Chapter 114

To Jake,it felt like the movie would never end. He didn't know how he'd made it through the first Ghostbusters film. But surviving the second one might actually kill him. He wanted the river of ectoplasm to just swallow the city and be done with it already.

He couldn't help it. With Dana sitting on the same couch, he'd reverted into a damn teenager trying to reel in his emotions. The problem wasn't that Dana was on the couch, it was that Claire sat between them. Knees drawn up to her chin, merrily munching popcorn, oblivious to the ridiculous smile Jake couldn't scrub off his face if his life depended on it.

Dana, however, had not missed his schoolboy smile or the uncomfortable way he shifted every time she leaned her head back against his arm. He'd stretched it along the back of the couch unable to stop himself from touching her. But the feel of her silken hair slipping through his fingers was torture. And she knew it.

From the sultry smile tugging at her lips, he could tell she was enjoying it.

Just you wait, Gray.

Jake was already plotting all the slow and torturous ways he and Dana would spend tonight if this cursed movie ever ended.

When Dana kissed him and said the words he'd been waiting to hear he'd died right there on the spot. The man he was now was different, changed, reborn. He'd emerged into a world full of new possibilities. It was equal parts thrilling and terrifying. But the fact that it was all happening here, at the cabin, meant even more.

Many a sleepless night brought Jake back here to the memories of all their false starts and near misses. But this was a second chance to get things right. A fresh start.

When he closed his eyes and let himself imagine him and Dana finding their way to each other, it was always in this place. It was their hallowed ground. Where they'd stood and fought for each other, time and time again.

Finally, the war was over. Now if only the damn movie would end!