She clutched the card in her palm, stared at the cordless phone on the coffee table, but didn’t pick it up. What would be the point? She and Rob had no future together.
She inhaled and forced herself to sit down to finish watching the show. She might have been tempted to turn the tube off if she didn’t think Jessie would choke her, but probably not. Her curiosity would have driven her mad at wondering how he’d end the show.
The commercials finished, and Rob came back on the screen. The scene picked up prior to where he’d been at the commercial break. Jill’s breath caught when he repeated his comment and continued.
“My world is empty without you. I’m m
iserable. Had you chosen one of the bachelors, I’d have gone insane. Or found a way to stop you. I should have offered you another choice.” He stared into the camera as if he were looking out her television set and straight into her eyes. “A choice to choose me. I didn’t throw myself into your list of options during that last day at the castle, but I’m offering now. Jill, will you spend a week with me in paradise?”
Chapter Nineteen
Jill stared at the screen and wondered if she’d heard right. He was asking her to spend a week with him?
A week to have an affair and then they’d go their separate ways? Okay, so they couldn’t have a happily ever after, but he’d just insulted her in front of millions of people, cheapened what they’d shared.
She grabbed the phone off the cherry surface of the coffee table and punched in the numbers off the back of the card she held with shaking fingers.
The absolute nerve of him to go on national television and ask her to have a weeklong affair with him.
Jeeze, where was the 1-800 number so all America could call in and vote on her decision for her?
She seethed. This stunt had to be for ratings.
How dare he take advantage of the way she felt for him in such a callous manner? How could he just ignore how his question would hurt her? The man didn’t know the first thing about love.
Right before she pressed the last number, Rob’s nervous glance at the camera had her pausing.
“Jill, I know this is an odd way to go about this, but I also know I hurt you, and it’s going to take something drastic to convince you that I love you.” He laughed a self-derisive chuckle. “Yes, you heard me right. I love you. With all my heart and I don’t want to be alone anymore. I need you in my life. Forgive me.”
Jill dropped the phone. Maybe she needed a 1-800 voting number to find out if she’d heard right.
“I knew this is what he had planned when he told me to make sure you were watching.” Jessie squealed, bouncing around the living room. “I just knew he loved you, too.”
Jill stared open-mouthed at her sister, at the television, while she tried to make sense of what was happening. Jessie had talked to Rob and hadn’t told her? She was dead meat.
Her gaze locked onto the television screen. Rob continued talking to her via the set. “These past two weeks really have been hell. I’ve missed you like crazy. I even went so far as to buy roses to keep in my room so that when I slept I could feel close to you.”
“Pretty corny, huh?” He grinned, and Jill fell in love with him all over again, as she imagined every woman in America just had. “This is for you, Jill.”
He snapped his fingers and disappeared. For about fifteen seconds of heart-stopping silence only the empty chair filled the screen.
Jill shrieked as Rob reappeared. She couldn’t tell where he was as the camera was close up on him. He spoke, but she couldn’t understand him over the roar in her head. All she knew was she had to talk to him, in person, now. Right now. He’d said he loved her. She jerked the phone up and punched in the number.
Ring.
Jill frowned as Rob stopped talking on the screen.
Ring.
He grinned as he dug in his coat pocket. The camera scanned back, and Jill’s stomach knotted tighter than if a boy scout used her insides to earn his Merit badge.
This was live feed.
Rob stood in front of her house.
Ring.
“Just a minute, folks.” He smiled into the camera while he found his phone. “I have to answer this just in case it’s Jill telling me to get lost.”