"I'll be home by the time you finish school tomorrow, sweetheart. I'll come and pick you up, if you like, and we can go and get something to eat?"
"I still don't see why you had to be the one to go." Grace grumbled, sick of being at her grandmother's house already.
"Zoe just needed someone to talk to." Connie lied, shutting her eyes tightly, hoping that Grace wouldn't know she was lying. She'd always liked Zoe, and Connie hoped this might make her more accepting of being suddenly left alone.
"...Maybe we can go shopping tomorrow afternoon as well?" Grace asked hopefully.
"If you're good for your grandmother. Look, I need to go, but call me if you need me, okay?" Connie watched as Jacob exited the bathroom, wearing only a towel around his waist.
He had suggested they go back to Holby in the morning because his house was a mess, since the news of Joseph's death he had been taking more shifts at work to avoid spending time alone. Therefore, they had paid for a night in a hotel, half an hour away from the city. Neither of them were particularly concerned about their lack of nightwear, and Connie would have time to change out of yesterday's clothes before she picked Grace up from school, after which she planned to tell her exactly how she felt about Jacob.
On seeing him standing there, in front of her like this, after so long... Despite the emotional pressure of the evening, she now felt more than content. He had stood, holding her for several minutes once they had arrived, the two of them taking the time to assure the other that this was what they both wanted. This had been followed by several more minutes of furious love and passion, the time in which they had spent apart being noted and dutifully erased.
Now, he moved over to where she sat on the bed, her hair now loose and a smile on her face, once more lit with the life that he had noticed missing ever since the accident in the basement.
"Thank you..." He sat beside her, and touched his hand to her cheek, she placed her hand gently over his before removing it from her face, linking their fingers as she did so. "I got through that today because of you, Connie."
He looked into her eyes and she cast them downwards, to then feel her chin being tilted upwards again. His lips descended onto hers, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, and she shifted to sit over him as he twisted her hair in his fingers, promising to himself that he would never let her go again.
...
It was an hour later, when they lay curled up in bed, that Jacob voiced the thought that had refused to go away. "You shouldn't tell Grace."
"Hmm?" Connie lifted her head and rested her chin on Jacob's chest as she looked up at him with a sleepy smile.
"Don't tell her. At least not yet. We will work something out. If she is as temperamental as her mother, telling her to like it or lump it is going to have the wrong effect. We will keep it quiet, and we will think of a way to help her accept it." Jacob decided. He knew how guilty Connie felt about the past, and he knew she could be easily swayed to agree with Grace once more, but after today he wasn't prepared to lose her.
"...You've been thinking about that this whole time?"
Jacob smiled down at the woman in his arms. "Yeah, what have you been thinking about?"
"Dinner." Connie responded with a smile, a laugh escaping her lips as Jacob suddenly flipped them to hover above her.
"In bed with me for the first time in weeks and all you can think about is food?!"
"Yes." Connie replied, laughing again at the expression on Jacob's face. Never before had she met someone who could make her laugh so easily.