Page 131 of Stay for Me
“You don’t know that.”
“I have to believe it. Jacob is a fighter, and he’ll fight to come back to you. You’re the path. Sydney is right, you’re the woman my brother will live to see again.”
I shake my head. “We fought before he left.”
His hand rests on my shoulder. “I know what it feels like to think you’re going to lose someone you love. I had let Sydney down right before I almost lost her, and I was beside myself, but people assured me that she knew how I felt. And I loved her more than anything.”
“How would you have survived losing her if she’d died?”
Declan’s eyes cast over, and he looks away. “I don’t know, but I truly believe that Jacob will be okay. We have a bond, the four of us, and we’d know. I have to believe that one of us would be sure he was dead, and none of us are. He’s alive.”
I want to believe that’s true, but I know better than anyone that hope can only carry you so far. I start to cry harder, overwhelmed with the pain of not having him here when I need him. Declan pulls me to him, and I soak his shirt.
I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this up. I’m falling apart.
I start to pray.
Please, don’t take him. Please don’t let this graveyard hold another Arrowood who should still be on this earth. I’m begging you, God, Luke, Mrs. Arrowood, please let Jacob come back to us. I love him. I need him. I can’t survive losing him.
Declan rubs my back and then he tenses.
“Hello?”
I sit up, seeing a lantern in the darkness moving toward us. “Declan! Brenna!” Sean yells. “They found the plane!”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Jacob
“Just a little bit more, Jessica. Help is coming.” I hoist her into my arms a little higher. We have been walking for hours and just spotted two helicopters circling overhead. So, now, we’re walking faster to try to meet them. The pilot thinks they are circling there because it’s a clear enough space to land.
Her head rolls to the side, and she’s paler than before.
“How is she doing?” Elliot asks. He carried her the last hour, and the co-pilot, Jose, is too injured to do it. The two of us swap off, trying to give each other some time to regain whatever strength we can.
“She’s okay, right, Jessica?” I ask.
Her eyes open, and she nods. “I’ll be fine.”
When her lids go down, Elliot starts to talk. “Jess, we need you to keep talking, okay?”
Her injuries aren’t too bad, but she suffered a head wound that has us all worried. At first, she was walking fine, but that went downhill fast. We’ve been doing everything we can to keep her conscious.
“Talk about what? Do you know I miss Grayson? I loved Grayson, but I was stupid.”
“Why were you stupid?”
She sighs. “Because I wanted to see the world, and I gave him up. Like stupid girls from small towns do. Oh, and now I’m with the hottest guy in the world and he smells like oak and whiskey.”
I laugh. “There’s that.”
“Tell me about Brenna,” she says as she moves her head to rest on my chest. “She isn’t stupid. She probably loves you and would stay.”
“She’s beautiful,” I say with a restless sound. “She has these two kids who I love, and...well, I love her. We had a fight, but if we live through this, I swear to God, I’ll never piss her off again. I should’ve called her.”
“You mean you didn’t forgive each other yet?”
“No.”
