Page 83 of Uncharted

“No point in trying to keep a promise if you’re going to bail when it gets difficult,” I told him.

“God, no wonder you two are such best friends,” he said with a snort, bowing his head. “You’re both…ridiculous.”

“Hey, that’s my boyfriend you’re talking to, not just my best friend,” Jake piped up.

And so began the next round of chaos.

“Boyfriend?” Lauren exclaimed, whirling around to face her brother with wide eyes.

“You’re dating?” their dad asked in surprise, but he didn’t seem offended, so I guess that was a good thing.

“Called it,” Darren said with a sigh. Then looked at me. “Not really what I meant by taking care of him, for the record.”

“Instructions were unclear,” I told him as his mother practically smothered Jake, and I couldn’t make out the words she was saying. “Now I’m sleeping with your brother.”

“Yeah, you’ll fit in just fine,” he said with a grimace as he backed away, shaking his head.

“Good God Almighty,” Mika muttered beside me. “What have you done to yourself?”

“Well, I…oh, shit,” I said, but she was back, Jake’s mom wrapping me in another hug, this one around my neck and wiggling me back and forth. “I’m so glad you’re happy, but I can’t breathe!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, honey,” she said, choosing to clasp my face between her hands instead and give me a little shake. “I have said a few times to John that it’s a shame you two weren’t compatible like that. Not that being best friends is a bad thing, of course. But what’s better than marrying your best friend?”

“Marriage?” I exclaimed; my face smooshed between her hands.

“Brooke, you’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” Jake’s dad said with a chuckle. “And horrifying them.”

“No one said marriage,” Jake said, smirking as his mother finally released me. “We didn’t even really talk about the whole datin’ thing yet. We were gonna, but then, well⁠—”

He gestured between the two of us, indicating the state we were in and explaining what had got in the way.

“Oh, it’s new then,” his mother said with a sigh. “Well, that’s fine. You have plenty of time to get to know each other.”

“We do know each other, Momma,” Jake complained. “Ya already said we’ve been best friends, that hasn’t just…gone away. Geez.”

I’d always loved watching him interact with his family. He was still Jake, but there was a different side to him that wasn’t shown anywhere else. It wasn’t just in the way he teased Lauren or riled Darren up when he got the chance. It was in how he could be like a little boy when his mother got on his nerves, or an eager teenager when his dad spoke to him.

I was glad when they turned their attention to him and settled down, asking questions from every part of the spectrum. They hopped between our recent run-in with the grim reaper to what exactly our plans were for the future. There was a mention of marriage again, but thank God Jake squashed that immediately. Their chatter was as frequent as it was soothing since I wasn’t the focus of their intense energy, it was like seeing a bunch of Jakes do their thing, while also explaining how the man I loved became who I had known the past couple of years.

And there it was again: love.

“What’s going on in there?” I heard Mika ask, and when I faced him, he tapped my forehead. “You keep getting these…looks.”

“What looks?” I asked.

“The kind that says you’re thinking hard, but…not in a bad way,” he said, smiling. “Boyfriends, huh?”

“He’s right, I still have to ask him properly,” I said, glad Jake’s family was preoccupied for the moment so I could speak to my brother. “I’ve been…dragging things out. He deserves me to be the one to ask.”

Mika leaned on the bed so he was closer to me. “So, if I’m reading between the lines right…you’ve been having a hard time with it? Not him?”

“Yeah,” I answered, puzzled. “Why?”

“I just…” he frowned and chuckled. “Believe it or not, I wondered if something was going on between you two, but the real surprise is finding out you were the one who’s been having a hard time.”

“In more ways than one,” I said, quirking my brow.

He groaned. “No. Just because you’re apparently on the same team as me does not mean you get to share more. I do not need to know about your sex life now any more than I did before, got it?”