Perhaps it was the “Bed of Truth” effect, perhaps it was just her, but Jackson found it easier to voice his memories of his brother with Leah than he ever had before. “Dominic was the best. He was six years older than me and a million times smarter. He was funny, sociable, charismatic. Every girl had a crush on him. Guys wanted to be his buddy. And adults loved him.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I adored my brother. He was easily my parents’ favorite and I never minded. He aced every test in school without trying. He wasn’t amazing at sports but he’d join any team that would have him. There was nothing he wouldn’t have a go at.”
“I hate him a little bit already.” Leah pulled a face.
“You wouldn’t if you’d known him. Dominic was insufferably appealing. Whereas I’m just insufferable.”
“Insufferable is far more interesting. Appealing people are so tedious to be around, with their charm and general goodness. Yuck.” She nudged him with her knee and mock-shuddered.
Jackson’s lips quirked. She still wore the sweatshirt and shorts she’d slept in, didn’t seem to have brushed her hair, and her skin was nude of makeup. Fresh, natural, and unaffected, she warmed him like the sun. “He was supposed to take over Hale Evolution—Dadhad been priming him for years. It was all he ever talked about. How Dominic would take the company to the next level and they’d destroy the competition. It was the reason Dom started a business degree at UChicago. I couldn’t make the grades to get in.”
“I didn’t go to college either. Think of all the money we’ve saved.” Leah gave him her complete attention, hands cupped around her near-empty glass. “Did your brother want to take over the company?”
Jackson was silent for a minute. “I don’t know. I never got the chance to ask him.”
“What happened?”
He looked at her open face and struggled for the words; he wondered if she already knew.
“He got drunk on a night out in his sophomore year and climbed onto the roof of an old warehouse. His friends said he did it for a dare. They tried to stop him but he was wasted and wouldn’t listen. The roof collapsed. He fell twenty feet onto a concrete floor and died from head injuries. Just horseplay that went wrong.”
The baldly stated facts lay between them but it felt strangely calming to have someone to share them with.
“Oh, Jackson.” Leah’s eyes were huge. She put her drink to one side and scooted closer, leaning her head against his shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
After a heartbeat’s pause, he curled his arm around her waist. Dropping his chin to the top of her head, he dragged a deep breath in through his nose.
“I was devastated. He disappeared out of my life and everything was worse.” Jackson considered the gaping hole in the middle of his family. “My parents were left with me. Second-best in every way. Less smart, less popular, less easygoing. Just less. They can’t forgive me for not being him.”
“No.” Leah pulled away, kneeling on the bed. “You don’t believe that.”
“I do believe it. They’ve told me a million times in different ways over the years what a disappointment I am. I will never live up to the memory of my brother. I’m OK with that.” What a lie.
Leah’s face drew into unfamiliar lines. There was a fierce light in her eyes. “However hurt and broken they were, and I’m sure they still are, your parents are so lucky to have you. It must have been horrendous to lose Dominic, but you are not second-best in anything. You’re smart and loyal and unbelievably capable.” She leaned in and took his face between her hands. Her touch fizzed and crackled against his skin, the blood cells in his body sending arcs of electricity from one to another, shocking him in more ways than one. “Don’t you dare say you aren’t.”
Their noses were barely six inches apart. She was so close he could see each individual eyelash framing her mocha-dark irises. “Brown,” it would say on her vital statistics. But brown wasn’t adequate. They were rich like chocolate, warm like coffee. Alive with a force beyond description. She’d left her hair loose again and it curled in lush swathes way past her shoulders, held back only where she had tucked it behind her right ear. Jackson itched to take a big handful of it and pull her closer.
Her fingers were soft against his jaw and warm. She smelled of maple syrup.
He turned his head until his cool lips met her palm and rested his mouth there for a long, endless minute.
Chapter 21
Leah
The kiss that wasn’t a kiss seared her skin to the bone. When reality flooded in like a splash of icy water to the face, Leah scrabbled to get them back on track.
“Why don’t I get rid of the tray and get dressed while you have a nap? And when you wake up, if you want me to, I can read some more.”
“Sounds good.”
Was that reluctance in his voice or was she imagining it?
“Would it help if I took your phone?” Leah asked. “I can wake you if Natalia calls with something urgent. But don’t worry if you’d rather not.”
Jackson picked up his cell from the nightstand and held it out without hesitation. Leah hopped off the bed, gathered the remnants of their breakfast, and tucked his phone onto the side of the tray.
When she reached the door, he called out. “Leah?”
“Yes?”
