“I told you I love you.”

My heart skips a beat again hearing those words come from him. I rub my chest, trying to calm the erratic beating just beneath the skin. “It’s unfair of you to expect me to say it back when I’m with someone else. Jacob… it’s too late.”

“Why? No one is married yet. You can still change your mind; the question is do you want to and I think you do.”

“There’s that arrogance again.” He doesn’t respond, he just lets out another sigh and leans over the railing. “I should go.” It’s getting late and while I haven’t necessarily consumed more alcohol, I feel my inhibitions lowering. I don’t know if it’s in response to my irritation with Parker, Jacob’s revelations or the combination of the two but I hear Chloe’s voice in the back of my head telling me to take a step back before I do something reckless. “I’m going to get an Uber.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll take you home, Whitney.”

“Okay but you can’t come in…”

He doesn’t look at me, he just continues to stare out into the night. “Are you telling me that or yourself?”

“You.” I answer with as much conviction as I can muster though a part of me believes I need convincing as well. Maybe I don’t need the temptation. “I could just go home with Chloe…”

“You and I both know Chloe is going home with my brother.” He laughs.

“Well, they could drop me off on the way, Chloe wouldn’t just leave me.”

“I said I would take you,” he counters.

“I just don’t want to inconvenience you.”

“Doing something for you is never an inconvenience.” I melt and I try to hide the smile but he notices it and his lips turn up in what I assume to be triumph.

Trey and Chloe had long been ready to leave and I was able to convince Chloe that I didn’t need to be chaperoned and that she and Trey could leave to get their more intimate reunion underway. We parted ways under strict instructions from Chloe to drop me off and for me to call her when I got in the door. The ride back to my house was quiet which I could only attribute to the mounting tension between us and I was trying my best not to fixate on it.

“Are you happy to be home?” I ask and Jacob’s eyes pull away from the road briefly to look at me.

“We’re doing the small talk thing?” I see the humor in his expression but I can also hear the sarcasm in his voice. I confessed my love for you, you haven’t responded and you ask me that?

“I… was just trying to make conversation.”

“I’m happy to see you. Even if you don’t share the sentiment,” he says. “And even if you are engaged to someone else,” he adds.

I need to get out of this car right now. My hands twist in my lap as I try my best to calm the nerves that are whispering in my ear to reach for his hand on the gearshift. To run my fingertips over his knuckles like I’d done a hundred times before.