Nobody But You(86)

“How can I forget? You keep throwing it in my face.”

This time it was Hud’s turn to close his eyes. “Fine. That was a shitty thing to say, and I take it back. But you’re evading. Why leave before you have to?”

“That’s…complicated.”

“You f*cked up with Sophie when she came to apologize,” Hud said.

“I f*cked up with more than Sophie.”

Hud looked at him, long and hard. “If you’re talking about me,” he said, “or the others, you’re wrong. You didn’t f*ck up at all. You came home. That was all we ever wanted.”

The words took a surprising load off Jacob’s shoulders.

“At least look me in the eyes and tell me you’re coming back,” Hud said.

Jacob turned his head to meet Hud’s gaze and saw the smoke and flames licking out from Sophie’s boat. His heart about stopped. Dropping the duffel bags, he hit the beach at a dead run. “Call nine-one-one!” he yelled back at Hud.

“On it,” Hud said right on his heels.

They hit the dock in tandem. At the boat, Hud tried to pull Jacob back from jumping on board. “It’s not safe!” he yelled.

“Sophie’s in there!” Jacob leapt to the deck, calling out for her.

Someone landed right next to him.

Hud.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jacob yelled at him.

Hud was tugging up the vinyl seating, and Jacob knew why. He was looking for the fire extinguisher that was hopefully on board.

“Sophie!” Jacob yelled, turning to go belowdecks. The door was open, and black smoke was pouring out. “Sophie!”

“Here!”

She appeared in the opening holding a fire extinguisher. Hud immediately took it from her while Jacob pulled her up and off the boat to the dock.

“Are you okay?” he demanded, running his hands over her, looking for injuries. It was hard to tell. She was sooty from head to toe.

“I’m”—she stopped to cough—“fine.”

He didn’t stop touching her, couldn’t.

“Jacob.” She cupped his face and brought it to hers. “I’m fine. I just couldn’t get the extinguisher to start and the flames were quicker than me.”

Still holding on to her, he turned to see that Hud had abandoned the extinguisher as well and had jumped lithely to the dock beside them. He immediately turned to Sophie and looked her over as Jacob had.

Sirens sounded in the distance, and in the next minute, the fire service had arrived, along with a sea of other first responders, including Aidan.

Twenty minutes later, Sophie was sitting in the back of the ambulance, an emergency blanket wrapped around her shoulders, being looked over by a paramedic. Jacob stood hovering, especially when Lucas drove up, ran to the shore, and stared at the shell of his boat, hands in his hair. Then he turned to Sophie.

She grimaced. “I’m sorry—”

“You okay?” Lucas asked.

“Yes, but the boat isn’t.”

“I know.” Lucas let out a long breath. “It might be karma.”

She stared at him. “You really believe that?”

“I’m working on it.” He started to walk off, then hesitated. Glanced at Jacob and then back at Sophie. “You need anything?” he asked her.

She shook her head.

He nodded, looking more than a little relieved. “Take care of yourself.” And then he was gone.

Hud came up next to Jacob and pulled him aside. “How is she?”

Jacob shook his head. “They were worried about shock, but she’s doing well, considering what could have happened. A small burn on her arm, that’s it.”

Hud let out a breath of relief and nodded. “They caught the flames pretty fast, but there’s also massive soot, smoke, and water damage. Probably not salvageable.”

Jacob nodded. He’d known this. What he didn’t know was how Sophie was going to feel about it. “You tried to hold me back from jumping on board,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“And yet you followed me,” Jacob said.

“Yeah, and if you’re about to ask why, you’re going to piss me off,” his twin said. “Don’t you get it yet? Where you go, stupid or not, I go. And vice versa. I’ll beat that into you if I have to. We do the right thing by each other, always—you got that yet?”

“Yeah, I got it.” Jacob paused. “Do you really not remember our handshake?” he asked, referring to the day he’d run into his brother and Hud had acted like he’d never seen it before.

Hud blew out a sigh. “You’re not the only one who can be an ass. We do share DNA.”

Jacob nodded. How well he knew that. “You know I’m sorry, right? For leaving without a word. For not keeping in contact. For coming back without a word. For everything.”

“I know.” Hud paused. “Me too.”

“Yeah? What are you sorry for?”

Hud heaved out a sigh. “For letting you walk. For holding a grudge. For using being mad at you as an excuse to not take any blame on myself.”

“I hated being without you,” Jacob admitted.

“Me too,” Hud said. “It sucked.” He didn’t look particularly happy at this admission. “We don’t have to keep talking about our feelings, do we?”