She watched as his mother went up to the platform, and then listened to her voice as she spoke about Joseph, the words blurring together as her vision did, her fingers still firmly intertwined in Jacob's. She saw out of her peripheral vision that Mia had begun to shudder as she cried, and she gently put an arm around the little girl who gratefully leant into her side.

"I have to go up." She turned her head to him, they were so close that his lips touched the loose hair that fell in front of her ears. "I'm doing the second eulogy." Her eyes met his, and he suddenly felt filled with more courage than he had had at any other point during the evening. She brought their hands to her lips again, and he looked at her, at the tears tipping over her cheekbones and rolling to her jaw, which he brushed away with gentle fingers before he rose from his seat.

He walked up to the platform, and saw how Mia now took Connie's hand, the two of them looking up at him as he spoke. He focused directly on Connie, and she looked back at him with her beautiful green eyes, a hand occasionally going to her fringe to brush the hairs from her eyes which smarted with tears. He then looked to his mother as he spoke his last few sentences, before exhaling a long, shaky breath and returning back to his seat.

"Perfect." Connie whispered to him, her hand slipping into his once more as though it belonged there.

...

An hour later, Connie waited by the car, having guiltily left Jacob to say goodbye to Mia alone, unable to take the girls tears after a day full of such strong emotion. She found herself looking at the photo of Jacob and Joseph together that she'd been given and wondering how she'd feel if something happened to Jacob. In such a short time, he'd come to mean so much to her, and the thought of him no longer being around made her feel vulnerable.

"Ready to go, Queen Bee?" Jacob asked, the light-hearted tone back in his voice, though Connie knew instantly it was being put on.

In silence she reached out and drew Jacob towards her, and when he frowned and opened his mouth, she put a finger to his lips. A moment later, she replaced that finger with her own lips, kissing him gently. The sort of kiss he'd spent weeks thinking about.

Jacob's hands rested on the small of Connie's back and drew her closer, held on to her almost too tightly as their lips were finally forced to separate by his tears, As Jacob buried his face into her hair and cried, Connie stroked the back of his head, offering all the reassurance she could.

"You were perfect in there, he would have been so proud. I was proud." She paused, closing her eyes momentarily before speaking in a soft whisper, " love you, Jacob."

She hadn't intended to say those words, and now she stiffened in his arms, wondering if he'd heard. He made no move away from her, but she kept still, her fingers continuing to caress his head until his tears lessened and he pressed his lips shakily, but tenderly to her neck.

"I don't want to go back." It was a whisper, and although his face was buried in her hair, he heard her. He closed his eyes, and made small circular motions with his fingers on her back.

"We can't just do this for one night, Connie. I can't... I can't do that." He straightened his arms to hold her so that he could see her face, see how she struggled to find it within herself to tell him that they had to go back to how things were before, because of Grace.

"Jacob-"

"I love you." He spoke softly, a single tear working its way from the corner of his eye down to the side of his nose. She reached up to touch her lips to it, and then to his, before she pulled back to rest her head against his chest, her eyes closed and tears interwoven with the mascara on her lashes.

"You know..." He paused, looking down at her before continuing, his voice low but levelled. "Sometimes, we hide everything we're really feeling from the people who probably need to know what it is we're feeling the most." She turned her head upwards, Grace's words repeating themselves in her head.

"I can't go back to her tonight, Jacob."

As his thumb brushed a tear from her cheek, Jacob replied, "And I can't do just one night."

"...I'll talk to her. Somehow I will get her to see that she won't lose out by us being together-" Connie began, talking breathlessly.

Jacob didn't know if she would, but he allowed himself to believe her. For tonight, he'd imagine that it would be okay so he could get the comfort he so craved.