I wonder if Adam’s joke about a love rhombus rather than a love triangle might actually hold water. I don’t think Emma and Hook will be romantically linked beyond some flirtation which would leave Hook open as a potential suitor for Regina without there being any awkward strings attached with Emma.
Also, I just think Hook and Regina have more in common than even Emma and Hook do. Both Regina and Hook have been so consumed by revenge over lost love for so long that it had caused them to miss out on life (recall that very telling conversation between Hook and Regina in 2×21). Emma is also reeling over Neal whereas both Hook and Regina have had a lot longer to get over the immediate grief of losing the ones they love to death. It would just be so unrealistic for Emma to confess her love for Neal in the end of S2 and then just turn around and find herself in the arms of another man.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy