“I don’t say I love her most in the world. I do love her most in the world.”
“Of course you do. You make that clear every single day. Like the day you didn’t make it to your wedding. And the day after that, when you showed up and accused her of screwing me behind your back. You don’t have to convince me of your profound love for Cora. Consider me sufficiently convinced.”
My breath caught in my chest as I looked at Matt. He was too focused on my temple to meet my stare, but I wasn’t sure what he would have read in my eyes if he had. Part of me felt like I was telling him to stop, another felt like I was telling him to keep going—to never stop.
Jacob’s hands were curling into fists, releasing, then forming again a moment later. “Keep talking and I’m not going to need you to tell me what happened. I’m going to figure it out all on my own.”
“Seems like you think you’ve already got all the answers.”
“Enough.” My voice projected through the room louder than I’d intended. “Both of you.” This time when I glanced at him, Matt’s eyes met mine for a beat. “This male bravado crap isn’t helping anything.” Jacob stuck his arm out toward Matt like he was to blame, but I kept going. “Jacob, I’ll answer all of your questions that I can. What I can’t remember, I can’t help you with. Kind of like you can’t help me with what you don’t remember.”
Jacob was the first to look away, his jaw straining through his skin.
“We’ve all been through a hell of a few days, and maybe we all just need a little time to figure out what happened and what comes next.” I didn’t realize my hand was moving toward Matt until I felt it brush his shirt.
Jacob didn’t see it, but Matt didn’t miss it. He leaned in a little closer, until my hand connected with his body hidden beneath his shirt. My fingers curved into his stomach before falling back into my lap. Jacob couldn’t see, but that didn’t mean it was right for me to be touching his brother with him ten feet away.
“I’m with Cora,” Matt said, blowing at a chunk of hair that had fallen over his forehead.
“Big surprise there,” Jacob muttered.
“Need a little help?” I smiled when Matt blew another hard breath, only to result in another chunk of hair falling into his face.
“Please. This is why those head wraps are so convenient in surgery. Wouldn’t want to accidently sever an artery trying to get hair out of my eye.”
When my smile went higher, Jacob’s shoulders tensed. Taming it as best as I could, I lifted my hand to slide Matt’s hair back into place. The whole time I was touching him, Jacob looked like he was fighting every instinct inside him to stay where he was, while Matt looked like he was heeding every instinct inside him by staying where he was—facing me, his back exposed to his enemy.
“Better?” I asked.
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Better.”
Another minute passed, this one in silence. From the feel of it, Matt was almost done. I wasn’t sure if I was happy about that or not, because what came next? Where did the three of us go from here? We were all stuffed into this small hotel room, but what would happen when the last stitch was sewed into place? Would Matt go? Would he stay? Would we talk, or would we need to think?
Either way, I knew I’d be leaving this island in a few days. I just wasn’t sure who I’d be leaving with. Or if I’d be leaving all alone.
“Why did you fall?” Matt asked, shattering the silence.
When I shifted in my seat, Jacob stepped in. “We were talking.”
“About what?” From the flash in Matt’s eye, he already knew.
“I was asking her about you two,” Jacob answered. “Since neither one of you are volunteering too much information and I need to know. I have a right to know.”
Matt’s eyes darkened, his shoulders tense. “She fell because you were having a fight?”
“I fell because I tripped,” I interjected, hoping Matt would hear the plea in my voice that was asking him to let it go and move on.
“I didn’t push her. I’ve never laid a hand on her like that.” Jacob pushed off the wall, his arm flying between him and me like the idea was absurd. When Matt stayed quiet, refusing to accept what had just been said, Jacob’s face went red. “How dare you. You think I’d put my hands on Cora? That I could hurt her like that?”
His footsteps sounded like thunder rolling in the distance as he moved toward us, but Matt never once looked over his shoulder. I wondered if he was banking on the assumption that Jacob wouldn’t charge when I was close by, or maybe Matt just didn’t care if he got blindsided by his brother.
“You’ve hurt her in every other way, right?” Matt paused just long enough for that to charge the still air. “But if you did, if you did physically hurt her, that ending favor will be returned, brother.”
Matt must have been finished with my stitches because his hands lowered at his sides, the skin between his brows deepening as he inspected my temple. It was eerie how calm he was, how in control of his emotions and body he could be when his twin had never looked so close to losing his grip. With the way Jacob was looking, and the way I knew Matt was feeling, I knew the moment Matt stepped away from me, Jacob would charge.
“He hasn’t,” I said, looking at Matt as he started to rise. “He didn’t. I wouldn’t be with him if he had. That’s not the type of person I want to spend my life with.”
I’d been so focused on saying the right thing to calm them both down just enough to keep a fight from ensuing, I didn’t realize what I’d actually said.
Or how it would be taken.
Matt’s eyes narrowed as he started putting everything back in his bag. He wouldn’t look at me. “You wouldn’t be with him,” he said slowly, repeating my words. “That’s not the type of person you want to spend your life with.”
His hands braced against the desk after he’d packed up the last of his things. A sharp exhale popped out of his mouth as he shook his head. When he did finally look at me, it wasn’t the same Matt I’d spent the past few days with. It was someone else. A shell of that person.
“Thanks for the reminder. I needed it. I’ll leave you two alone.” He threw his bag across his shoulder, leaving the bottle of pain relievers on the desk in front of me.
As he started for the door, his name was rising from my throat.
Jacob stepped in front of him. “I need to know.” Jacob didn’t look as wild as before, but he still looked dangerous.
Matt’s entire back went rigid. “You want to know what happened?” I didn’t recognize his voice. From the look on Jacob’s face, neither did he. “I stepped in and took care of her for you. Again. And just like always, I do all the work and you reap the damn reward.” Matt’s arm thrust back at where I was still sitting in the chair, stitched up and frozen in place.