Page 81 of Hold on Tight

She got out of the car. Jake got out, too, and stood beside Sam. It was still warm and light out, although it was probably close to nine now, and Sam had to be exhausted, ready to drop. Although he’d slept some in the car.

“Hi, Mira,” Aaron said.

He had a low, steady voice, perfect for the romantic part Jake had cast him in.

Mira’s face was all wide-eyed emotion. Confusion, yes, and something else, something open and vulnerable and needy.

She’d downplayed it, but she’d loved this guy once. Maybe still loved this guy.

Goddamnit.

“Hi, Aaron.”

“Aaron!” Sam said, and catapulted himself into Aaron. And of course, Aaron, being Aaron and having two sound legs, did not totter or topple or have to catch himself by reaching out for Mira’s arm, but instead snatched Sam up with both arms and spun him around and hugged him.

Double Goddamnit.

“I’m sorry it’s taken me this long,” Aaron said. “I should have come after you right away. But I was—I was doing some serious thinking about my life. I wanted, when I came, to be able to tell you this …”

Jake could step in now. He could say,You’re too late, man.

He could say,Mira, wait. I should have told you I loved you. On the beach. After we made love. Which, by the way, undid me. Turned me inside out. I was too busy spilling my guts, losing my shit, to say what needed to be said. To do what needed to be done.

Why hadn’t he said it after he’d made his confession, when they were making love to each other again and she was wiping the tears from his face; when she was telling him over and over again that it was okay; when she was absorbing his grief and his fear and making it, temporarily, really, truly okay?

Because I suck at this. I suck at feeling too much and wanting too much, and I’ve screwed up so many things that matter …

“I’m interviewing for a job in Seattle this week, and I’m up here to look for a place to live. For both of us, all of us, to live. I came up here—Mira, I came to ask if you’d—”

Aaron reached into his blazer pocket and pulled out a little navy velvet box, because somehow Jake had accidentally stumbled into this movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Katherine Heigl. Jake, it turned out, had a cameo as the rebound guy.

Aaron held out the ring box, open, and something—Jake knew what—winked and flashed. “Mira, will you marry me? I promise, I’ll prove to you that your dad hadnothingto do with my feelings for you. Just give me a little time—I’ll prove it.”

The turmoil in Jake’s head and stomach was such that it took him a moment to realize that Mira wasn’t reaching for the box in Aaron’s hand. She had turned, and she was looking at him.

He needed to throw down a gauntlet, fight for her, but he couldn’t fight for her because he wasn’t prepared to hold the territory. He’d be some occupying army that would rape and pillage, and when he was done, he’d have nothing to offer. Not security, not safety, not peace. Aaron—Aaron had come three thousand miles, had planned and executed this, flown across the country with a ring box in his hand, a diamond glittering in the waning sunlight, a man so right for Mira that Mira’s own father had hand-picked him for her.

Jake would make the right decision this time.

“He’s just asking for you to give him a chance,” Jake heard his own voice saying.

“Jake—”

He started to back away. Toward the street, retreating to the bus stop.

She followed him. She stepped away from Aaron, away from the tall, dark, good-looking family guy with the velvet box in his outstretched hand, and followed Jake into the street, taking a step toward him for every shaky, asymmetrical step of his retreat.

“Jake?”

They were far enough away now that their lowered voices were probably inaudible to Aaron, but he watched them from a distance, and Jake could see he was trying to figure things out. Trying to understand what had happened in his absence, trying to grasp what he was up against.

Nothing, dude—I’m no obstacle to your happily ever after. This time, I’m not going to let my emotions get in the way of making the right decision.

Because last time, he hadn’t. Because he’d let his feelings get between him and what he’d known was best for Mike. For the team. Because he’d letlovecloud his judgment.

“I’m trying to keep you from making a mistake,” Jake told Mira.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “Really? That’s all you’re going to say? You’re going to say, ‘He’s just asking you to give him a chance,’ and you’re going to walk away?I don’t understand.”

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