Page 86 of Stay for Me
Melanie rises first, grabbing the plates before Sebastian takes the rest.
“Thanks again for this,” Jacob says. “I swear I will move you up the rung now.”
“Oh? Who will I overtake?”
“Sydney. God love the woman, but she cooks like shit.”
I burst out laughing. “I’m sure she’d appreciate you saying that.”
He raises his hands. “Hey, I’m starting to feel bad for Declan.”
He’s a mess. “Would you ever say that to her face?”
“Not a chance.” Jacob leans back in the seat, arms stretched out and grin wide. When he sits back upright, he sighs deeply. “I envy this.”
I look around to see what he’s looking at. “The mess?”
“The fact that you sit around with the kids and eat dinner. When my mom was alive, dinner was sacred. The four of us hated it, of course, but looking back . . . I wish we had more of them.”
“You were close with your mom?”
He nods, seeming to be drifting to a faraway time. “I was probably closest to her. Connor would like to think it was Sean, but Mom and I just understood each other. I could be sitting across the room, look over, and I swear she could read my mind.” He looks back to me. “Which wasn’t always a good thing.”
We both laugh. “But she was the glue . . .”
“Yeah, and when she died, it was like everything came undone. My father, our family, the life we had, but my brothers and I, we became impenetrable.”
I’ve seen it happen before. The four of them had to be what their mother was in some way. “I’m not at all glad that you had to endure any of it, but it’s a good thing that you had each other to weather the storm.”
Jacob tries to smile, but I know it’s fake. “We made each other a lot of promises, and one was that we’d never be like our father. For eight years, we lived without ever allowing ourselves the opportunity to break that vow.”
“What do you mean?”
“After the accident, my brothers and I promised to never risk becoming him. No kids, no marriage, control our anger . . . all that.”
“That sounds very noble.”
He laughs. “It was stupid. It also was lonely as hell.”
“Well, I just told you that marriage doesn’t always equal not being lonely.”
“True. This was just . . . punishment.”
I’m fighting back the urge to tell him what I would tell a patient. Jacob doesn’t need that. So, I reach out and take his hand. “Your brothers have all married and are having kids now.”
“They are.”
“But you won’t?”
His eyes meet mine, and I shiver when his thumb rubs the top of my hand. “I can’t. I want to. I would for the right girl, but what I’ve seen Hollywood do to couples? I can’t do that to someone. Not willingly.”
I knew what his answer would be but it doesn’t make it any less thoughtful or brave. He is willing to put aside his own wants and needs to protect others instead of just jumping in and throwing another person to the tabloid wolves. It’s sweet, kind, and I hate it. Being with Jacob has made all of his reasons seem like utter shit to me. Who cares about the tabloids? Who cares what Hollywood, the media, or the world think about us? I don’t. I want him. I am falling in love with him, and that means accepting that life—for him. I’ll take it all if it means I get him too.
That’s just one slice of our problem though because Jacob won’t stay. I won’t leave. There was a part of me that hoped for at least a maybe. A chance that, if I did get my heart entangled, it wouldn’t end in heartbreak. I was being a stupid woman.
“I see.”
Jacob leans forward, extending his other hand. Without pause, I place mine in his. “I would give anything to have met you earlier.”
