The light turned green, and Jacques brushed away her tears again. “Can you drive,baby?”
She swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, I can drive.” And she eased off the brake and crossed theintersection.
“Rainey?” Ray asked hesitantly from the backseat.
“Yeah?” sherasped.
“Do sisters always cry thismuch?”
To Jacques’s relief, Rainey bubbled over with laughter. “Only when their rock-star boyfriends have been gone for two weeks and surprise them with long lost brothers,” she said, her voice wavering only alittle.
Jacques glanced back to see a look of relief passing over Ray’s face. “Oh, okay.” Jacques guessed he was about to find out that even sisters without rock-star boyfriends cried a ton when they met long lost brothers, but he kept that theory tohimself.
Ray turned to him. “Are you really a rockstar?”
Rainey jumped in before he could answer. “He will be in a month or two,” she said, grinning widely now. “You should get your autographs while youcan.”
Ray flipped his backpack onto his lap and unzipped it. “I already have his autograph,” he said, producing the card Jacques had included with his gift from themuseum.
Rainey eyed him in the mirror. “When did he give youthat?”
Ray pushed his glasses up on his nose. “It came with the model fossil set he got me from the La Brea Tar Pits Museum,” Raychirped.
The look of confusion this revelation warranted overtook Rainey’s face. “I think I have some catching up todo.”
Jacques and Ray caught her up as much as they could in the remaining five minutes of the trip. Inside, Rainey invited the Lopez-Craines to wait in the livingroom.
“Let me just check on Holi,” she said, excusing herself. But before she set off for the stairs, she grabbed Jacques by the wrist. “Come with me,” she said under herbreath.
Jacques followed her upstairs where she stopped in the hallway. Rainey looked up at him and held his gaze for a longmoment.
“You are amazing,” she said, her smile casting a spell of warmth around hisheart.
Jacques shook his head. “I just want to make youhappy.”
Her hazel eyes sparkled. “I think it’s safe to say you’ve succeeded.” She reached up and stroked his cheek, and Jacques could see she was holding somethingback.
“What is it?” he asked, pulling her tohim.
She bit her lip. “I want to makeyouhappy.”
He grinned, bending down and capturing her lips with his. “My God, Rainey, youdo.”
She pulled back, shaking her head. “Not like this. This is… this ishuge.”
Jacques gently stilled her chin with his hand. “What I want—” He halted and shook his head. “—no, what Ineedfrom you, you gave metoday.”
He watched her frown her pretty frown. “When?”
Holding her close, Jacques dragged his lips slowly over hers. “When you said we were real. When you said you knew I’d come home to you no matter what.” He pressed a long, ardent kiss to her lips before finishing. “Your faith in me as a musician is like fuel. It keeps me going, and believe me, I needed that in a place like L.A. It’s… well, nothing there is real. But Rainey…” He pulled back enough so he could look into her eyes and make sure she understood. “…it’s your faith in me as a man — as your man — that’s my air. As long as I have that, no matter where I am, I’mgood.”
Raw emotion washed over her face. “Jacques—”
“I know trusting me — because of your dad and what you watched your mom go through — I know it’s not easy.” He brushed his thumb over the fruit of her bottom lip. “So, givingthatto me ishuge.”
Her eyes lit with a happiness he’d never seen. “You’re it for me. You knowthat?”
“I do now,” Jacques said, grinning against her lips. He kissed her twice and then forced himself to set her back. “C’mon. Let’s go introduce your sister to yourbrother.”