Tell her now. Another segue that’s as good as they’re going to get.
“Yeah, it wasn’t until this afternoon when he started losing his insides via his mouth.” I sighed to myself after. Every minute that went by made it harder to tell her.
“We should swing by, you know? Bring him some tea or soup or something.” She tipped her head so she was looking up at me.
My chest squeezed. She wasn’t just thinking about me, she wanted to do something for me. She wanted to do something nice for me on her wedding day. It was no wonder I’d had it so bad for Cora all of these years. No woman rivaled her. No woman ever could.
“Believe me, it would come right back up. And if we want to make our flight, we can’t waste another minute.” I checked my watch. We had plenty of time before our flight to make a quick stop, but there wouldn’t be a food-poisoned Matt to check on if we did stop.
“Then let’s call him.” Cora was already pulling her phone out of her purse.
“No!” I wrapped my hand around hers before she could dial my number. My phone was currently in my pants’ pocket and not silenced. “Let him rest. We’ll call him in the morning.” Yeah, brilliant. Delay the inevitable, because you haven’t already dug yourself a good and deep hole. “I’ve got his wedding present for us,” I said to shift the conversation. “He gave it to me earlier.”
When I pulled the silver bracelet from my pocket, Cora sat up, studying it carefully. “That was your mother’s.”
Her fingers touched the charms hanging from the bracelet, charms representing memories of all the places we’d traveled together before she died. From one of Mickey Mouse from the time she’d taken us to Disney World, to a spaceship from when we’d visited Cape Canaveral.
“Why would he give it to me instead of his wife one day?” she asked as I clasped it into place on her wrist.
That question was one of the few I could answer honestly. “Because he loves you.” I studied the bracelet on her wrist; it was a perfect fit. Then I glanced at the ring on her finger. I might have been the one who’d slid it into place there, but I wasn’t the one she wanted. I never had been. “You’re like the sister he never had and the wife he never will have.”
Her head shook against me. “He’ll find someone. I know it.” She exhaled, almost sounding sad. Was it pity? Or was it regret? I couldn’t be sure. “I can’t believe someone hasn’t snatched him up yet.”
I snorted, like I knew Jacob would have. “Matt?”
“Yes, Matt.” She blinked at me, one eyebrow raised. “Don’t pretend you don’t adore him. He’s a good man. You both are good men. I just want to see him happy like we are.”
Another break in my heart. It was a miracle there was still anything left to break after all of these years.
My arm tightened around her, my chin tucking over her head. “He is happy. I know it.”
He’d never been happier.
At least for the moment.
I loved him more than ever before.
It was a relief, because I hadn’t been sure how either one of us would feel once we were married. With some couples, it seemed like marriage made them fall more in love every day, and with others, more out of love.
Sitting in that limo, I knew for sure we were in that “more every day” category. I also knew I’d made the right decision. After everything—the doubts, the fights, the lies, the promises—I’d made the right decision. It was confirmed every time I looked into my new husband’s eyes. He didn’t just love me today—he’d love me forever.
He hadn’t just spoken his vows—he’d meant them. That had been obvious from the way his eyes never left mine as he said them, and from the tone of his voice, strong and unwavering. I’d felt it when he slid on my ring, and I’d felt it when he kissed me for the first time as a married couple.
Damn, just thinking about that kiss was making me shift in place, the memory of it warming my heart at the same time it made something else heat up. Jacob had never really kissed me like he had today, and in front of hundreds of people no less. He kissed me like we’d been lovers in hundreds of lifetimes before this one, like he wouldn’t rest until he found me in a hundred more lifetimes in the future. He kissed me like I was everything he needed, and I was clinging to the hope that I was.
Jacob and I had never had an easy relationship; I’d always assumed that was what made it so real. We weren’t like the couples who acted like they’d never so much as fired a heated word at each other or doubted if they were with the right person. We’d never been the perfect couple, but we’d been an authentic one.
He had issues, I had issues, and we fought about our issues. Regularly.
When he’d asked me a year ago to marry him, I hadn’t been able to answer right away. It had taken me two solid weeks of consideration and contemplation to give him my answer. Lately, I’d been doubting that I’d given him the right one. After today, I knew with certainty I had.
All of those doubts and mistakes, I’d leave in the past. He’d messed up, but I wasn’t exactly innocent either. That wasn’t what mattered anymore. I wouldn’t focus on what was behind us but what was in front of us.
“You’re quiet.” I glanced at Jacob as we waited for our tickets to be taken. He still made my stomach drop when I looked at him, even though I’d been looking at him for two decades. The Adams brothers had made plenty of stomachs drop. A side effect of having a nice body and an even nicer face.
He handed the woman at the gate our tickets before roping his arm around me. “Sorry. There’s a lot going through my head right now.” That same heavy, burdened look cast over his face. It had made its appearance a lot today.
“Having second thoughts?” I lifted his left hand, tapping his wedding ring with my finger as we started down the breezeway to the plane.
“Second thoughts about marrying you? No way.” His head shook. “But second thoughts about you marrying me? Maybe.”
My forehead creased. I wasn’t used to this thoughtful, brooding side of Jacob. He was more a fan of hiding his feelings than laying them out for me to see. “What do you mean?”
His breath came out all at once, like his lungs were collapsing on themselves. “Why do you love me? After everything I’ve put you through, why me?”
I waited to see if he was being serious. This was an odd time to bring up this kind of thing—hours after the wedding.
My silence was met with more from him, so I finally answered. “Because you’re not the only one with faults. I’ve got mine too.” My eyes closed when I thought of my own—my biggest fault had been a part of me for so long, I wasn’t sure it was something I could ever move beyond. But I’d have to try, because we were married now and that changed everything. “And you and I, we’ve been through a lot together and you’ve always been there for me when it counted. When I needed you.”
“You know you deserve better, right?” Jacob took my hand as we boarded the plane, making our way toward our seats up front.