Authors Note: Ok .. please don't kill me for this.

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Disclaimer: If I owned Matt Hardy, we'd all be in trouble. Emma Keating/Keating family = mine all mine.

If This Isn't Love - Chapter 11


The room was completely empty except for twinkling lights that danced across the walls and enhanced the dark blues of the evening sky outside the large windows that covered the room ..

.. and Matthew Hardy standing in the middle of the room, his hair pulled back, wearing a midnight black suit.

Which, as far as Emma was concerned, was completely unfair.

She felt like the hippopotamus in the story she and Matt always read to Yuk's little man when they babysat him.

And she just didn't know. Should she stay? Should she go?

She could practically hear Matt's voice as he read it, his voice low and sweet, smiling at the little boy in Emma's arms as they sat on the couch together, shoulder to shoulder, feeling like life couldn't possibly get any better than that moment.

"But yes, the hippopotamus," Emma whispered, taking a step.

Matt exhaled with a whoosh, feeling like he'd been holding his breath for days. He probably had. His heart raced in his chest, butterflies did the tango in his stomach, and he was a bit worried that he'd either throw up or pass out before Emma got to him. He swallowed loudly as Emma reached him, stopping a few steps away.

"Well I feel under-dressed," Emma confessed, biting her bottom lip, and Matt quickly shook his head.

"You look beautiful," he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Matt," she started, sighing. Her eyes glistened with tears already. God, how could he have hurt her like this. "What are we doing?" He took a few steps towards her, "You didn't have to do all this," Emma said, looking around.

"I know. I wanted to," Matt replied, finding his voice.

"Look, Emma," he started shakily, closing the space between them. It was now or never.

"I love you." Emma looked at him, her face full of emotion. "You know I do. I'm crazy about you. When you're not around, I feel like I'm walking around missing half of myself. And I know I haven't been fair to you. I've kind of been a dick." Emma snickered. "Ok, I've really been a dick." He smiled wryly, running his left hand through his hair. "The thing is .." He took a deep breath. "I do love you. More than I ever thought I'd love anyone again. And that scares the shit out of me. Because I gave my heart to someone once, and they destroyed it."

"I'm not .." Emma started, but Matt interrupted her.

"I know. I was so afraid that you would break my heart .. I broke yours instead. And I'm so sorry for that Emma. I never in a million years wanted to hurt you. As soon as you left I wanted to take it all back." His voice broke with emotion, and Emma could feel the tears running down her cheeks as he spoke. "You are the best thing that's ever happened to me Emma, and none of this means anything if you're not here to share it with me. You are the most important thing in my life and I'm sorry I forgot that for a few minutes. But I promise you, I swear to you, that it will never happen again."

Tears fell down Matt's cheeks and Emma gasped as he dropped to one knee in front of her, pulling a box out of his pocket and using his casted right hand to open it.

"Emma Grace Keating .. will you marry me?"

Emma covered her mouth with her shaking hands, tears falling down her face even faster now, as she shook her head.

"I .. I can't."

Really .. please don't kill me?

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