The Perfect Letter Page 30
She stood and helped him get his jeans back on, then his shirt. “We fictionalize it. Changes details, change facts, so it’s not exactly like your life. No one ever wrote something I loved more than your letters. This is a way for us to help each other, Jake. I know it’s a risk, but that’s what writers do. They put themselves out there. They take chances. Like you and me. We bet on each other.”
“What happens,” he said quietly, “if the bet doesn’t pay off? Then you’re out once again, out of a job and money and your career. Because of me. No, Leigh, I don’t think I could live with that. I can’t take you down with me again.”
She pulled on her clothes and stood up to look him full in the face. “Seriously, you’re going to have to stop taking everything that goes wrong in my life as your personal responsibility,” she said. “I’m here because I want to be, because I love you, Jacob Rhodes. If the publishing company goes wrong, I’m sure Uncle Sonny will hire both of us to help him here. God knows there’s plenty of farmwork to go around.” She pulled on her boots and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. “There. Does that make you feel any better, you stubborn Texas ass?”
She was red in the face from arguing with him, her lips pursed in a thin line. The Honorable Jacob Rhodes, taking the whole weight of the world on his shoulders. Didn’t he know that Abby Merrill’s only daughter could outstubborn him any day of the week?
Something about this last speech must have tickled him, though, because in a moment his face broke out into a wide smile. He drew her to him, laughing all the while. “It does, Leigh. God. You have no idea how much it does.”
She threw her arms around his neck and embraced him. “Really? Are we really going to do this?”
He threw up his hands, giving in to the power of her vision at last—he wouldn’t fight her anymore, wouldn’t struggle with his own damnable pride. “Why the hell not?” he said. “Turn me into a writer, O great and talented editor of editors. Make me over. Give me a chance to show the world what I can do. I promise to be humble. I promise to trust your judgment. I promise I’ll never be a stubborn ass again.”
“I don’t know that you can make that last promise, Jake,” she said. “I mean, being a stubborn ass is something you’re really, really good at.”
“Then I promise to be an apologetic stubborn ass.” He laughed and held out his arms. “And while we’re at it, say you’ll marry me, Leigh. Say you’ll be mine. For good, this time.”
“I’m yours,” she said, clasping her hands around his neck, leaning up to kiss him one more time. “But you really cut it close, buddy. If you didn’t say yes, I was going to have to catch my plane in less than three hours.”
“Just think what a great story it will make for our kids,” he said. They stood and climbed down the ladder, out of the hayloft.
“You going to write that one, too?” she asked, taking his hand and heading back out into the Texas sunshine.
“Probably. Now that I’m going to be a famous writer and all.”
“One thing at a time, mister,” she said. “Let’s go home.”
“Where will that be, do you think? Home, I mean?”
In the distance, she could just make out the figures of Uncle Sonny and Aunt Becky and Chloe on the porch of the brick house where Leigh had grown up. When they saw her and Jake emerge from the darkness of the barn hand in hand, Aunt Becky reached up and waved them over. Come on back, the gesture said. Come home.
Leigh waved back. For the first time in a long time, she was sure she was doing the right thing, for herself and the people she loved. For the first time she was sure that the past couldn’t hurt her, that she was free.
She looked up at Jake and said, “Anywhere we want, babe. That’s the fun part.”
Acknowledgments
Thirteen years ago I had a meeting with a man who had a simple, yet complex show idea centered on the one subject that everybody can relate to: love. Without my good friend Mike Fleiss, and my entire Bachelor family (both in front of the camera and behind it), this book and this life would’ve never been possible.
Just a few years ago, I had the opportunity to have an amazing conversation with the man I consider to be the godfather of the fictional romance genre, Nicholas Sparks. What seemed like a casual conversation gave me the inspiration to take a chance, put pen to paper and write this book. Thank you, Nicholas.
Nobody in this business makes it alone. I have an amazing team behind me every step of the way. Thank you to Becky, Brittany, and Richard, and everyone at WME, 3 Arts, and HarperCollins for believing in me.
Last, but certainly not least, I have to say thank you to Bachelor Nation. You are the most devoted, passionate, and loyal fan base of any show on television. All of you were in my heart and mind as I wrote this love story. And now I will take a moment and say my good-byes!
About the Author
CHRIS HARRISON has been the host of ABC’s hit romance reality series The Bachelor since the series began in 2002. He’s gone on to host The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise, as well as the live coverage of The Miss America Pageant. Chris lives in Southern California with his two children and this is his first novel.
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Credits
Cover design by Amanda Kain
Front cover photograph © by Bernd Opitz/Getty Images
Copyright
THE PERFECT LETTER. Copyright © 2015 by Chris Harrison. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-230522-0
EPub Edition May 2015 ISBN 9780062305244
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