Marrying Mister Perfect (32 page)

Lou stared out the window at the rainy
Parisian morning. The sound of the door to the bedroom opening
barely penetrated her fog.

“Lou!” Miranda chirped happily. “You’re up.
Good. We should get you packed. The traffic to the airport is a
bear with this rain.”

“Is Jack still here?” She didn’t know why she
asked. It was the bulletproof hope’s fault. The little sliver of
her heart that insisted she’d misheard Miranda and Jack would never
propose to someone else after last night.

“No, sorry, hon. He had to rush off for an
early flight to Switzerland for the two-dayer with Katya.”

The memory of him kissing Katya seared
through her brain.

And the bulletproof hope finally fell over
dead. “I see.” She closed her eyes. She couldn’t look at Paris
right now. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

And really, she wasn’t.

Nothing was real in reality television. She’d
had her dream day in Paris. Now it was time to wake up.

Though it hurt that he hadn’t even said
goodbye.

“Lou?” Miranda asked when she remained facing
the window. “You okay? You’ll see Jack again in just a couple days.
You’ll barely be in Chicago at all before we fly you and the kids
out for the big finale in Los Angeles.”

The finale where he would propose to Marcy.
God, how could she watch that?

“Are you sure you need me there?”

Miranda hesitated. “You’ll want to be there,
hon. Trust me.”

Right. She should see it. Kill that last
stubborn hope in person. “I guess.”

She heard the tapping of Miranda’s nails
against her tablet. “You get packed. Long flight today.”

“Right.” Lou looked around the room. Her bag
was there, but most of her clothing was strewn around the suite.
Evidence of debauchery. Taking a deep breath, she started getting
dressed for the flight.

She had a lot of planning to do before Jack
got home after the finale. More than ever, she needed to find an
apartment and a job to pay the rent. And the kids… her heart
plummeted.

She didn’t regret sleeping with him, but she
couldn’t do it again. She couldn’t be his live-in friend with
benefits. Certainly not if he was going to be engaged.

God, how would she face him again? Would they
just pretend nothing had happened? That Paris didn’t even
exist?

Just a lovely dream. And it was time to get
back to reality.

Chapter
Thirty-One

Lou had argued with herself for hours about
whether or not she would come to LA for the finale. She had vowed a
dozen times not to torture herself by watching all of her dreams go
up in flames. But here she was, nonetheless, herding Emma and TJ in
their Sunday best, getting ready to smile for the camera in the
final family shot.

Jack himself was on the beach under a
flower-draped trellis, waiting for the girls to arrive so he could
propose at sunset with the waves of the Pacific crashing behind
him.

Lou felt like she was going to be sick all
over the lovely hardwood floors of the beachfront cabana where she
and the kids waited. Crew members scurried around them. Usually
they didn’t fuss with Lou much—she was only background, after
all—but today the hair people had poked and teased and sprayed, the
make-up people had smeared more paint on her face and the wardrobe
people had draped a glittery sapphire necklace around her neck. Lou
was of the
never-wear-anything-on-your-neck-worth-more-than-your-head camp,
but it was too much effort to protest.

She felt drained of all energy. No matter how
much she slept, she’d been tired ever since Paris.

Dave, her friendly sound guy, appeared at her
side and clipped a small microphone to the shoulder strap of her
dress. “For the reaction reel,” he explained when she looked at him
questioningly.

Lou didn’t think her reactions to today were
suitable for primetime, but it would have taken too much energy to
argue. She just nodded numbly and waited. Soon the girls would
arrive. Soon he would pick. Soon he would propose. Soon it would be
over and she could go about the business of healing her heart.

A round-faced girl with a headset appeared at
her side. “Miss Tanner?”

Of course.
Now
they would get her name
right.

“Yeah?”

“Dr. Doyle would like a word with you before
we begin. Would you follow me please?”

She was tempted to say no. She was tempted to
tell them all where they could shove their show and take off down
the beach, running until she hit Mexico. She didn’t want to watch
Jack propose to someone else. She couldn’t. But Emma was watching
her with wide blue eyes and TJ knelt on the floor, seemingly
engrossed in his Nintendo DS, but with his head tipped to the side
to show that he was listening.

They’d noticed something off about her in the
last couple days and she didn’t want to do anything else to upset
them. This transition was going to be difficult enough for the
children as it was without her freaking them out unnecessarily.

So Lou obediently stood, smoothed out the
skirt of her cocktail length cream-colored chiffon dress, and
walked calmly after the PA, for all the world as if she wasn’t on
her way to face the man who had inadvertently ripped out her heart
and used it as a racquetball.

The path down to the beach was lined with red
rose petals—of course it was. Lou followed the PA around a curve in
the walk and suddenly the beach came into view, a long sprawling
golden swath of sand to keep the ocean at bay. Down a short flight
of stairs and across a short stretch of sand, Lou saw the
flower-covered trellis and the tall, dark haired man waiting
beneath it.

Her heart squeezed tight as a fist, as the PA
stepped aside to let her continue alone. Jack looked amazing,
decked out in a dark tailored suit and gilded by the last few rays
of the evening sun. Lou had a moment’s thought that the producers
ought to hurry and get the girls down here before they lost the
perfect light, but it slipped away as soon as she was close enough
to see Jack’s face.

He looked nervous. And contrite. And he was
sweating
way
more than the cool evening called for.

Between one heartbeat and the next, Lou
realized she would always love him, even if he married someone
else.

He hadn’t made her any promises. She’d built
her dreams with a fairy tale ending, but he never promised there
would be a happily ever after. He’d given her Paris. He’d given her
one amazing night she would never forget. That would have to be
enough. In a few hours, maybe only minutes, he would belong to
someone else. She couldn’t be angry with him, just because he
hadn’t wanted what she had wanted.

She would find a way to continue their
friendship. She would find a way to stay in his life and be a part
of Emma and TJ’s lives. And then she would find a man of her own.
One who could give her more than a twenty-four hour fantasy.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lou saw
cameramen tracking her walk down to meet Jack— probably doing a
test run for when the future-fiancé made the walk. She shook her
head, banishing all thoughts of the other women. This moment was
just between her and Jack. Even if it was going to be among their
last.

As she approached the trellis arch, her heels
stuck in the sand—clearly whoever had designed this dream proposal
had forgotten to factor for high heels and beaches. Jack stepped
forward, extending his hand to help her. Lou grinned, a wry little
self-deprecating twist, and gratefully took his support. He was
still the guy who opened car doors and carried groceries for little
old ladies. She should have known the show wouldn’t change who he
was at heart.

No matter how many grouper kisses Katya
smacked on him.

Jack helped her onto the little pedestal
beneath the trellis arch and turned to face her, holding both her
hands. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you this in Paris—”

“No, there’s nothing to say. I understand,”
Lou interrupted.

“Louisa,” he said sternly, formally. “This is
my big speech. Just hear me out, okay?”

Lou rolled her lips inward, making a show of
absolute silence.

Jack took a deep breath and gave her hands a
gentle squeeze. “There are things that should have been said in
Paris and things I should have said a long time ago.” His eyes held
hers, the piercing blue solemn. “You’ve been the cornerstone of my
life for the last four years. I felt guilty for relying on you. I
felt like I abused your kindness and your affection for me and the
kids. I worried that you would stay with me not because it would
make you happy, but because you knew it would make me happy. I told
you when I agreed to go on this show that I wanted to do it because
you deserved to be loved, but what I didn’t realize until I was a
thousand miles away, what it took a dozen other women and every
possible ridiculous reality adventure for me to finally figure out,
was that I wanted to be the one loving you.”

Lou gasped and then stopped breathing
entirely. He wasn’t saying this. She was hallucinating.

“You’ve been my best friend and the best
mother anyone could hope for to my kids, but I don’t love you
because my life doesn’t work without you. I love you because my
heart doesn’t beat without you.”

Holy wow. He’d just said that.

Lou’s knees turned to jelly. She clung
tighter to Jack’s hands, her only link to the surreal reality of
this moment. He still wasn’t done with his speech.

“I don’t know when I started loving you as
more than a friend. Now that I do, it feels like I’ve always felt
this way, but ever since that night in the Jacuzzi…” A wicked
glimmer entered his bright blue eyes. “I haven’t been able to stop
wanting you.”

Still holding her hands, Jack sank down onto
one knee in front of her. Lou began to tremble.

“I went halfway across the country and all
over the world looking for love, only to realize the love of my
life was right in front of my face all along. My entire life I’ve
tried to do everything right, to be Mr. Perfect, and you’re the
only one who’s ever made me feel like it was all right if I was
just me. I don’t want to ever risk losing you again.”

He looked up at her, his blue eyes earnest.
“I have a question for you. An important question. But I don’t want
you to tell me what you think I want to hear. I want you to answer
for yourself. I’ve stolen a lot of your adventures and I’ll try to
give some back to you, but you know how it is with the kids, so if
this isn’t the life you want, you have to be honest about that,
okay? So really think about your answer—”

“Jack,” she interrupted again. “Will you ask
me already?”

He grinned, those unfairly blue eyes
twinkling. “Louisa Renee Tanner, will you marry me?”

She was dreaming. She had to be. But it felt
so real. His hands. The sand. The sunset.

The cameras.

“You aren’t proposing to Marcy?”

Jack’s smile had begun to fade into a nervous
grimace, but now it widened again. “You are the only woman I’m
proposing to today. Or ever again, if you say yes. I sent Katya
home as soon as I got to Switzerland and Marcy already knew. I’ve
known for weeks that you were the only one I wanted to be with, but
I couldn’t say anything because of the show. Turns out I signed a
contract saying I couldn’t tell anyone I loved her before today and
I had to pick a winner. Which reminds me.”

Jack dropped her right hand and dug into his
jacket pocket. He pulled out a small, blue-velvet jewelers box. He
flipped it open, one-handed. Inside, a beautiful diamond engagement
ring sparkled in the setting sun. It looked nothing like the plain
gold bands he gave away at the ring ceremonies and it was the most
perfect ring she’d ever seen.

“I know reality TV isn’t reality, but trust
me when I say that
this
is real. What we have between us is
no fantasy. And it’s not going anywhere once the cameras stop
rolling.” His thumb gently rubbed across the third finger on her
left hand. “Lou, will you accept the final ring? You’re the only
Suitorette I want. If you’ll have me. No pressure.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lou saw the
cameras circling closer. There was a microphone on Jack’s lapel and
another clipped to her dress. Miranda was doubtless somewhere
rubbing her hands together with delight.

And none of that mattered.

Jack knelt in front of her, his heart in his
eyes, her dream man, her Mr. Perfect, saying the words she’d never
imagined possible. It was the fantasy—and it had nothing to do with
the beach, the flowers, or the stunning sunset lighting the water.
It was all Jack.

She looked into his eyes, those unfair Paul
Newman-blue eyes. “You kept trying to give me space to take an
adventure, but you guys are my adventure. You, Jack, are the only
adventure I want. All of you. But especially you, Jack. You have
been for years and I wouldn’t trade a second of the life we have
together for all of Europe. I love you.”

“So that’s a yes?”

Her smile felt like it would split her face.
“Yes. Of course. Now get up here.”

His smile made the little lines around his
eyes crinkle and her heart flip over. He slipped the ring onto her
finger, straightened to his feet and tugged her into his arms.
Jack’s gaze flicked to the cameras and he arched one brow, as if
asking her permission. “America’s watching,” he said softly.

Lou twined her arms around his neck, going up
on her tiptoes as she drew his head down to hers. “Let ‘em
look.”

#

Miranda watched Lou fall into Jack’s arms and
almost got a little teary. That shit was beautiful.

“Great shot.”

Miranda jerked at the sound of the voice.
Freaking Bennett Lang. “This is a closed set. Who let you in?”

“Haven’t you heard? I’m a legend in this
business.”