“Is this for real?” Cora squealed when the driver stopped in front of a dark cottage at the edge of the resort. I couldn’t see anything else around but the beach, a few lonely palm trees¸ and an endless starry sky that bled into the still ocean.
“Better?” I said before sliding out of the cab and taking her hand to help her out. She was still reeling from downing a handful of mini bottles of airline booze. I wasn’t exactly sober either.
“This is perfect.” She smiled at the cabin as the driver stacked our suitcases outside of the door. “This day was perfect. And you are perfect.”
I grunted. “I am completely unperfect.”
She glanced back at me as she continued toward the cabin. “I’m not used to you not taking a compliment and being so modest. That’s more your brother’s style.”
I focused on paying the cab driver. She knew us both so well—it was a damn miracle she hadn’t figured it out sooner. I had wedding day anxiety and swarms of people and small bottles of alcohol to thank for her not realizing it, but tomorrow would be different. Tomorrow would be only her and me and no one to distract us, nothing to pull us apart. She’d figure it out. Jacob and I might have looked the same, but that was where our similarities ended.
I lingered at the bottom of the stairs after the cab left. She was waiting for me, but I knew what she was waiting for. She hadn’t been subtle about it, and this was her wedding night. There were times in my life when I’d thought myself a strong man—like the first time I saved a life in the ER or helped an injured passenger at the scene of an accident—but never when it came to Cora. Not once. I would abandon all of my supposed morals and beliefs to protect her. My beliefs about what was right and wrong became intermingled with my complete and total adoration of the woman standing before me, waiting.
Waiting for me to carry her inside and make love to her.
I’d have given her anything, but I couldn’t give her this. Because it wasn’t me she was asking. It was Jacob. Always Jacob.
“Well?” She held out her hand, a gleam in her eyes that made every muscle in my body ache. When I took a moment to meet her in front of the door, she absently twirled the charm bracelet. “Do you remember the time my mom took us all to Disney World and both of you were fighting over who got to ride with me on Magic Mountain? And I said I’d ride with you both so you’d stop fighting?”
“Yeah,” I answered, climbing the stairs. “I remember you picking Matt first.”
Her eyes lifted, like she was familiar with this type of jealousy. God knew she’d seen no shortage of it growing up with us. “But then you threw a fit, so I went with you first and Matt second.”
I nodded as I stuck the key in the lock. “And he never stopped reminding me how you just wanted to save the best for last.”
She laughed gently, then her face ironed out all at once. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about him right now. I know it makes you uncomfortable.”
My brows pulled together after I opened the door. “Why does you talking about Matt make me uncomfortable?”
Cora shifted. “Because.”
“Because why?”
She sucked in a breath. She was in the middle of letting it out when she said, “Because you’ve always been under some impression that I’m into him. You’ve never liked me talking about him, or even talking with him.”
I’d been about to grab the suitcases, but I stopped. More like I froze. Jacob had been under some impression that Cora liked me? He’d never said anything to me—never even indicated anything that would make me think he didn’t want her around me. “Please. When have I not wanted you to talk with my brother? We grew up together.”
Cora’s hand settled above her hip as she blinked at me. “Are you really going to make me recap the past decade for you? Because that might take the next decade to sum up.”
For real? Jacob had never hinted at Cora having feelings for me, but clearly he’d brought it up to her. Plenty of times, from the sound of it. Which was its own kind of surprise. But Jacob believing she might have harbored feelings for me didn’t mean she actually did. That was all I really cared about. Not my brother’s tendency toward jealousy.
“So?” I crossed my arms and leaned into the banister behind me. “Did you? Like my brother?”
She sighed, turning toward the open door. “Jacob . . .”
“What? It’s a fair question.” I shoved off the banister, feeling hope and heat tangling in my veins from the look on her face, from the sound of her voice. She’d felt something for me, whether it be the most passing of crushes or something much deeper. Realizing that had me feeling drunk from something other than alcohol. “Besides, you’re stuck with me now. Won’t matter what you ’fess up to.”