Page 118 of The Love Rematch
He nods.
So does she.
They watch the next fifteen minutes in complete silence as the show cuts to a ballgown-clad Sam waiting barefoot in the sand, surrounded by vibrant orchids and lush tropical vegetation, backed by turquoise surf, while Cooper marches toward her in a suit and a cowboy hat. They keep watching as he delivers his speech, then gets down on one knee to present a gleaming diamond ring. They keep watching as Sam stands there and stares at him, the moment extending almost impossibly long. And they keep watching as Sam, to the utter shock of no one in America aside from Emily and Jake, finally gaspsyesto the complete hunk of man kneeling before her. Suddenly, her sister’s decision to go to LA for the live show becomes perfectly clear.
“Did she…?” It’s Emily’s turn to trail off.
“Get engaged to Cooper on national television?” Jake completes the sentence. “Yes. Yes she did. FUCK!”
He turns off the TV.
It goes black.
Emily starts laughing.
“It’s not funny,” Jake growls.
That only makes her laugh harder. Soon, Emily is bent over at the waist, clutching her abs to keep them from aching. She sucks in a breath as she tries to stop giggling, but she can’t.
Sam.
The man-eater.
Engaged.
“It’s not funny,” Jake repeats.
“It is,” she forces out between laughs.
“No,” he growls. “It’s not.”
“Why not?”
“Because ifthatEmily Ann is engaged, then you, the real Emily Ann, can’t be.”
“So?”
He glances at her pointedly.
Emily sobers in an instant. “Jake.”
“Dammit.” His hands thread through his hair as he starts pacing between the boxes scattered across her living room. “I had this whole plan,” he says, to himself, to her, to Sam, all the way across the country yet still managing to be a pain in his ass. “The show was going to end. We were going to be free. And I was going to ask if you wanted to watch a movie, but I was really going to show you—”
He breaks off with a snarl.
Emily shifts forward on the couch. “Show me what?”
“Show you—” He stops to take a deep breath, as if suddenly noticing the annoyance in his tone. His expression shifts. The knot in his brow smooths. The tension in his jaw eases. The look in his eyes softens until their blue hue is as clear as a sapphire, sparkling with an inner light. He sighs. “Show you this.”
Jake grabs the remote and crouches before her, putting one hand on her leg as he turns the television back on. This time, a photo of them fills the screen. Emily sits with a dollop of whipped cream on her nose while Jake eats it off with the most graceless man-bite ever. Both of them sport wide grins, all innocence and young love and laughter. She recognizes the picture immediately. It’s from their second date. It’s also the photo Jake posted to his social media to announce to everyone that she was his, so keep off.
“Jake,” she whispers, unable to quite find her voice. “What is this?”
“Something I made seven years ago,” he says, squeezing her leg. “I kept it on my computer all this time, because even though I ran, I never stopped loving you, Em. And I never stopped holding on to the hope that someday I’d be able to prove it to you. Even when we were apart, you were always with me. But now we’re here. Together. And I don’t want to waste another nanosecond of time. We’ve waited long enough.”
He presses play.
Emily gasps as her memories flicker across the screen, clips he filmed of her, of them, photos they took together. It’s a montage of the happiest ten months of her life. Her hand goes to her lips. Her heart leaps into her throat, pounding with a joy and anticipation unlike any she’s ever known. He made this for her when they were two kids staring down an uncertain future, because he was ready to take on the world together.
