What if hearing about his plans for revenge from her best friend turned her against him? Jason got out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans. He couldn’t let Kate tell Emma what he’d done, he had to tell her himself.

Because without Emma, he now understood, he had nothing.

“If you hadn’t noticed, Jason and I were sort of busy in there. Couldn’t you wait to tell me all about your hot date with Rocco?”

Kate didn’t grin at Emma’s teasing recriminations. In fact, she looked about as nervous as Emma had ever seen her, which immediately made her worry that something bad actually had happened to Kate last night.

Emma rushed over to squeeze beside Kate on one of Jason’s chaise loungers. “Are you okay? You didn’t get into any trouble last night, did you? I was just teasing about you bothering me.”

“No,” Kate said, her eyes serious and more than a little sad, “I had a great time with Rocco last night. I need to talk to you about something else.”

Emma’s mind raced with possibilities. Did this have to do with her parents? With Steven?

“I wish I didn’t have to do this, I wish I didn’t have to tell you anything. But I do, Emma. I have to.”

Emma stopped breathing for a long moment. Finally, she said, “What is it?”

“It’s Jason.”

Her breath left her lungs in a rush and she smiled at Kate, wanting her to understand that things with Jason were perfect, better than perfect even. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you because everything happened so fast, but after my parents came by his restaurant last night—”

“Your parents were here?”

Emma nodded. “It was difficult. But good. I stood up to them, Kate. And things are already different with my father. My mother’s a different story, but, well…I guess that’s something we’re going to have take time to work out.”

Kate opened her mouth to say something, but Emma wanted to finish. “Jason was wonderful. He let me fight my own battle, and then afterward everything was different between us. All that stuff I was so worried about, me chasing him, our lack of intimacy, it all disappeared.

“He loves me, Kate. He just told me, right before I came out here to see you. But I already knew. I knew last night. We’re going to be okay. I know we’ve had our problems in the past but this time everything’s going to work out. Trust me, it will.”

Kate nodded and Emma felt good that they’d had this talk. She knew Kate had been worried about her, but she hadn’t known that there was such urgency to it.

“I believe that Jason does love you, honey. But—”

Emma frowned. “But? There aren’t any buts,” she protested, even though she’d been living in a world of what ifs and whys ever since the moment Jason had approached her at the reunion.

“There’s no nice way to say this…” Kate paused, visibly pained by what she was about to say and Emma almost hated her friend in that moment as she waited for Kate’s proclamation, no matter how irrational, how unfair it might be. “He might love you, but I don’t know if he’s capable of loving you the right way.

I think he might still be too damaged over the way you broke up in college.”

“Stop it!” Emma screamed at Kate, pushing away from her on the chair, wanting to get away from her friend’s awful words, all of which confirmed her biggest fears.

Right then, Jason stepped out of the sliding glass doors. Emma’s heart clenched as she looked at him, bathed in the morning light, wearing only jeans. She’d never seen anyone as beautiful as him, and knew she never would.

“I’ll let you tell her,” Kate said to Jason and his lips were a tight line as he nodded. Emma didn’t know what was going on and she wanted to run away, leap over the back fence and disappear if it meant that she could be oblivious and happy for one more precious moment.

Kate’s eyes gleamed with unshed tears. “Don’t leave anything out this time,” she said to him before turning back to Emma. “I’ll be waiting inside if you need me.”

Emma’s head was spinning. Please God, why couldn’t everything work out for once?

Jason walked across the grass, onto the pavers. When he didn’t sit down next to her, a little piece of her heart disintegrated.

“I don’t know what Kate has already told you, but I’m the one who needs to come clean, Emma. I’m the one who needs to tell you the truth.” He stopped talking, swallowing hard. “Everything is different now, but at the beginning of the week I invited you to stay with me to settle the score between us.”

Emma’s heart splintered, but didn’t completely break. Mostly because she didn’t want to believe what he was saying.

“No, you couldn’t have,” she said, but her voice sounded hollow, like it was coming out of a long, narrow tube.

He didn’t agree or disagree and Emma unleashed her fury onto him. “Why would you say something like that? I’m finally happy. You just told me you love me.” Her words grew shriller and shriller until they were piercing and raw coming from her throat.

“I do love you, Emma.” He reached for her, but she flinched and he pulled back. All of the warmth left her body. She felt cold, so cold again. As frigid as the night she’d seen him again at the reunion. The night he’d…

Oh God, everything was so clear now. Too clear. The demanding sex, how quickly he’d suggested she give up her house and business in Palo Alto, the way he’d encouraged her to believe that she was more important to him than anything.

She’d thought everything was moving too fast, that he wasn’t the sweet Jason she used to know, and she’d been right. But she hadn’t wanted to trust her instincts.

Stupid girl. Just like she’d always been, evidently.

“I’m sorry, Emma, incredibly sorry that I’ve acted like such a fool. But I couldn’t go through with it. I love you too much.”

Emma simply stared at him. She noted the pleading in his eyes, his body language, but sympathy couldn’t penetrate her disillusionment. Emma’s voice was as ice cold as her broken heart. “What exactly was it that you couldn’t go through with?”

Jason swallowed once, then twice. All of the muscles in his upper body jumped then tightened as he said,

“I wanted payback.”

“What else?”

“Nothing else.”

“Don’t lie to me, Jason.”