Act Your Age, Eve Brown (The Brown Sisters #3) - Talia Hibbert Page 0,118

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