She’d known this all along, hadn’t she? No one else had ever made her feel so safe, so beautiful. So loved.
He wasn’t the one who needed to apologize to her. It was the other way around: She needed to apologize to him.
She pushed away from her car and headed for the Stanford quad to face her demons, praying for guidance that this time she could finally get it right.
Jason stood on the Holdens’ front porch and rang the doorbell, trying not to feel like a nervous kid. Jesus, did he really need to remind himself that he could buy and sell these people ten times over? That he was a celebrity? A huge, indisputable success?
Emma’s mother opened the door. “Jason,” she said, only marginally glaring at him. Hot damn, he almost felt welcome.
“Mrs. Holden.”
She opened the door wider. “Call me Jane. Come on in.”
His mouth fell open. Jane? Come on in? Had he landed in some sort of anti-reality?
“Thanks,” he said, managing to pull himself together before she had her proof that he really was as mentally deficient as she’d judged him to be in college.
Emma’s father stood in the kitchen staring out the window. When Jason walked in, he turned and held out his hand. “Hello, Jason. We are extremely sorry about the commotion we caused in your restaurant.
Aren’t we, Jane?”
Jason could hardly believe his ears. Had Walter actually apologized? And forced his wife to do the same?
Jason kept his face expressionless as Jane nodded. “We are.”
“I appreciate that,” he said, unable to resist saying, “although the person you should really be apologizing to is your daughter.”
Both of her parents’ faces turned pink and Jason decided he could leave it at that. For now.
Clearing his throat, trying to be polite even if he wasn’t sure they deserved it, he said, “Is Emma here? I’d like to speak to her.”
Jane shook her head. “I’m afraid she left ten minutes ago.”
Jason’s hopes sank to an all-time low. “Do you know where she went?” he asked, not bothering to mask his dejection.
“I’m sorry, we don’t.”
“Oh.”
“We’ll let her know you stopped by next time we see her.”
Jason nodded, unable to speak. Jane and Walter followed him to the front door.
“We won’t get in your way again.”
Jason turned, shaken out of his funk. “Excuse me?”
Walter’s complexion had gone ruddy. “We know she’s in love with you. All we want is for her to be happy.”
A million questions rushed through Jason’s mind. Were they implying that he made her happy? How did they know she was in love with him? Was it because of what had happened in college? Or had she
declared her love for him ten minutes ago in their kitchen?
Again, he couldn’t speak. Only nod and get back in his car. He clicked open his cell phone and called hers. No answer, only her voice mail. He clicked his phone shut.
Jason was down to instincts and instincts alone. He needed to head back to the place where everything in his life had broken apart. Stanford University. The quad.
Because maybe that was the place where everything could be put back together again.
Emma stood in the center of the quad, oblivious to students whizzing around her on their bikes, professors carrying armloads of files and books back to their offices, freshmen girls giggling as they gossiped about which boys in their dorms they currently had crushes on.
Ten years receded and she was standing in this exact spot. Watching her world break into a million pieces.
Looks like you’re having a big happy family Easter, aren’t you?
The memory of his words hit her as squarely in the gut as they had a decade ago. She should have run to him, made him understand that she didn’t want any part of the life she’d been groomed for. She should have said, “No, we’re the opposite of a big happy family. You’re my family, Jason. Just you.”
But when she was twenty-one she hadn’t said that, had she? All she’d wanted was for him to go away, she’d begged him to go away so that she could keep her safe, tidy life. God, what a little coward she was.
And when Jason had said,“Walter, it looks like you’ve found a much better candidate for your daughter,”
she hadn’t denied it, all she’d done was cry.
It was no wonder Jason had walked out of her life for ten long years. The question that had been tugging at her subconscious all week returned with a vengeance: Why had he come to the reunion? Had he been looking for her? And had he been simply looking for revenge? Or, possibly, a way to rekindle their love?
Emma desperately wanted to see him. To talk to him. Right now. She wanted to steel up that brand-spanking-new backbone of hers and ask him everything she’d been too afraid to ask. Lest he leave her.
“Tell me this is what you want and I’ll leave you alone,”he’d said. Ten years later, Emma desperately hoped for the chance to tell him the truth.
Because this time, she knew exactly whatshe wanted.
Jason Roberts. For life.
Twenty-Six
Jason took the steps two at a time. And then he saw her. He stopped cold, his heart taking off like a rocket inside his chest. One beam of sunlight shone through the clouds, lighting her hair up like a halo.
Jason grinned. Emma was definitely not a saint. Not even close, judging by the things she’d done with him this week.
Everything was going to be all right. He didn’t know why he knew it, how he knew it, he just did. The pressure was still on, but at the very least Jason knew his love for Emma wasn’t going anywhere, even if she justifiably stomped away at the first sight of him.
He moved away from the steps, and as his long legs ate up the distance between them she reached for her cell phone. He grinned again, knowing exactly who she was calling even before his phone buzzed in his pocket.
Waiting until he was standing directly behind her, he flipped open his phone and said, “Hello, Emma. I was hoping you’d call.”
She spun around so fast, her phone slipped out of her grasp and clattered on the cobblestones beneath their feet. Her face lit up and he wanted nothing more than to reach for her, to pull her against him, to soak up her warmth, her essence. But what was between them couldn’t be resolved with a kiss.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, softly, and his smile matched hers.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he said and she looked adorably confused.
“But no one knew where I was going.”