Dear Readers,

If you enjoyed Obsessed, I hope you'll go check out the next book in the series, Hollywood Remake. I'm including the original unedited prologue here. It picks up from Adam's marriage proposal at the end of this book (with just a very brief flash forward on the first page).

Please note that when I edited this story, I changed the names of the main characters Adam and Jane to Aidan and Kate. Don't let that throw you off. They're still the same people but different names.

Look for Hollywood Remake under my profile (@adam_and_jane) if you want to read the complete book.

Thank you!

Hollywood Remake (Sequel to Obsessed)

Prologue

"And they lived happily ever after."

"Tell me another one, Grandma!"

Jane sighed. Her youngest granddaughter was just at the age when little girls have an insatiable appetite for love stories. Well, maybe there were some little girls who never really outgrew that particular trait. "Let's see," she said. "Did I tell you the one about Sleeping Beauty?"

"A hundred times," her granddaughter moaned. "I wanna hear a real story."

"A real story?"

"Were you ever in love, Grandma?"

Jane let out a gasp of indignation. "What do you mean, was I? Your grandfather is right in the next room!"

"You were in love with Grandpa?"

Jane chuckled.

"But he's so old!"

"You know, he wasn't always so old," Jane said. "There was a time when there were women in every single country on this Earth who were wildly in love with your grandfather."

"Why?" the little girl crinkled her forehead, casting her grandmother a skeptical look.

"Why what?" Adam asked as he walked into the room.

"Your granddaughter wants to hear a love story," Jane said, smiling at him as he sank down with a happy groan into his favorite chair.

"Love story, huh?" he said. "I might know a few of those."

"Tell me the story of when you asked Grandma to marry you!"

"Hmmm," Adam mumbled. "When I asked your grandmother to marry me?" He looked at his wife with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "Do you remember?"

She grinned back at him. "Which time?"

"That's true," Adam confirmed, nodding at his granddaughter seriously. "Just one marriage proposal wasn't good enough. Not for your grandmother."

Jane giggled. "Adam," she started to interrupt.

"No, I seem to recall at least—" He looked down and started counting on his fingers. "How many was it?"

Jane pressed one hand to her cheek as she watched at him. "You remember very well," she said.

He shook his head at her. "I lost count," he replied, before turning his attention back to his granddaughter. "But now the first one – that was a thing of beauty. That was the stuff they write romance novels about. You know there's a word for the kind of woman who would turn down a proposal like that."

Jane raised her eyebrows at him. "There was no ring," she reminded him.

Adam closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "No ring," he nodded.

"Tell the story!" his granddaughter demanded, bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Well, let's see," Adam began. "It was a Sunday morning."

"Rain was falling," Jane added with a smile. She met her husband's eyes as he smiled back.

***

June 2012

Jane stood frozen in place next to the phone booth of the rain-soaked country gas station, looking down at the man who knelt before her on one knee. A neon sign blazed overhead – Fill 'Er Up in cursive script – casting them both in an artificial golden light, like an old sepia-toned photograph come to life. Jane watched as the droplets of water ran down his face and dangled from the tip of his nose, and she listened to the words she once thought she'd never hear him say, the words she thought were lost to her forever.

"Janie, you're the one. I love you. Will you marry me?"

She lifted a hand and touched him on the cheek, not wanting the moment to end. His eyes were locked with hers, trying to read the answer in her face before she said the words. He was holding his breath – they both were – and she felt the air escape now from her lungs in a silent sigh.

"Adam," she said at last, tugging on the hand that was holding hers. "Get up."

He dropped her hand and pressed his lips together for a moment before he rose to his feet. "I'm guessing that's a no, then?" he said, his eyes on the ground.

"It's not a no. It's just—" She shook her head. "Adam, it's way too soon."

He raised a hand and rubbed it across his eyes to clear away the rainwater. "OK," he said, nodding once. "Come on then. Let's go." He jerked his head toward the car and started walking toward it.

Jane reached out and grabbed his arm, and he turned back toward her. "I love you too," she said. "There's just a lot we still need to figure out."

"Yeah," he shrugged. "I get it. Totally." He was looking somewhere just over her left shoulder, but he forced himself to meet her eyes, and the sadness she saw in them tugged at something deep inside her chest. "Adam," she whispered.

"It's OK," he said, forcing his lips to curve into a smile. "Come here." He pulled her into his arms and looked down into her face, brushing the damp hair off of her cheeks, before he lowered his head and kissed her, slowly and gently.

"So what now?" he asked, once they were back in the car.

Jane looked down at her watch. "Right now you have a flight to catch," she replied.

"That's not what I mean."

"What?"

"You said it's too soon, so I'm asking you: what now?"

She shook her head. "I don't know."

"I think you need to come out to LA."

"Adam, you can't just snap your fingers and expect me to turn my whole life upside down—"

"—I'm not asking you to turn your life upside down. I'm asking you to come for a visit. The Voice wraps for the season on Tuesday and then I have six weeks of downtime before I head out on the summer tour."

"I can't take six weeks off work," she protested.

"So how much can you take?"

"I don't know," she looked up at the ceiling of the car for a minute, calculating. "Maybe two weeks?"

"OK then. Come to LA. Stay with me for two weeks."

"Just drop everything and get on a plane to LA for two weeks. That's what you're asking me?"

"No," he said. "I'm asking you to marry me." He reached out and took her hand, twining his fingers through hers. "But if two weeks is what you'll give me, Jane, then two weeks is what I'll take."