Drop Dead Gorgeous

Jacob opens the door and nearly runs smack into Holly, who’s holding Olive’s hand. “Oh,” she gasps.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. C’mon in, Hols,” Jacob says, suddenly not going anywhere. In fact, he escorts Holly in, giving her an appreciative once-over before taking over with Olive easily. “Hey, Olive, wanna see the new game I got? You try to keep the ice-skating penguins from falling into the icy water. If you’re good, they do pirouettes. If not, they get eaten by seals.” He tickles Olive, mimicking the seals’ chomp-chomp-chomp sounds, and she squeals happily.

Holly smiles warmly at Jacob. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” he says with a shrug as he guides the little girl over to a chair in the corner and shows her the game. He thinks it’s no big deal, but I know that happy smile on Olive’s face means a lot to Holly.

I still think Jacob is way too young for Holly, but maybe that’s because I see him as the teen he was when he came to Grandma and Grandpa’s.

But he hasn’t been that kid in a long time. He’s grown into a fine man, mature well beyond his years—other than the pranks he pulls on me, and Holly would be lucky to have a man who appreciates her the way Jacob does.

“Oh, noooo,” Jacob moans, “not the seals! They’re gonna get you!”

Olive wiggles her butt in the chair, turning the phone one way and the other to get away in the game.

“Whew, that was a seal-iously close one,” Jacob deadpans, and Olive beams happily, celebrating her penguin’s escape.

“You’re silly,” Olive tells Jacob.

“I think you mean seal-y,” he says with a smirk.

Oh, God, Holly is done for. Jacob’s got dad jokes.

Holly looks to me with wide eyes and begs, “Tell me what happened.”

I’m not sure if she means all my shit or how she missed the fact that Jacob’s all grown up.

“I think we’re gonna go to the vending machine, see what snacks we can find to get good and sugared up while you two talk. ’Kay, Holly?” Jacob asks, already holding Olive’s hand and stepping toward the door.

He knows that Olive doesn’t need to hear this story, and when Holly nods, he leads the girl out to the hallway, closing the door softly behind them.

“Short version . . . the dog trainer did it. Killed Richard, poisoned Yvette, kidnapped me, and had Yvette all sorts of messed up because the poison was messing with her mind, making her confused and suggestible. He was telling her all these awful things about the insurance, making them out to be the bad guys, and getting that slimy lawyer for her. Really hyping her up about the whole thing. She really thought he had stepped in to comfort her after Richard’s death and had fallen in love with her,” I finish sadly. “But the doctors are treating the poisoning, and she’ll be okay. Me too, no broken bones. Just a bad bruise and a little concussion watch that this guy has already volunteered for.” I cut my eyes to Blake, who’s watching me closely, probably cataloguing my speech patterns and speed to monitor for any changes.

“Wow,” Holly breathes out, horrified. After a few seconds to process, she blinks and focuses on me again. Pointing from me to Blake, she asks, “And you two?”

“I love him.” I’m answering Holly but looking at Blake. I see sparkles, which might be a concussion concern, but I think it’s the sparkles in his eyes as I say it aloud for the first time. “I love you.”

“I know, Miss Walker. It’s hard not to.” He gives me his single-brow lift with a cocky smirk, and I can’t help but laugh at his weirdness.

Just as weird, I reply, “You think so, Mr. Hale? Did you know most people decide whether they like someone in the first ninety seconds? Want to know what I thought of you after you crashed into my car?” We both know I hit him, but I don’t know that we’ll ever be done teasing about who caused the accident that started this all.

“Nope, because I already know what I thought of you . . . I thought you were gorgeous, smart, and funny. I was already halfway in love with you then.”

“You were not,” I argue halfheartedly.

“I was,” he says, but it’s lost in his kiss as his lips meet mine again. Sweet, soft kisses, almost pecks, but one right after the last as though he wants to sip at me.

I tease along the fullness of his lip with my tongue, and he opens for me, but instantly, he invades my mouth instead, holding my head gently so I don’t move and injure myself. Vaguely, I hear the door open and Jacob say, “Shiii-ooot, are they at it again? Come on, I’ll take you ladies for hot chocolate while these lovebirds do that.”