He smiles. “Nah, my sister is stubborn as fuck, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders.” He pauses and looks to his hands before looking back at me with unshed tears. “It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen a true honest smile on my sister’s face. And you did that, Ky, not me, not Haylee, but you.” I’m startled at first when he pulls me to my feet, slapping my back in true man-hug fashion. “Thank you for bringing my sister’s smile back.”
Shit, now I’m on the verge of crying. What the fuck is wrong with us men… Love, that’s what.
“I’d make her smile for the rest of my life if she’ll let me one day.”
Still wrapped up in our embrace, we completely miss the sound of the key turning and the door opening, until we hear a throat clearing. It brings us to the present, and we see Dani and Haylee standing in the doorway. We quickly separate, making all sorts of macho noises and grunts that I’m sure do nothing to help our case except make us look stupid. I look up and see her. God, she’s beautiful.
Haylee giggles. “Ummm, we can always come back, but Kyler, maybe you should remember that this Jacobs is already taken, and I don’t like to share.” She walks toward her fiancé and wraps her arms around his waist. Zach leans down to her and gives her a deep kiss that clearly makes them forget that Dani and I are still standing here in the same room.
I look over at Dani, who is nervously playing with her hair and looking down at the ground. There must be something interesting on her shoes because she hasn’t lifted her beautiful blue eyes in a few minutes. As if she can feel my stare, she looks up at me and mouths, “Can we talk?” and looks toward the hallway. Nodding, I follow her to the guest room, leaving the future Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs standing in the living room still making out. Oh, young love!
I take a seat on the edge of the bed as she closes the door. Danielle begins to pace back and forth. To break the awkward silence, I joke, “You may want to stop pacing because we may end up in the crawlspace below after all of my pacing may have weakened the floorboards. And for some reason, your brother still thinks there’s a chance we’re getting our security deposit back and doesn’t think we need to remodel the floors.”
Her head jerks up, and her eyes narrow at me before they soften. I am almost expecting her to bitch me out, but instead she smiles at me and I’m not talking about a half-assed fake smile—I’m talking a real Danielle Jacobs smile. It warms my heart as I remember a time when I would have given anything to see that smile on her face.
Dani takes a deep breath and begins to speak. “Okay, so I’m going to say something, and I need you to let me get this all out without interrupting, which you love to do…”
“I don’t love to interrupt you,” I say, doing exactly what she said for me not to do.
Tilting her head at me, she gives me a seriously, yes you do look. I smirk, putting my hands up in surrender. She continues. “So I need you not to interrupt so that I can get all of this out because if I don’t, I’m worried I won’t have the strength to say all I need to.” She takes another deep breath, and her eyes land on something in the corner. I follow her gaze to the nightstand where I know the photo of Emmett sat, but it’s no longer there. Did she move it? How am I just noticing? Then again, we don’t spend much time in this room. Dani sleeps in my room every night but still keeps all of her stuff in here.
Dani takes a few deep breaths; her eyes give the impression that she is giving herself an internal pep talk before she starts to speak again. “First, let me say I’m sorry for lashing out at you this morning. I was diverting the shock of my brother getting engaged and displacing it on you. It was wrong and unfair. You’re not just a stand-in or replacement. Please don’t think that’s how I see you.”
I know she didn’t mean it. Her eyes fill up with unshed tears, and her voice trembles.
“To be honest, it freaked me out but not in the way you think. See, when I saw my brother down on one knee, I envisioned my happily ever after. For the longest time I thought I didn’t deserve one, but actually it was that I wasn’t allowing myself to have one.
“There is not a memory in my mind for eighteen years that didn’t have Emmett in it, and then all of a sudden he was ripped from this world, and I didn’t know how to face the new reality of it. Or well, more that I didn’t want to face it. I felt guilty at the thought that I get to live, and he didn’t, so I pushed all possibilities of a future away.”
Dani begins a slow pace around the room. She just can’t keep still. I want to reach out and touch her to let her know it’s okay, but I refrain to let her finish.
“When you answered the door all those months ago, something inside me woke up. It was something that I had convinced myself had died along with Emmett. But you brought me out of the darkness and into the light, and well, that scared and still does scare the shit out of me. I only ever loved one man, and I have been broken and empty for a long time, so I might not be very good at this, but I want to try…with you.”
Is she saying what I think she’s saying?
“I loved Emmett with all my heart, and when he died, my heart was crushed into a million pieces, pieces that I never thought could be put back together…until you put me back together. God, the first time you kissed me…”
She
begins to blush, so I think it’s safe to assume her mind has taken her back to that memory as has mine, and I adjust myself in my pants to hide what that memory does to me. Thankfully, she doesn’t notice.
“That first time you kissed me, I knew you would knock my barriers down. The first time I looked into those beautiful brown eyes, I knew I was in trouble. But if I thought of you and fell in love with you, then it meant that I loved him less and was betraying his memory. But I was wrong—yes, I’m admitting I was wrong.”
My eyes go wide in shock, and she points at me. “But don’t get used to it.”
Her expression goes serious again. The lighthearted moment, though, eased the tension in the room. “I was betraying his memory by letting life pass me by and not living. I love you for your patience, your kindness, your willingness to learn, your bad jokes, and horrible taste in movies. I love that you make me feel complete and whole again. Maybe I came home from being lost for you to find me. I guess what I’m saying is…” She pauses and bites the inside of her lip, her eyes locked on mine, desperately trying to finish that sentence for her. “Kyler, I’m yours if you’ll still have me.”
I see my girl is nervous as fuck since I haven’t said anything yet. I mean, what do you say to the girl of your dreams when she just gave a speech like that? That’s some serious Jerry Maguire “you complete me/had me at hello” shit.
After a few moments, I realize I can’t wait any longer, I need to touch her. I stand and stalk toward her in two strides. I place my hands on her hips and look her directly in those beautiful baby blues. “You really don’t like my jokes?” How I’m keeping a straight face right now I have no clue. It’s not until she smacks my chest, smiling, and says, “Seriously? Out of that entire speech, that’s what you remember?” that I smile back at her and push a strand of hair behind her ears.
“No, apparently you also think my taste in movies is shit.” That earns me an eye roll just before Dani tries to slip from my grasp. Oh no she doesn’t. I quickly pull her back into me and take a seat on the bed with Dani straddling me, her thighs on the outside of mine. One hand is placed on her hip and the other firmly under her chin so she sees me loud and clear, and I say what I need to say. “And that you love me.” I bring my mouth to hers, knowing she can feel my smile on her lips, then break our kiss. “Which is good because I love you too.”
I stare at her for a moment, not saying anything, letting ourselves get lost in the moment before I crash my lips against hers again. This time I kiss with such passion, as if she were the air I breathed, which let’s face it, she is. I pull on her bottom lip, earning a very sexy moan from her mouth. I’m lost in her kiss, the way her lips mold to mine, her fingers playing with the hair along my neckline as she grinds her hips against my growing erection. I release her lips only long enough to pull her shirt over her head. I can’t get my hands on her fast enough. I kiss her jaw and down her neck as I reach around and unhook her bra, releasing her perfect breasts. They were made for my hands. As my fingers brush across her taut nipples, Dani releases a small moan, and I know I am going to make love to my girl all night long, but if I don’t get inside her now, I might blow my load right here.
Before I can move my hands to unbutton her jeans, the bedroom door flies open. “You guys wanna go out or order piz…fuck! Not again,” Zach yells before slamming the door shut. He then yells from the other side of the door, “Seriously, Dani, haven’t you ever heard of a fucking door lock?”
Looking at Dani, I see she has tears filling her eyes, but this time they’re tears of joy and laughter.