm.

“What?” Hud said testily. “I’m only doing what you claimed to have learned from me—I’m keeping my mouth shut and minding my business.”

Jacob stood up so that they were toe-to-toe. “You going to look me in the eye and tell me if I hadn’t done just that, if instead I’d stayed, we’d be in a helluva better place right now?”

“Are you shitting me?” Hud asked, and took a step into Jacob’s air space.

“Hud,” Kenna said softly, warningly.

“No,” he said. “I’m going to get this out.” He poked a finger hard into Jacob’s chest. “I never wanted you to shut the hell up and keep your feelings to yourself. I never wanted you to go. What I wanted was for you to be a part of this family, and I still want that. And if you don’t get that, then f*ck you.”

And with that, he stalked off, shoulder-checking Jacob hard as he did.

Kenna sighed and looked at Jacob. “Do you always have to be so stoic? Can’t you just once let it all out, what you feel, what you want, what you need?”

He felt himself shut down a little bit. Didn’t she get it? What right did he have to impose his needs or wants here?

She stared at him, made a rough sound, and poked him in the exact same spot Hud just had, which hurt like hell. “Don’t you do that,” she grated out, sounding furious. “Don’t you act like you don’t deserve to be one of us.” She poked him again, and he caught her hand.

“Stop,” he said.

But she just stared up into his face, her own going from angry to crushed in zero point two. “Oh, Jacob. Is that it? Do you really think you don’t deserve to be one of us?”

Dropping her hand, he pushed it away from him.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered, and her eyes went suspiciously shiny. “You do think that,” she breathed, her voice a little broken and doing its best to do the same to him. “Damn you, you really do.” She came at him hard, and he braced himself, but she threw her arms around him and clung.

He could handle a hell of a lot of things, but a crying woman wasn’t one of them. He was out of his comfort zone and way beyond his area of expertise. “Kenna, I can’t—” Emotion settled into his chest like a bag of stones. “Don’t cry. Anything but that, okay? You can even go back to drilling a hole in my chest if you just stop.”

Kenna lifted her head and pointed at him, and he manfully held in his wince. “I want you to listen to me, you big oaf,” she said. “You aren’t alone. You have family who loves you, though God knows why. You deserve this family, Jacob. You deserve our love, every bit as much as Gray or Aidan or Hud or me. Say it.”