A quick peek toward the foot of the bed showed Jacob’s washboard abs rippling as he scrubbed his hands over his face. Look away, girl, he’s not really yours. His voice was deep and gravelly when he began explaining. “You said that you remember Mark showing up last night.” She nodded her head, and he continued. “Mark and I were in San Francisco. I guess when he spoke with Crystal, he decided to take a detour and visit her. I told him it was fine with me. I’d planned to get a room and crash for the night. Asher and Dylan Jackson were here on business since their family owns the Oceanix Resorts, so I ended up having a drink with them. I ran into you in the hallway outside the bathrooms.”
“And you actually recognized me?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“Of course,” he said, sounding slightly offended. “You’re not an easy woman to forget, Lydia, trust me on that.” She tried her best not to melt into a warm puddle at his words. She’d have been thrilled had he just admitted that she looked vaguely familiar. “Anyway, we chatted for a few moments, and I walked you back to the table where your friends were. It was pretty late by that point and most of the ladies were in the process of leaving. Within a couple minutes, only you and I were left. So we had a few more drinks and talked. In hindsight, we probably should have switched to water, but that didn’t happen.”
Lydia pinched the bridge of her nose before saying, “I still don’t see how we got from there to having Elvis marry us. I’ve had a few drinks before without marrying the first man I ran into.”
She yelped as Jacob pinched her toe. “Thanks for the ego boost, sweetheart. You make it sound as if you tied the knot with the casino janitor.”
“This is no time to get sensitive,” she chided, although she did feel a little guilty for the unlikely possibility that she had, in fact, hurt his feelings. Her opinion wouldn’t keep a man like Jacob up at night.
His hand remained on her foot, and strangely enough, he began rubbing it absentmindedly. She wondered if he was aware that he was even doing it. “You told me about your fiancé dying and how sad you were that you’d never have your happily-ever-after like Crystal and Mark.”
“Oh, good Lord.” Lydia sagged back against the mattress, feeling boneless in her embarrassment. Maybe the bed would swallow her up and she could end this misery now. She’d literally been crying in her beer in front of the man she fantasized about licking like a Popsicle. Color me pathetic. “And you what, took pity on me and decided to help me mark a big one off my bucket list?”
The hand on her foot froze as he said, “It really wasn’t like that, Lydia. We really connected and got swept up in the moment together. I could see that you were still in pain, even though it’s been three years since Brett died. You had a life planned with him and then it was taken away from you. Naturally, you would feel that loss keenly at an engagement party. You showed no sign of being jealous of Crystal and Mark. You were just sad that the wedding you’d planned never came to be. So even though you were joking when you asked me to marry you, I said yes. Then we took a cab a few blocks to the wedding chapel and made it official.”
It was worse—so much worse—than she had even imagined. “Jacob,” she began hoarsely once she could speak past the lump in her throat. “I—I don’t know what to say. You didn’t have to marry me last night just because you pitied me. And I can’t believe I went along with it. Was I coherent when I said, ‘I do’?”
She squealed in alarm when Jacob suddenly shifted to his knees, and in a blur of movement that her eyes could hardly track, he was straddling her body. He looked beyond pissed when he gritted out, “Let’s get a few things straight. First off, I didn’t marry you because I felt sorry for you. Get that out of your head right now. Did I feel bad that you’d lost your fiancé? Hell, yeah. I’m only human. But your strength really struck me last night, Lydia. You were so damned happy that your friend had found Mark and there wasn’t a trace of pettiness behind it. You told me about sitting with Brett in his last days and doing everything short of moving mountains to make all of his last wishes come true. It was clear to me that you could have given up and walked away, but you stayed with him until the end. You’re strong and selfless. So when I asked you what your dream was and you said to get married the way that you’d planned, something came over me, Lydia . . . I wanted to give it to you. It may be crazy, but I had no reservations when I gave you my name.”
Lydia was riveted as she stared up at him. The truth of his words was plain to see in his body language. She’d told him everything about Brett’s death; otherwise, he’d never have known all of the details that he’d so achingly replayed for her. She could feel her bottom lip tremble as tears welled in her eyes. “But we’re strangers,” she whispered. “Before last night, the only thing I really knew about you was that you were handy with a spare tire and worked for Mark DeSanto. And I’m sure you knew even less about me.”
Jacob lowered his hand to gently trace the curve of her mouth. “I desired you from the moment you stood before me in that silky white dress in the garage, looking like the most beautiful damsel in distress I’d ever seen. I’m surprised you didn’t notice what a fumbling mess I was while I was working on your car. I wanted to ask you out that day, but—well, things were so damned complicated in my life then, and I thought you deserved a man who could devote all of his attention to you.”
“That hasn’t been that long ago,” she pointed out. “What’s changed for you since then?”
He opened his mouth and then closed it again. Finally, he shrugged and said, “Maybe I just didn’t want to miss my chance with you. Sooner or later, someone would come along and sweep you off your feet and I’d have kicked myself that I’d let you go without getting a shot.”
She felt dazed as she considered his words. Had he really been that attracted to her from their first meeting? That would mean that he’d felt at least some of what she had after the time they’d spent together that day.