Jacob cleared his throat and stood up. “Actually, there’s one more thing.”
“What?” Adam pushed back from his desk and crossed his arms.
“I need you to know that I love your sister more than anyone or anything on this entire planet. And I’m hoping that she and I can find a way to work things out, but we have some obstacles to get past and I want to get rid of one of them right now. You and I need to drop the fighting. It’s stupid, and frankly, I have more important things to worry about.”
“Do you really think it’s as simple as that?” Adam retorted. “We decide to forget it? I can’t believe that you, of all people, would think that you could just come in here and declare a truce and make it all go away. It’s far more complicated than that.”
“Actually, Adam, it’s not. It’s really very simple. Do we love Anna more than we hate each other?”
A puff of astonished air left Anna’s lips. Six years of feuding and Jacob had boiled it down to one question.
“I know what my answer is,” Jacob continued. “I love her far more than I ever hated you, which should tell you just how much I love her. Because I really, really hated you.”
Adam sat back in his chair, his jaw slack. He was clearly letting this tumble around in his head, and they had to let him process it. “Wow. I guess you really can make it that simple.” He looked at Anna, seeming to get a little choked up. “Anna Banana, I definitely love you more than I hate him. I don’t know what I would’ve done during the last year without you.”
“Then let’s bury the hatchet, Adam. Please,” Jacob added.
“If it will make Anna happy, I will give up the fight.”
For the first time in a long time, she felt as if she could breathe without worry. “It would make me insanely happy. There’s enough trouble going around for all of us.” She stood and walked over to her brother to give him a hug. Relief washed over her.
“I can’t believe I’m going to be an uncle,” Adam muttered into her ear, holding her close, not letting go.
It would’ve been so nice to agree that indeed he would, but they weren’t out of the woods. “Fingers crossed that everything goes okay.”
“Anything you need at all,” Adam said, stepping back, but still holding on to her shoulders. “Just let me know.”
“Of course. I will.”
“As for you,” Adam said, reaching out his hand to shake Jacob’s. “I didn’t really think this day would come. It’ll be good to put it behind us.”
Jacob smiled. “It’s long overdue.”
Anna led the way out of Adam’s office. “That’s not quite how I expected to start my day,” Anna muttered to Jacob in the hall. One enormous problem had been resolved, even if another—Aiden—had cropped up.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
Her staff and coworkers were already milling about. The sight of Jacob Lin in the office was prompting hushed voices and sideways glances. “Of course, but not here. My office.” She marched ahead, Jacob in her wake. They passed Holly when they rounded the corner to Anna’s office. Holly bugged her eyes, but kept her mouth shut. Anna would have to fill her in later. She closed the door behind them, unsure where to start, only that she knew he deserved an awful lot of credit. “That must’ve been so hard for you to swallow your pride with Adam. I’m just floored that you would do that for me.”
“It was for us, Anna. It had to end.”
She found herself hopelessly drawn to him—his voice, his presence. When he stripped away her defenses, her reasons for being mad or doubtful, he could have whatever he wanted. She looked up at him, peering into his penetrating eyes, the ones that left her undone. She’d asked him to fight for her, and he’d done exactly that. Big time. “I really admire you for it. I don’t know what else to say, other than thank you. I know that couldn’t have been easy.”
“It wasn’t, but I don’t care about what’s easy anymore. I care about getting you back.”
Tingles raced over her skin, her breath caught in her chest. That rumble in his voice was there, the one that made her knees threaten to buckle. “Now what?”
“Have dinner with me tonight. My place.”
He’d convinced Adam to let bygones be bygones. Could she do the same? Was she ready for this? Because she was certain that if she wound up in his apartment again, she was going to end up in his bed. Was that the logical next step? If it was, she knew very well that it led to a place where it was nearly impossible to be angry with him. Maybe that was for the best—finally just give in to what she wanted, finally just trust that this was the way things were meant to be. “I’d love to.”