Page 86 of The Love Rematch
The screen lit up with her name.
He smiled, the way he always did at the thought of her, and rolled onto his side before answering, prepared to settle in for her call.
Except… “Jake!”
Her voice was panicked, too sharp, almost a shriek. He sat up immediately. “Em?”
“Oh my god, Jake. You have to come here. Now. Please. I’m freaking out. I’m— We’re— This can’t be happening. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my—”
“Em,” he said sternly, his heart ready to leap out of his chest. “What’s going on? Take a breath. Tell me.”
“I can’t do this over the phone. You have to come here. I’m in my room. Please. I need you.”
“I’m on my way.”
He hung up the phone, practically jumped out of his window, and stuffed his shoes on as he stumbled across the lawn to his truck. He trembled as he drove. His entire body buzzed.
What did I do?
What did I do?
He parked in his usual spot two houses down and sprinted to her window. It was already open, so he pulled himself inside, falling to the floor with athudin his haste. He expected a joke at his expense, but the room was deathly silent. Emily hadn’t even turned when he came in. She sat cross-legged on her bed, staring at something on the mattress. As he walked closer, his heart sank to his feet. Two white test strips sat in a line atop her vibrant floral bedspread. He didn’t have to look any closer to know what they said. She told him anyway.
“They’re both positive.”
Her voice was a hushed whisper, scratchy from tears. He said nothing as he sat next to her and gathered her in his arms. She collapsed against his chest, the sobs pulled from somewhere deep inside now that he was there.
“What are we going to do?” she kept saying, again and again and again.
He kissed her forehead and smoothed over her hair as he held her close, as if the tighter he held her the more he could prove he never wanted to let go. “We’ll figure it out, Em. I promise, we’ll figure it out.”
He stayed in her room all night. Eventually she fell asleep, but he didn’t. A flood of mixed emotions kept him awake until dawn, the most prominent thought leaving him guilt-ridden with joy while wearing a T-shirt still wet from her tears.
We don’t have to say goodbye now.
We can be together forever.
Back in the present, Emily drops the bomb Jake knows is coming. “I was pregnant.”
She swallows, her gaze still locked on Cooper’s, and it’s wrong. It’s all so wrong. Jake should be the one holding her hand. He should be the one staring into her eyes. They should be alone somewhere, revisiting this together, not at opposite ends of a crowded platform, filming a show for ten million other people to see.
“I’ll admit, I absolutely freaked out at first.” She laughs, but the sound is empty. “Some people might not understand my choice when the dreams I’d been working so hard for were on the verge of coming true—New York and FIT and my future. Some people might have chosen differently, which is their right and I wouldn’t fault them for it. But the second I saw the positive tests, I knew I’d keep the baby. How could I not when it was me and him and this terrifying yet somehow beautiful life we’d made? And my ex was so good at calming me down. He told me we’d be in it together, that he’d be there every step of the way. For that first week, we didn’t tell anyone. It was summer, so every minute we weren’t working, we spent together planning the future. I was going to postpone school for a year. He was going to transfer somewhere local. We were going to do it, become a family, raise a baby, even though we were only kids ourselves. Then finally I couldn’t keep it from my sister any longer. Twin telepathy and all that. She knew something was up, and when she cornered me in the bathroom, I spilled my guts. The first thing she made me do was schedule an appointment with my gynecologist. I don’t know why the thought never crossed my mind. It was so obvious when she said it. My ex drove me to the office the next day. My doctor took a blood sample to confirm the pregnancy. She said the results would be back in twenty-four hours, then we’d go from there. That was that, and I left. I didn’t think anything of it until I got the call the next day.”
Something within Jake snaps. His shoulders hunch. His spine bends. The weight of the world suddenly becomes too much, and he staggers back until he finds a post to lean on.
Thisis the moment that broke him.
Not the call to tell him she was pregnant, but the one to tell them she wasn’t.
They were together when her doctor called. He was leaning against her headboard, supposedly reading up on the Savannah College of Art and Design where he was going to try to arrange a transfer, but actually fiddling one last time with the secret movie project he’d spent the past week working on for her. His fingers shook. His heart thrummed. Emily was oblivious. She sat at her desk and tinkered with some of the jewelry her grandmother had left her. Country music played softly in the background. They were both so focused they weren’t really talking, just enjoying each other’s presence. In the quiet, the vibration of her phone sounded almost impossibly loud. Still, he didn’t even look over when she answered.
“Hi, Dr. Copeland. Yes, this is Emily. You have the results back? Yes, I— What?”
She inhaled sharply. Her hand covered her mouth to stifle a gasp.
Jake jerked his head up.
Tears were already forming in her eyes. Before he could reach her, they started falling down her cheeks. The lines glistened in the light of her room.
