Page 69 of Fight for Me
Today is for joy. Today is for Ellie. Today is for goodbyes.
* * *
“Dance with me?” Jacob asks me.
“What?”
“Dance with me, Syd.” He gets up and walks over, hand extended.
Connor and Ellie just finished their first dance, and now Declan is dancing with her. Jacob stands there, waiting with a sly grin.
“All right,” I say and allow him to lead me to the dance floor.
Last time I saw Jacob, his head was shaved for a role he was playing in a movie, and thank God, it’s grown back. “You look good.”
“So do you.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Jacob leans in and rests his head to the side of mine. “You know, I was always so jealous of Declan.”
“Yeah? Why is that?”
“Because he had you.” Jacob turns me slightly so we’re even farther away from his brother.
“Uh,” I stammer. I don’t know what the hell that means.
He laughs and then spins me. “Relax, I’m not saying I’ve been secretly in love with you. I’m saying that he had you. He had ... someone. Connor and I were the lone sheep in the pack. Sean had Devney, and Declan had you. It was good for him.”
“Until it wasn’t.”
He looks toward his family and then back to me. “Maybe. It wasn’t easy for him to lose you, Syd. It wasn’t easy for any of us, to be honest.”
“You didn’t have to, Jake. You could’ve come back at any time, and I would’ve wept in your arms.”
There wasn’t a moment I didn’t wish at least one of them would stroll back into my life. They chose to stay away, and it broke me a little each day.
“I wish it were that simple,” he says, effortlessly turning me around the dance floor.
“Why did you guys leave?”
Jacob swallows hard and then shakes his head. “It’s not my place to talk about it, Syd. I wish it were, but that’s up to Declan.”
I didn’t think he’d tell me. The best I hoped for was for him to confirm there was something for him not to tell me, which he just did.
“Can I cut in?” Declan’s deep voice asks from behind.
Jacob looks at me with an understanding smile and then nods. “Of course. She was always yours anyway.”
I go to open my mouth, but before I can, Declan is leading me out of the barn and into the night air.
The music is still going on behind us, people dancing, laughing, and enjoying the celebration, but out here, it’s just us.
“Declan?”
Instead of answering, he pulls me into his arms, and I can’t speak.
He looks so handsome. So very freaking handsome.
