6. Jake
Jake
Jude was a no-show—or so Warren said. Something about work that my brother couldn’t cancel, but he’d try to make it before the end of the weekend—and I was completely okay with that.
From the narrow-eyed expression on my friend’s face, Warren was obviously not giving me the full truth, and the only reason he would do that was to protect Yara.
Which could have meant any number of reasons for Jude’s absence, none of which I was going to stress myself out over trying to solve.
Yara was disappointed, but she didn’t let it affect her excitement.
Warren had made the decision that disappointing Yara was better than whatever the truth was, and that in itself was a flag I made the conscious decision not to label as red or green.
Obviously, it was very bright yellow, and I should be asking questions.
“We’re meeting Heaven in thirty minutes in the bar downstairs,” my sister announced after she got off the phone with her friend. “She needs food, and I need alcohol.”
With a huff, she tossed her phone on the sofa in the sitting area and then squealed so loud I groaned. “You two are finally going to meet my favorite person. This is turning into the best day ever. Which should have been impossible, given the way everything started.”
I still wasn’t clear on what had caused the spontaneous decision to elope, but I figured it was something monumentally insane, given all the other bullshit she’d let slide throughout the previous months while planning her wedding.
Warren glowered at her. “I’m your favorite person.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Only sometimes. Heav is my favorite person every day. Deal with it.”
“Already hate her,” he grumbled, a small smile teasing at his lips. “But I am curious about your ballbusting best friend. You’ve been so over-the-top protective of her, I don’t even know what the girl looks like.”
Which was another unusual thing about my sister.
She didn’t allow anyone close enough to breach her walls.
Trust was a very rare, fragile, and utterly precious thing that none of us had experienced often.
I trusted Warren with my life and, even more importantly, with my little sister’s.
Although there had been a period of time when I’d had my doubts where Yara and Warren were concerned, I’d still never doubted that he would protect her at all costs.
As volatile as Yara could be, I didn’t trust another woman more than I did her.
She was loyal to those she loved most, which I’d thought only included Warren and me.
Jude had his moments, but our sister wasn’t nearly as close to him as she was with me.
Sometimes, though, she gave him the benefit of the doubt, and he rarely deserved it.
She struggled with seeing that Jude was too ensnared in the games Mom liked to play to understand he was a lost cause and not deserving of her loyalty.
“Yeah, I’ve never seen her either. Not even when I came out to visit you at school.
” I took a drink of my water, needing to hydrate early, because once Yara started drinking, we’d all be drunk before midnight trying to keep up with her.
“Your friend was always mysteriously visiting her parents or you insisted on meeting at a restaurant. It’s weird that this person is your best friend, and no one in your family has ever set eyes on her. ”
Yara grimaced. “You know how Mother is. She wouldn’t have approved of the friendship. And you two are meeting her now.”
She started to walk away, ready to take one of the bedrooms. With Jude and his mysterious girlfriend out of the equation for the moment, Yara had decided that she and Warren were getting a suite all to themselves.
Which apparently left me in the other suite alone since my sister’s friend had her own room.
Before Yara reached the bedroom, she abruptly turned and glared at both Warren and me. “Do not make me regret introducing you two idiots to my friend. I will make your lives a living nightmare if you do.”
“Noted,” I said dryly, although I took the warning completely seriously. Yara did not make idle threats.
Twenty minutes later, we were in the bar waiting at a back, high-top table.
Yara had already tossed back a few drinks, studiously ignoring the buffet of appetizers she’d ordered yet refused to allow anyone to touch until her friend arrived.
She softly hummed to the music, her eyes locked on the entrance.
Beside her, Warren was scrolling his phone.
From the brief glance I’d gotten of his screen, he was deflecting text messages from his sister.
I sipped my bourbon, trying hard not to look at my own phone.
Ven hadn’t responded to my text earlier.
I could see the message had been delivered, so I knew she’d gotten it, but I had no clue if she’d even seen it.
A restlessness I wasn’t used to slithered through me.
I wanted to call her just to hear her voice.
And since I was going to have an entire suite to myself, I was hoping to invite my little bunny back to my room as soon as this little get-together was over.
Ten minutes into waiting for the girl to show up, I gave up the fight and called. It rang forever, and I was about to hang up when a breathless “Hello?” hit my ear.
“Bunny,” I rasped, and Warren’s head snapped up fast enough to give himself whiplash, brows lifted.
I glared at him, and he smirked, that knowing gleam in his eyes. Shrugging, I turned my back to him and my sister to give the woman on the other end of the line my full attention.
“Jake, hey,” she said, her voice full of warmth. “Sorry, I didn’t text you back. I only saw it about an hour ago, and then something came up. I’m about to meet my friend. But maybe after…”
“Definitely after,” I told her.
“Okay,” she said softly, that warmth turning hotter. “I…I think I miss you. Weird, right?”
Something uncoiled in my chest, a knot I didn’t know was there until it eased. “Not weird, because I miss you too, bunny.”
“Jake,” she breathed my name, and that was all it took. Just that sweet, husky voice saying my name like it was the only thing worth speaking, and my entire body responded.
There was a small pause, both of us working to get ourselves under control. Soon, I promised my aching cock. I’d see her before midnight. Have her back in my room before sunrise. In my bed before breakfast. Married before the new year.
That was a solid plan that I could and would make happen.
“I’ll call you after,” she said. “See you soon.”
The call ended, and I stood there, my back still to my sister and friend, trying to get my body to calm the fuck down, staring at my now-black screen. Missing her so damn badly my heart literally hurt.
And then Yara screamed. It was her excited girlie scream that she only set free when she was overwhelmed with happiness. Warren grunted at the unexpected loudness, then muttered an explicit curse.
“Holy shit, that’s the friend?”
I turned slowly, curiosity finally pulling me from the mental itinerary I’d been preparing of a countdown to making Ven mine in every way.
Yara had rushed forward, her arms around another girl dressed in a black dress.
They were both laughing loudly, pulling all eyes to them as they embraced and simultaneously jumped around in a silly circle.
All I saw was dark hair hanging loose, long legs, and killer heels. Then they stopped dancing around, and I finally got my first look at my sister’s best friend.
Every ounce of air suddenly forcefully evacuated my lungs, my heart doing a crazy double beat that was borderline painful before it settled into a tempo that imitated a racehorse on the track.
“You’re here!” Yara exclaimed, her voice full of emotion that she rarely allowed anyone besides Warren and me to hear.
“This is the best, worst day. It started out so shitty, and I nearly killed someone. But now I get to end it with you and my other favorite people in freaking paradise. Yes, best worst day ever!”
Laughing, Ven hugged her again. “It’s going to be the most amazing, I promise. I’ve already got everything planned. Brunch. Spa. Dinner. Dancing. You’re going to be spoiled to within an inch of your life.”
“I missed you.” Yara pulled back slowly and then turned to face us. “Guys, this is my bestest best friend in the world. I don’t know how I would have survived college without her. Heaven, you’ve spoken to Warren plenty of times to know who he is. And this is—”
“Jake,” Ven breathed, her blue-gray eyes widening in surprise. Then her smile turned softer. “Of course it’s you. The universe has been very insistent today.”
All I could think was she’s been right there, right under my nose. And I had no idea. So close. I could have found her sooner. Loved her longer. We could have been building a life together for years at this point.
It felt like a betrayal somehow, that my sister had denied me the person I was meant to be with. My one. My soul mate.
But that feeling only lasted a moment before I shoved it away. The past didn’t matter. We were here now. That was the important part.
Yara turned to face me from across the table, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed in a way that reminded me of our mother. And it definitely would have pissed my sister off if I’d voiced that observation. Especially given the current climate of their mother-daughter relationship.
“Jake, this is my best friend. Not an acquaintance or a classmate. Not a throwaway friend. Not some person I met once and we casually say hello if we cross paths. This is my best friend. She is my favorite person in the world, and, yes, Warren, she trumps you. I love her. I will kill for her. And if you play games with her, I will make use of that beautiful active volcano and push your sorry ass into it.”
Her face shifted, going from scary baby sister to benevolent in a single blink. Her eyes softened, a shimmer of what I hoped was acceptance staring back at me. “You’re not going to do that, though, are you, Jacob? You aren’t going to play games with my bestest best friend.”
“Is Scrabble an option?” Ven asked with a mischievous smile, nudging Yara out of the way so she could get closer to the table. “Oh, thank gods you ordered appetizers. The clock was quickly running out before I turned into a she-hulk and smashed everything in my path in search of carbs.”
Without hesitating, she grabbed a coconut shrimp and took a hearty bite. Moaning, she chewed, not appearing the least bit self-conscious. “Yar, this is divine. Oh, is there mahimahi in this salsa? Yum.”
She ate like no one was watching, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away.
I’d never witnessed a woman enjoying food so much.
Even Yara had a tumultuous relationship with eating.
That was thanks to our mother, who had made her self-conscious of every calorie she consumed to the point that I’d once thought she was struggling with bulimia.
The majority of the women I’d known in any and all capacities throughout my life were like that, and I’d never paused to question it until Yara was older.
When she went off to college, she was scary thin, but by that first Christmas, she’d gained a few healthy pounds.
Which she’d lost again during that winter break.
I took a few days that following spring to visit my sister, and she’d appeared healthy once more.
That night at dinner she’d actually eaten more than a few bites of salad.
Scooping up some of the salsa with a chip, Ven carefully shoved it into Yara’s mouth. “Eat more, talk less. Two minutes. Then you can ask all the questions.”
Warren stood there silently watching the exchange between the two women, his face stuck somewhere between love and grief.
This was a side of Yara neither of us had been privileged enough to see until now.
It wasn’t that we were sad we hadn’t gotten to experience this part of her.
It was that she’d never felt truly accepted and comfortable with us to allow us access.
Not even Warren, not fully, not like this.
Watching Yara with her friend, it registered that this was how she’d healed when she’d left home for college.
This was her person. Not just her bestest best friend.
Not simply her favorite person in the world, second to no one.
This was the girl who’d glued Yara’s heart back together when it shattered, guided her, helped her grow into the woman she now was.
And that was just what we noticed in the mere handful of minutes of her being back in Ven’s presence.
Warren slung back the rest of his drink and signaled for another round.
Leaning his elbows on the table, he propped his head on one hand, watching Yara with hearts in his eyes while she giggled and crunched into a shrimp.
I imagined my face held the exact expression, my eyes following every move Ven made.
How she laughed when Yara stole a piece of mango from her chip, or the different shades of brown that were scattered throughout her dark hair that the intimate lighting caught.
On the plane, I’d thought I’d memorized every feature.
It turned out, my memory didn’t do her beauty justice.
Her dress was sexy yet simple, something she could have worn to any event and no one would have questioned her choice. And those goddamn heels that made her legs look endless. Fuck, I wanted those legs wrapped around me. My head, my waist, it didn’t matter which, as long as it was soon.
I still didn’t understand how I was able to stand there and not reach for her, not pull her to me and finally find out what she tasted like.
Especially once it fully hit me that Yara was okay with me being with her friend.
I wouldn’t have any hoops to jump through to get my sister on board with our relationship.
That was going to make things so much easier moving forward.
Hopefully it would help our parents accept Ven once I introduced them.
Only at the two-minute mark did Ven dust off her hands and take a sip of the bottled sparkling water Yara had ordered for her when we’d first arrived.
“I met your brother on the flight over. Allegedly, he bribed the flight attendant in first class to let him switch seats. He saved me from committing a felony, because the woman he swapped with was being greedy with the personal space.”