others in the hospital, changing and ruining people’s lives forever. I’d make it so that I could go back a few spaces on the damn board and stay home that night so that no one had to go out and pick me up at a party I should never have sneaked out to in the first place.” She let out a rough breath, a little surprised to find out just how much she’d been holding in. Sneaky little things, emotions.
“Pru,” Jake said softly, pained.
She pulled her hand free. “No. I don’t want to talk about it.” She really didn’t. It took a lot of time and effort to bury the feelings. Dredging them up again only drove her mad. She moved to leave but Jake wheeled around to stop her exit.
“Then how about we talk about the fact that you’ve now helped everyone involved that night?” he said. “You sold the Santa Cruz house you grew up in—the only home you ever knew—to be able to put college scholarships in the hands of the two boys of that woman who was hit crossing the street—even though she survived. You even became friends with them. Hell, I now employ Nick in maintenance and Tim said you were helping him find a place to live now that he’s out of the dorm—”
“Okay now wait a minute,” she said. “I’m not some damn martyr. I sold the house, yes, but I did it because I couldn’t handle the memories. I was eighteen, Jake, it was just too much for me.” She shook her head. “I didn’t give all of that money away. I went to school, I had expenses, I kept what I needed—”
“—Barely. And then there was Shelby, in one of the other cars, remember her? You gave her seed money she needed after her surgery to move to New York like she always wanted.”
“I gave her some help, yes,” she admitted. “Did you know she still limps?”
“You’re still in touch with her?” he asked in disbelief.
She huffed out a breath. “Subject change, please.”
“Sure. Let’s move on to the O’Riley brothers. You made sure they got your parents’ life insurance money, which they presumably used for education and to start their pub. So what now, Pru? It should finally be time to leave the past in the past, but it’s not, so you tell me. What’s really going on here?”
Yeah, Pru. What was going on? She drew in a breath of air, willing herself not to remember—and grieve—the home she’d sold, everything she’d given up. “He’s not happy,” she said.
“Who’s not?”
“Finn. I want him to be happy.”
Jake was shaking his head. “Not your deal.”
“But it feels like my deal,” she said. “Everyone else is happy, even his brother, Sean. I have to try and help him.” Then she told him about the wish and he stared at her like she’d lost her marbles.
“He’s going to fall for you,” he said. “You know that, right? You have to tell him the truth before that happens, you have to tell him who you are first.”
She snorted. “He’s not going to fall for me.”
Jake smiled, and this time it did reach his eyes. “Believe me, chica, you flash those eyes on him, that smile, some sass . . . he’s as good as flat on the ground for you. And you know how I know?”
She shook her head.
“Because I’ve been there, done that.”
“But you didn’t stay flat on the ground.”
Something flashed through his eyes at that. Regret. Remorse. “That’s on me, Pru, not you. And you know it.”
Jake didn’t do love. He’d told her that going in and he’d never faltered, which wouldn’t change the fact that he intended to keep her in his life. He’d proven that by being there for her through thick and thin, and there’d been a whole lot more thin than thick. She’d been there for him as well and always would be. But there were limits now, for both of them.
“Tell me about Finn,” he said.
“You already know. He runs O’Riley’s. He’s loyal to his brother, he’s protective and good to his friends, and . . .”
“And?” Jake asked.
And he kisses like sex on a stick . . . “And he works too hard.”
“And you think what?” he asked dubiously. “That you’re going to change that?”
“He needs a life,” she said far more defensively than she’d meant to. “He was robbed of his.”
“Not your fault, Pru,” Jake said with firm gentleness.
“Well I know that.”
“Do you?”
“Yes!” she said, not gently.
“Then