Alice...!

Actually I think it would have played better if he'd ended up with Alice, and Emory had just carried on travelling, content that she had plenty of time to find someone to settle down with. She said herself that with already living in his town, their kids being friends etc, that Alice was better suited for him.
On the plus side at least the "ex/alternative love interest" was a good person, which is a nice change of pace for these kind of movies