‘I can’t.’
Jake let out a deep sigh of what sounded like exasperation. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘If you insist on sticking your stubborn head in the sand, then let me break it down for you in easy—to-answer questions. Only don’t think about the answers too much. Deal?’
Well, what option did he have? He wanted to know what was going on so that he could do something about it, but he just couldn’t seem to see the wood for the trees. ‘Deal.’
‘OK, then. Here we go. Do you like her?’
Leo nodded. ‘A lot.’
‘What do you like about her?’
‘Everything.’
‘How would you feel if you never saw her again?’
‘Lost.’
‘What else?’
‘Desolate. Wretched. Pointless.’
‘How would you feel if I told you she was standing on the ramp, watching us?’
His heart pounded at about two hundred beats per minute and his head swam. ‘Ecstatic. Relieved. Nervous.’ He took in a slow breath, then said, ‘Is she?’
‘No. So now how do you feel?’
He didn’t have to think about it. ‘Crushed.’
‘Do you love her?’
‘Yes.’
‘At long last,’ said Jake with a grin. ‘Thank God for that. My work here is done.’
But Leo wasn’t listening any longer. He was too busy reeling all over again because how could he have been so thick? How could he have been so blind? It was so obvious.
He was in love with her. Of course he was. Deeply and madly. She’d turned his life upside down. Had him behaving totally out of character and doing things that logic and reason utterly defied, and, while it had been baffling him for weeks, now it all made sense.
He’d spent so long trying to avoid love he hadn’t recognised it. It had hit him with the force of a sledgehammer and like a fool he’d mistaken it for mere lust. But it wasn’t just lust and he didn’t want her for just a fling. He wanted her for ever.
‘I’m nuts about her,’ he said faintly.
‘Seems that way.’
As the knowledge took root and spread Leo could feel his entire body fill with emotion. Everything he’d tried to keep at bay for these last few months, last few years, in all likelihood. His heart was thundering with it; his head was churning with it. He felt dizzy, overwhelmed, about to explode.
‘I think I need to throw something,’ he said, finally understanding what Abby had meant about releasing the build-up of pressure.
‘What?’
‘Only there’s nothing here to throw.’
He glanced at his brother and Jake’s eyebrows shot up in horror. ‘Don’t look at me.’
‘I’ve been an idiot.’
And now that the scales had fallen from his eyes and his deepest fears were bubbling to the surface he knew perfectly well why. The hurt, the failure, the fear.