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Her heart was hammering. She tried to pull her hand away from his, but his fingers had closed tightly around hers.
“I was scared, so obviously not so brave.”
And she was scared now.
Scared of what he might say. And, more importantly, scared of what he might not say.
“Oh, you were brave. Everyone around you was panicking, and you were pretending you were fine. That it was a walk in the park. I thought you were incredible. I kept telling myself that you were a kid, but I knew you weren’t. We laughed, talked, joked. I brought food into the hospital—”
“Cookies. I remember.”
“We dropped crumbs in your bed. I talked to you in a way I’d never talked to anyone in my life before. Do you know that you are the only person I have ever talked to about my biological mother?” He took a deep breath. “That night you told me you loved me—I was terrified. I had feelings for you, too, but I’d made a promise to Matt and I knew he was right. I would have hurt you.”
“Jake—”
“So I turned you down, and I did it in a way that I hoped would kill those feelings of yours. And after that I tried to make sure you didn’t have those feelings again.”
Matt frowned. “That’s why you were always arguing with her?”
Jake was still looking at Paige. “Twice in your life you’ve told me that you love me, and each time I’ve handled it badly.”
“You were honest.”
“I wasn’t honest. I wasn’t honest with myself, and I wasn’t honest with you. But I’m being honest now. I love you.”
Her breath caught in her throat.
How long had she dreamed of hearing him say those words to her?
“Jake—”
“You already know I do, but maybe you don’t know how much. I still need to show you that, and I will. I’ve been a coward and an idiot, but that ends now.”
She heard someone make a sound. It could have been Eva. It could have been Frankie. It could have been her.
She didn’t know, because Jake was still looking at her, and she’d waited to see that look in his eyes for so long she didn’t want to miss a moment of it.
“You love me?”
“I’ve always loved you, but love for me was the scariest thing that could happen to a person. Love, and you can lose. I didn’t want to lose. I’ve taken plenty of risks in my life, but I’ve never taken a risk with my heart. I told myself that I was protecting you, but mostly I was protecting myself. I told myself love was one risk that wasn’t worth the pain. But when you walked out last night I discovered the pain was there anyway, because I’d lost you. And I discovered that loving you, and being with you is more important than anything. I didn’t think I was ever going to find a woman worth taking that risk for. I was wrong.”
She’d promised herself that whatever he said to her when they finally met up, she’d smile her way through it and make it back to her room before crying.
But she hadn’t expected him to say what he’d just said.
“You’re sure you love me?”
“Very sure.” He gave a lopsided smile. “Truly, Madly, Deeply until I’m Sleepless in Manhattan.”
Emotion filled her. “I’ve told you, that’s not a movie.”
“It should be. It’s a great title. I bought you something.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small bag. “I hope you like it. It’s a shame you weren’t watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
She recognized the distinctive packaging and her heart started to beat a little faster.
She didn’t dare hope—
She’d done that once before and—
