Page 93 of Fan Favorite

Grumbling, the pilot turned the helicopter and flew lower—WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH—toward engagement rock. Peter looked to the iPad, at Edie and Bennett now looking up at the sky.

“Give me the ladder,” Peter demanded. “I’m getting out.”

“You’re gonna break your legs, mate,” the copilot said. “But if you insist.”

The copilot lifted a seat cushion and removed a metal chain ladder from a compartment below. He motioned Ted out of the way, and the helicopter’s feed cut off as Ted took a seat. The copilot attached one end of the ladder to bolted hooks on the helicopter’s floor and then threw the whole thing out the door where it flew like a kite in the wind.

The copilot took Peter by the shoulders. “Don’t let go, mate.”

Peter swallowed hard. Took off his jacket. Rolled his shoulders three times. And then he began his descent.

“Before you came back into my life, I was adrift,” Bennett said as he held Edie’s hands. He rubbed his thumb back and forth across her skin. The cameras circled. “I knew there was more in this world meant for me. And then you, Edie Pepper, showedup, my oldest friend. You made me strong. You made me loyal. You showed me who I could be: a husband.”

Over his shoulder, Edie watched a helicopter approaching. Strange, it kept getting closer until Bennett’s words were swallowed in its roar. Everyone turned to look.

“Cut, cut, cut!” Jessa yelled. “Who’s got ears on the helicopter?” She spun in a little circle in the snow. “Somebody tell them they’re way too close! It’s fucking the shot!”

Edie took the deafeningWHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSHthat would kill their mics as an opportunity to talk to Charlie for real. She grabbed the lapels of his tuxedo and yanked him in.

“Charlie!” she screamed. “Don’t propose to me! Do you hear me? You can’t, you don’t love me!”

He grimaced. “You’re my choice, Edie.”

“Oh my god!” She shook him back and forth, trying to knock some sense into him. “Knock it off! I adore you, Charlie, I always have. But we’re friends! Don’t you want to choose Bailey?”

“I can’t choose Bailey,” he yelled back, the façade finally cracking. “They told me I can’t. It’s you they want.Everyonewantsyou. And, Edie, maybe you think I’m an idiot, but I really think you’re the only person I can get through this with. I know that now. You may be the only person who’s ever really gotten me, you know?”

“But that’s not true! Bailey loves you! She told us she was falling in love with you.”

He looked away. “Bailey will find her happy ending.” He looked back at Edie and gave her a smile that was clearly forced. “We’ll make it work. America will love us.”

“You’d rather propose to me because you think people will like you for it?” Edie said incredulously. “Charlie, that’s insane.”

“I never said I was a good person.” He shook his head and looked incredibly sad. “I’ve got a long way to go, all right? Ofcourse, I love Bailey. She’s incredible. But you don’t understand what it’s been like—no one cares about how I feel or what I want. I’ve walked every step of thisalone. The whole world hates me. When she sees what the world’s been saying about me, Bailey will hate me. Please don’t hate me, too.”

Edie looked at him, at this man she’d known since kindergarten. He looked more like Charlie Bennett now than when she’d arrived. He was thinner, rashier, and his mannerisms were smaller, more humble. He was scared and anxious, just like he’d always been. And all at once, she realized her greatest gift, since they were five years old, had been believing in him.

She pulled him into a hug. Shut her eyes and held him to her.

“I believe in you, Charlie,” she said into his ear. “I always have. Do what’s in your heart. It’s the only way.”

When she opened her eyes, a ladder was dangling out of the helicopter. What the hell? Then something was coming out of the door. A foot? A shoe?

A Prada loafer.

Immediately, Edie released Bennett and started running, her strappy sandals slipping in the snow. Peter! Edie fell to her knees but quickly got up again, running toward the ladder hurtling through the sky. And then there was Peter in midair, slowly inching his way down.

“Oh my god,Peter! Be careful!”

A gust of wind picked up the ladder and flung it to the right. Peter rode the wave, flying back and forth on a pendulum before the ladder stabilized again. He lifted a foot to take another step down. Another gust of wind. And as the ladder twisted and jerked, Peter lost his balance. One leg stabbed through the empty space between the rungs. His grip slipped, and with one leg still tangled, he slid.

Edie watched with one hand over her mouth in horror.

Ted hung out of the helicopter, trying to steady the ladder while Peter extracted his leg. Cameramen appeared on either side of Edie. Peter looked down. There was still a good twelve feet between him and the ground.

He jumped.

“Peter!” Edie screamed.

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