Everything about her drooped.
Then he bit his lip and said, “Eve, I—I was going to get you flowers.”
Her jaw dropped enough to let in flies and let out her garbled sound of confusion. “You were? But . . .” Then slow realization dawned, and she found herself grinning uncontrollably. “That’s funny. I was rushing off to tell you that you were an insufferable prick yesterday”—Jacob seemed to wilt before her very eyes—“but also, that it would take far more than that to get rid of me. Because I’ve chosen you, Jacob, and I trust that choice. So you need to trust it, too. If you can’t—”
She took a deep breath, tapping her fingers against her thighs, wishing she had music in her ear to sweep her through this moment. Hoping she hadn’t read this situation all wrong.
“If you can’t,” she continued, “then this isn’t going to work. Because I am a grown woman and I need the people around me to respect my decisions. Instead,” she added pointedly, “of pushing me away. The thing is, Jacob, I trust you. I believe in you. I think this can work, and I really, really want to try. So.” She pressed her lips together nervously. “What do you think about that?”
After a frozen moment of obvious shock, Jacob gave her a slow but brilliant smile. “I think I’ll do anything you want and everything you need as long as it means I get to try with someone as lovely as you. I think—”
His words were drowned out by a sudden torrent of beeps. They both turned to find Jacob’s car being gently steered by Tessa onto a grassy verge, while the cars behind kicked off as the light turned green.
“Just bear with,” Alex yelled out of the back window. “My mate’s trying to get this girl—it’s a whole thing—and we can’t exactly drive off and leave them here because they’re both traffic disasters, so . . .”
Eve whipped around to look at Jacob. “Um—”
“Ignore her,” Jacob said firmly. “She was dropped as a child. Often, I assume.”
Eve laughed, but the sound came out a little . . . damp. She wasn’t sure why until Jacob gave her a tortured look and cupped her face with both hands. He pulled her close and murmured, “Oh, don’t cry, Sunshine,” and kissed her forehead, and she was so relieved she almost fell over.
“I knew you were bullshitting,” she half sobbed, “you awful bastard, telling me to fuck off like that—”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so, so sorry, Eve. You’re right. I thought everything between us had been . . . something different, and I was the only one who hadn’t understood. I thought I was the fool always wanting too much, too hard, and I freaked the fuck out. I shouldn’t have done it. I need to . . . to deal with my shit, clearly, and I’m going to. Because we could be something special. We are something special, and I won’t let myself stand in the way of it.”
Eve’s half sobs were veering dangerously toward full ones. He just—he was so earnest and she loved him so much and no matter what he thought, it wasn’t all his fault. “I said everything wrong, I know I did. I was just trying to—reassure you,” she babbled, “because I knew you’d be upset, of course you were, but I thought you’d care more about my intentions toward the B&B than my intentions toward you, so I started there—”
“And I should’ve let you fucking talk instead of rushing to think the worst, because I’m done thinking the worst of you,” he said. “I swear, I am. All it ever does is bite me in the arse, and more importantly, you don’t deserve it. You’re incredible and you’re more than worth my trust, and . . . You’re the one thing I know I can rely on, Eve. It’s fast, and it’s ridiculous, but it’s true. It’s you.”
Oh dear. She hadn’t been prepared for that. Nor had she been prepared for the absolute tsunami of love and mush and rainbows that dragged her under when she looked at him. God, she’d missed him, and now he was here, and she almost couldn’t cope.
Then he made everything a thousand times worse by saying, “My only excuse is that I—I love you. I love you so much and I was kind of terrified, because when you love someone, everything hurts a thousand times more. And I have all this shit in my head, shit that pops up at the worst time and makes me think the sky is falling. I—sometimes I find it difficult to believe that anyone could want me as much as I want them. Never mind someone as amazing as you. And I let that get the better of me. But I’m working on that, because it hurt you, and the one fucking thing I refuse to do is hurt you.” The words came fast and obviously nervous, Jacob’s sharp cheekbones stained a soft pink.
He didn’t stop, though.
“I suppose I’m going to have to examine my feelings and all that shit,” he said with obvious distaste. “To make sure I don’t hurt you again. And it’ll be worth it, because I love you. Even if you just stand there staring at me forever instead of saying something.” He offered a smile that was more like a wince, his hand cradling her face, the warmth of his body pressed close to hers. He was perfect. He was just overwhelmingly perfect and she couldn’t even choke out the words to tell him so.
But she was going to try.
* * *
When Eve finally opened her mouth, Jacob’s hope swelled. But the only sound she produced was another astonished sob, so he went back to slowly dying.
On the plus side, she was letting him touch her—and she’d mentioned coming back to Skybriar for him, which was good. That was fucking excellent. On the negative side, he’d accidentally admitted the whole love thing, which might be a bit soon, so she could be changing her mind about coming back and considering filing a restraining order instead.
Regardless, hiding his feelings hadn’t worked too well for him last time, so this time, he’d keep going with the truth. “My heart seems to be throwing some kind of fit, and seeing you cry isn’t helping the matter, so if you could at least tell me how to make you stop . . .”
She didn’t tell him jack, but she did dry her eyes with her hands and smile. If anything, that made his heart situation worse.
Then she blurted out, “You are so brave and you are absolutely beautiful and I’m so happy you’re here, and anyone who doesn’t want you as much as you want them is a fucking donut, Jacob, because you are just the most wantable man on planet Earth.”
He blinked slowly, his pulse thudding in his ears. His eyes were stinging a little bit. Shit. God. He swallowed hard.
Then the opening notes of Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Breathless” sparkled in the background, and they both turned to look at Jacob’s car. Tessa gave them a thumbs-up from the driver’s seat before pointing at the stereo.
“What an excellent song choice,” Eve said.
Though Jacob privately agreed, he muttered, “That woman is a menace.”
Eve smiled. “You’re very sexy when you’re grumpy.”
Just like that, the last of his nerves dissolved. “Eve,” he laughed shakily, letting his head fall forward until their noses bumped together. “Please. I’m trying to keep things romantic here.”
“That was romantic,” she argued. “Pointing out your hotness counts as romantic if I also love you while I do it.”
She said it so casually, sprinkled it into her stream of smiling words. Almost as if she knew that saying it outright might short all his circuits.
“You . . . do?” he asked haltingly, his mind approaching the concept with care, taking a cautious examination. Even if what he really wanted was to jump on her words without hesitation, old habits died hard. “Love me, I mean. You . . .”
She reached up and slid a hand into his hair, and he didn’t even mind the fact that she was definitely messing it up. Pushing his head up gently until he met her eyes, Eve murmured, “Yes, Jacob. I love you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about all my plans, but honestly, they became more and more irrelevant as time went on. As I started to trust myself, and learned what I really value. The truth is, Castell Cottage is my passion, and I love my job, and I want to stay. But also, I love you. And I didn’t want to leave you. I still don’t.”
Jacob felt a bit dizzy. “But—y
ou can leave me. If you want to. If you need to. I just need to know that when you stay, when you’re with me—you mean it. I know you do. I might forget it, sometimes, but I know it, because I know you. Eve—”
“Hey!” A car horn beeped, jolting him out of his giddiness. Well, not entirely. That would be impossible. “Get a room!” someone bellowed.
“Go fuck yourself,” Jacob shouted around the heart wedged in his throat. Funny what a man and his various, malfunctioning organs could accomplish when the most wonderful human being on the planet was involved.
Then the ginger bloke Eve had arrived with got off the bike he’d been perched on a few meters away and wandered over to the queue of cars stuck behind Alex and Tessa. Jacob heard the strange man say in a ludicrously friendly tone, “Listen, mate, I know you’ve got places to be and this traffic’s a nightmare, but . . .” His voice faded out of hearing as he walked away. Jacob waited for more shouting and beeping to ensue, but, to his astonishment, it did not. Instead, the ginger leaned against a stranger’s car, laughing with the occupants through the window.
“Hm,” Jacob said. “He’s quite useful, isn’t he?”
“You’re going soft.”
“Do you mind?”
Eve gave him that gorgeous, sunshine smile. “Certainly not.”
“Good.” Because with her around, he envisioned the softness getting worse. “Now, then—in light of recent declarations—if you could just give me one second to . . .”
She waved a hand. “Oh, yes, whatever you need.”
“Cracking, thanks.” He let go of her and turned away long enough to snag a handful of daisies from the ground. He’d intended all this to be much more put together and professional but—well. He was improvising. Going with the flow. Eve frequently managed to make such behavior look magnificent, so he hoped to achieve something half as great.
A few seconds later, armed with his admittedly sparse roadside bouquet, he went back and thrust the flowers in her direction.
“Oh.” She blinked, as if that was the last thing she’d expected. “Oh. Jacob.” She sniffed and blinked some more.
“Eve, we’ve talked about this. No crying.”
“Shut up and take it, you big baby.”
“I could say the same to you.” He waved the flowers at her, and she finally took them. Flower transference dealt with, he caught her free hand and met her eyes. “Good. So, to recap: I love you. You love me. We’re going home now. Home for both of us. And everything’s going to be fine,” he said steadily, holding her gaze, “because I’m going to trust you, and believe in you, and give you whatever you need.”
“And I’m going to stay,” she replied quietly. “I’m going to stay, and I’m going to love you, and I’m going to try. You taught me how much that matters.”
Those words burned in Jacob like a forest fire, but they left the opposite of destruction in their wake. Because Eve’s love didn’t hurt. If his current feelings were anything to go by, it healed.
“Just to be clear,” he said gruffly, after taking a moment to collect himself, “by accepting these flowers, you have formally agreed to coupledom and commitment, et cetera—”
“Oh, is that what the flowers mean?” she laughed.
“Absolutely.” He hesitated, then pushed through, because she loved him. “Do you have any complaints?”
“Nope.”
Jacob grinned.
Then Eve dropped the daisies, grabbed his arse, and kissed him so hard she almost knocked his glasses off. Tessa turned up the music to obnoxious heights. A few more cars beeped, possibly in outrage, but Jacob liked to interpret the noise as support. Either way, he wasn’t about to stop kissing this woman for anything. He wrapped an arm around the softness of her waist, hauled her closer, and sank into the familiar sweetness of her lips.
He was still grinning when they came up for air.
Epilogue
One Year Later
I can’t believe you got Mother in a hairnet.”
Eve raised a hand to shield her eyes from the late-afternoon sun, squinting in Joy’s direction. “Hardly.” The net sat on top of Joy’s immaculate bob at a jaunty angle, more like a beret than a food safety aid.
“You’d better do something about that,” Danika said dryly, “before Jacob spots her and has stern words.”
“I think Dad’s got it under control, actually,” Chloe murmured. The three sisters watched as their father abandoned his place beside Montrose and Aunt Lucy at the grill to come up behind his wife, saying something that made her laugh as he gently tugged the hairnet into place.
Joy rolled her eyes at him, but she didn’t protest. Instead, she turned a flawless smile onto the next Gingerbread Festival attendee in the queue and set about taking their order. Above her hung a burgundy-and-gold banner that read BREAKFAST FOR DINNER WITH CASTELL COTTAGE.
It was Jacob’s second year securing a place at the festival—and this time, they had a bigger stall, since they’d been such a success last year. Eve had looked into hiring temporary help, but Mum and Dad had—rather shockingly—volunteered their assistance instead.
And Jacob—equally shockingly—had accepted that assistance, despite what he privately termed their grave lack of appropriate qualifications or experience. And despite the fact they’d once accused him of running a sex cult, et cetera.
“What are you smiling about, Evie-Bean?” Chloe demanded.
“Probably something Jacob related,” Dani supplied dryly.
Eve didn’t bother to defend herself. She was too busy rolling her shoulders after hours of serving scrambled eggs, tipping back her head to feel the sunshine on her cheeks, and generally enjoying this moment. Her sisters were beside her, her parents were properly supervised, and Jacob was somewhere in the vicinity hunting down strawberry lemonade. Breakfast for dinner was going fabulously well, with a queue that had barely shrunk all day. And half an hour ago she’d watched a toddler take one bite of her black forest gâteau, grin, then put his face—his whole face—into the cake. Which she certainly deemed a success.
In short, everything was right in Eve’s world. Everything was absolutely perfect.
Although—she cracked open one eyelid to check the glittery pink face of her favorite watch, a birthday present from Tessa—this break was scheduled to end in five minutes. Where on earth had Jacob gotten to?
“Why, just look at you three,” Gigi cooed, popping up out of nowhere in a cloud of Chanel No. 5 and individual Russian lashes. “Sunning yourselves while your parents slave away. I thoroughly approve.” She opened her mouth as if to say more, but then Shivani appeared, holding a gigantic ice cream cone and commanding her attention.
“Look, Garnet, it’s as big as my head. Take a picture.”
“Oh, very good, my love.” Gigi whipped out a baby pink Polaroid camera and snapped. The diamond ring on her left hand reflected a blinding shaft of sunlight. “You’ll never finish it.”
“Watch me,” Shivani snickered.
Gigi snorted and slipped an arm around her waist.
“I want one of those ice creams,” Chloe murmured as the pair wandered off.
As if on cue, Red strolled over with both hands full. “Good thing I got you one, then.”
Eve blinked at his sudden appearance, then stared after Gigi and Shivs. “Is it just me, or has our entire family returned in the space of thirty seconds?”
“Charming,” Zaf said, as he, too, appeared from thin air. “What about me?”
She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I had anticipated your arrival. You would never let Danika go without snacks under circumstances such as these.”
Zaf’s mouth tilted into one of his tiny, subtle smiles. “Hm. You got me there.” He held two giant cones, just like Red, and he gave one to Dani. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go.”
Eve frowned. “Sorry? Go where?”
“Away,” Dani said mysteriously, waggling her purple eyebrows. Since it was summer break, she’d experimented with matching them
to her hair. “Cheer up, Evie-Bean. I’m sure you’ll get an ice cream, too, eventually.”
“Oh yes,” Chloe agreed as Redford helped her up. “But probably not until after—”
“All right, Button, let’s be having you,” Red said, and dragged her bodily away.
Suspicious. Very suspicious.
“Erm,” Eve began.
“See you later!” Dani waved over her shoulder as she and Zaf followed suit.
“Erm,” Eve repeated.
“Remember your angles, my clever little communion wafer,” Gigi called across the grass, waving her camera.
“Pardon?”
“Smize,” Shivani advised, and then she and Gigi turned resolutely away.
Eve sat at her suddenly abandoned table for a good few minutes, feeling slightly dazed. Around her, the Gingerbread Festival continued: there were floats designed by the local schoolchildren traveling slowly down the cordoned-off road to her left, all themed around local history. To her right were the other stalls that made up the festival: ice cream stands, various restaurant stalls, and, of course, the actual gingerbread area.
And behind Eve . . .
Behind Eve stood the man she always felt before she saw. A familiar, golden thread wrapped tight around her stomach as she caught the clean, lemon and eucalyptus scent of him.
“Jacob,” she said softly, tipping her head back.
He smiled down at her, both hands filled by a pair of ice cream cones. “Hello, Sunshine.”
“I knew you’d get me one,” she beamed.
“Raspberry ripple.” He pressed a cone into her hand. “You’re welcome.”
“And you’re in my good books. Come sit with me,” she ordered, “and gaze upon all this gingery splendor.”
“You want me to gaze upon . . . your brother-in-law?” he asked as he sat down.
Eve snorted. “That was rather good.”
“Thank you. I try.” They sat practically on top of each other, their bodies pressed together from shoulder to hip to thigh. Jacob’s arm found its now-familiar place around her waist, his other hand wrapped around his own ice cream cone. But unlike Eve, who’d already fallen upon her raspberry ripple with animal enthusiasm, he wasn’t eating.
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