"That's cool."
"Yeah, we have a little community going on. Which can mean babysitters for us to have a night out or watch during the workday when you have an event to be at and I'm stuck working. And, when you have to go do a convention or something when I'm onsite, you can either take the rig and truck and leave me the motorcycle and tent, before we gave the kids. Or, load up the truck and do the hotel thing wherever you have to go, leaving kids with me. The beauty of towing the motorcycle is that we'll have two vehicles."
"That sounds like a plan." I beamed him a smile. "You just took away all my excuses for not picking you."
"You had excuses for not picking me?"
"Hey, I'm looking for excuses to ditch anybody. If it comes down to logistics, so be it."
He leaned back in his chair and stretched his leg out under the table, considering me for a moment. "You can't possibly be in love with all five of us."
"Truth?"
"Please."
"I'm in the process of falling, but I haven't fully fallen for anybody, yet."
"Anything in particular holding you back?"
"Fear."
"Of what?"
"Of choosing the wrong one. But before this week, I was focused on weeding through the masses and testing connections to make sure they were real. Now I'm trying to transition into pushing those connections and seeing which ones fall short."
"You have no direction to go in for Sunday, do you?"
"Do you honestly want to go down this particular path with me? Do you want to hear about how I'm dreading Sunday to the point where I'm refusing to let it enter my random thoughts because for the first time, I don't have a preconceived notion as to who I'm getting rid of?"
"Yes, I do. I might be impatient for a final decision, but that doesn't mean I don't want to understand what's happening on your end."
"Okay. I thought I had this week figured out. There was one that I thought I was sure was leaving and that the one-on-one with him would confirm it. But, I promised myself that I'd go in with an open mind and he managed to impress me by reinstating a connection with me that I hadn't felt since the beginning. Now I can't get rid of him. Because what if he's the right one for me, but I was about to miss out on him because I was blinded by having too many other guys to see his value."
He gave me a sympathetic smile. "You're not going to make us pull names out of a hat, right?"
"It's a thought that's crossed my mind."
Lightning lit the sky behind us.
"That's over the mainland, right?" I asked.
He stood up and drifted across the balcony to get a better look. "Yeah. The storms weren't supposed to get into the area until morning."
"And how good are you at navigating through a storm?"
He studied the position of the storm in the distance. "If I were more familiar with the area, I might be willing to chance it. But, it's dark, the water's sure to be choppy. That's an electrical storm, too. I'm not sure I'd get us back into the right dock. I don't want to be out in that storm, searching the coastline for it, either. And I'm not trusting GPS signals to be instantly right on point, with that cloud cover."
I looked over to the camera crew and gave them a questioning look.
"We're not going to try to navigate it. We aren't from around here, either. And there's no cell phone service this far out," the camera guy said.
"Hold on," the sound guy said. "I think there's a satellite phone packed in our gear on the production boat. I'll call in and see what they want to do." He put his equipment down and went inside.
I turned to Mike. "You planned this, didn't you?"
He grinned. "No, I'm afraid I wasn't the one who thought to blow the storm in hours ahead of schedule."
I feigned a look of disappointment. "You mean you don't have that kind of power?"
He laughed.
I turned and started gathering dishes from our dinner and Mike joined me. We carried things down to the kitchen, where the guy from catering told us he'd handle dealing with the dishes and leftovers.
The sound guy came back in. "They don't want boats coming in or going out of port with this storm. They said they could get a chopper from outside the range of the storm to fly over and pick some of us up and then drive us back into the city, but it might take them awhile to find a company willing to do that, since this isn't an emergency." He stopped talking but he looked like more was said than just that.
"Spill it," Mike said. "What do they want us to do?"
He shot us a look. "They were quick to point out that the house has three bedrooms and two sleeper-sofas."
"And?" I asked.
"And that it wouldn't be a bad thing for ratings if you two got stuck here and the guys realized you two really did spend the night away from the house together," the sound guy said.
"Does your job ever make you feel dirty?" I asked him.
He nodded. "Sometimes, but then I get over it," he answered with a wink.
I laughed and nodded as I turned to Mike, "How much do you want to bet that production planned this. They are a thorough bunch, they had to have been keeping an eye on the weather and they made no moves to alert us, so that we'd head back in time."
"Well," he said with a nod of agreement. "We can either spend the evening bashing production. Or, we can embrace the evening and enjoy being here and away from the whole drama factory."
"There'll only be more drama tomorrow."
"How much do you care, right at this moment?"
"A lot. But I've been so relaxed for the last couple of hours that I don't think I care about how much I care."
Mike laughed. "I was told that set of floor to ceiling windows we saw on the side of the house is where the master bedroom is."
"Oh, hell. I should sleep in that room. I would care about caring even less."
"It's yours."
"We should go check it out."
We inspected the rest of the house, and found a Jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom, in full view of a wall of windows and large skylight. Someone from production, who'd staged the house for us, had placed bathing suits, candles, and two bottles of champagne in ice buckets, with two pieces of stemware.
"Setting the stage much?" I asked.
"I swear I didn't ask them to do this. Otherwise, I would have suggested coming up here instead of exploring the island earlier, because I sure didn't know the storms were coming early."
"You didn't?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No. While I enjoy every minute I spend with you, I have no desire to deal with those guys tomorrow morning. I'm all about heading back as soon as those storms clear out. And I'll be sneaking back into the house, so I'm in my room come early morning. Those are questions I don't want to deal with."
"Well I'm all for changing and getting into that tub, for now."
"Let's make that happen," he said with a grin.
We changed, lit candles, settled in, and watched the lightning play in the distance. We drank champagne, we held each other close, and we kissed until we were a panting mess.
Later, wrapped in fluffy robes, we'd stretched out across the California king-sized mattress in the master bedroom, while continuing to wait for the storms to leave. The camera guys had come in and filmed us from time to time, but kept drifting out of the room because all we were really doing was talking.
It was getting late, and the storms weren't yet clearing out. Sleep was rapidly becoming the next logical pastime. We'd decided that I was going to sleep in the master bedroom, because I was the pretty, pretty princess in this scenario. He was going to be sleeping in one of the other two, smaller bedrooms. The show's crewmembers would be keeping an eye on the weather for us so we could leave as soon as it cleared out. The current estimates, according to the National Weather Service, were that the storms would remain in the area until around three a.m.
"It won't be long before we're headed into the final stages of this," Mike said in a low voice as we were winding down from our
long day.
"I know, for as hard as this is getting, I'll be glad to finally get you guys out of town. I think you're right about all you guys together in that house. That's probably why production starts to separate everyone. They can't keep their dreamy, romantic image alive if the guys all start beating the shit out of each other," I said with a teasing smile.
He gave me a sad smile in return.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"The twenty-four hour lockdowns."
I kept silent.
"We cuddle in a bed and your shirt comes off, which I enjoyed, don't get me wrong. But these twenty-four hour lockdowns put you in a room with only one bed in it at the end of the day."
"Yes, they do."
"Look, I'm going to sleep in the other room because I know damned right well that if I climb under the covers in this huge bed for the night with you, we'll end up naked."
I nodded. "Which is why I didn't argue with you when you volunteered to take another room."
"Right now, I'm behaving with the hope that you're behaving across the board and not getting naked with anybody, except for maybe the friend your sister sent you."
I smiled.
"But I can't promise to behave without your insistence while sharing a bed with you, when the time-crunch really hits. There'll be a feeling of it being the last chance to make an impression and spend time together. It'll be a conversation you'll have with all three of the guys you choose."
My gaze drifted back to the windows. "I know it will."
"I'd like to register a request," he said with a nod.
I forced my eyes back to his, but kept silent. I feared he was going to ask me to promise not to have sex with any of them, and I wasn't willing to commit to that kind of agreement when I had no idea where my heart would be with who by that point.
"If you are going to choose me to be one of those guys, if I'm a serious contender for your heart, let me have the last of the three lockdowns."
"Okay." It seemed like an easy enough request. I'd figure out how to make it work out with production, should it become an issue.
"You don't even want to know why?"
My eyes glanced over to the camera watching us and then darted up to the microphone hanging from the sound guy's stick.
"If you want to tell me, yes. But you don't have to." Or, you could tell me on our next run, when the cameras aren't in our faces.
"I don't like the idea of sharing you. You know that."
"Right."
"If we do sleep together that night, and then you sleep with one of the others, and then choose me, and I find all that out, I know myself well enough to know that I'm going to have a problem with that. A big one."
I just looked at him, trying to figure out how I wanted to respond to that.
"Look, I know I have no right to tell you what you can and can't do on your dates with the others. And I'm not trying to, as much as I wish I could. I'm just saying, in order to prevent a problem between us down the road, let me have the last lockdown."
"How will that have made whatever I may or may not do on the first two lockdowns okay for you?"
"Because I'll have been the last one. And you'll not have slept with anybody else after sleeping with me."
"And you'll be okay with that?"
"Yes. That, I can make my peace with."
I nodded. "Okay."
"Well, okay then. I'll head into the other room. If we're going to have to be up so early, you should get some rest now. You have another big date tomorrow and I don't want to be blamed for your being cranky."
"All right. Thanks for the head's up."
"Thanks for listening." He gave me a hug and left the room, with the camera crew following behind him.
Finally alone with my own thoughts, I took off the robe and settled into the comfy bed. I was going to have to come to terms with the idea that I was rapidly getting to the point of holding all of their hearts in my hands. I had known that the further I delved into this, the more everyone was going to become emotionally involved. And while I struggled to narrow down whom I liked and enjoyed the best, they were investing every piece of this into just me. They were more involved and focused on me at this point than I was on them, simply because my attention was so divided. This had just moved into the realm of my needing to be more than fair. I needed to treat them with care. I'd seen the hurt on Drake's face last Sunday, and regretted being so nonchalant with him.
Of course, when it comes to dumping somebody who's so invested in the relationship, there is no way to break up with them and have them not be hurt. I rolled over with a sigh and stared out the tall windows. The deeper into this I got, and the more I narrowed the field down, the more complicated it all became.
I'd drifted in and out of sleep throughout the short night. I didn't like the idea of breaking four hearts. And yet, I didn't see any way around it. And that, coupled with the very real possibility that I'll end up with nobody and there'll be a total of six broken hearts, was enough to keep me tossing and turning.
The knock on the door came at three-thirty. We all stumbled around, quickly gathering what we needed, and climbed back into the boats we came in.
We had an uneventful ride back to the mainland and pulled into port to return the rented watercraft. The owner nodded in understanding over the storm and the late return as he swiped the network's credit card to pay for the extra time we'd used. The man looked exhausted from having to sit up all night in the office, waiting to make sure all the boats and people made it back to the safety of port. And as he tossed the keys of the boat we'd used into the number twelve slot on the set of shelves behind him, I noticed that there was still one more set of missing keys yet to be returned.
I got back to the cottage and flopped on the couch, to stretch out until Troy came in and made me get up and move to get ready for the new day.
Friday
"All right, guys," I said to the gathering in the kitchen. "Why don't you two just rock, paper, scissors for it?"
Phillip nodded as he moved toward Liam. "What's the date?"
"We're going to a morning concert at the Philharmonic. Then, we're going to a theatre to see a production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."
"Wait," Jared said. "So, who has to go to the symphony, the winner or the loser?"
"Ha-ha," I said with an eye roll.
"Let's go," Liam said with a gesture to Phillip.
"One, two, three, shoot," they said in unison. Phillip laid out scissors and Liam crushed them with his rock.
"I think we all should have known you'd throw a rock," I quipped.
Liam laughed. "Let me go change."
I chatted with the guys and waited for him. He came back downstairs looking and smelling so good, it bordered on being ridiculous.
"My mother actually raised me to have an appreciation for music," Liam told me just after we'd climbed into the car.
"Does that cover both the symphony and the musical?" I asked.
"The symphony, yes. I've never heard of the musical you named, but I promise to try to appreciate it for what it is."
That got a laugh out of me. "Well, I'll thank you for your efforts."
We both enjoyed the symphony. I don't get moved to the point of tears by music as some people do, but the older I got, the more appreciative of good music I became. And while there were no tears, it sure did put a smile on my face.
"So, kids," I said to get the conversation flowing again during the car ride between performances.
"Yeah. I'm thinking one. I'm sorry, I am. But I'm thinking about it from the point of safety."
"Because we'll be up in mountains?"
"Yes, and it's hard enough getting a rig up to some of the spots, we can't really haul any trailers or anything else past maybe a large tent. It sounds materialistic, but I'm trying to think realistically. Kids take up space, they just do. More space equals more stuff, which equals more weight being towed up a mountain."
"What about he or
she having a fellow kid to pal around with, to get lost on the mountain with. At least then they wouldn't be alone."
"I'd rather he or she get lost with a dog. Goldie seems really good, she'd be a wonderful companion for a young child. And when she starts aging, we'll get another dog and start training it to be the child's buddy. Dogs can find their way out and protect the child against predators far better than a second child could."
I nodded. While I'd always pictured myself with at least two kids, he made perfect sense. "What about when I have to leave for conferences?"
"I'm thinking that being up on a mountain, you'll probably need to fly to most of the places."
"That only works if I'm not carting a bunch of stuff with me. Sometimes I can ship stuff to the place ahead of time, but not often. There's a reason I always drive."
"Maybe you can pack up the truck and take it. Depending on where we are and for how long you'll be, maybe I can make do with a mountain bike, or I'll have to rent a vehicle."
"And I'll stay in a hotel?"
"Yeah. There's also a bench seat in the back of my truck's cab that folds down into a bed. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it'll do if you need to pull into a truck stop and get some rest on your drive there and back."
I nodded, considering the issue. "We could keep both trucks and I'll follow behind you when we relocate the rig. Then you can keep my truck, and I'll take yours around to the conventions for the bench seat."
He nodded. "That might work. And if one of the trucks breaks down, we wouldn't be stranded until it was repaired."
"And, if we removed the fifth wheel from yours, and put a cap on it, I could keep all the convention stuff contained in there."
"Oh, no, I got it. We'll get a conversion van that will have a setup for you to cook and sit and whatnot in it. It'll be tight, but you won't have to move in and out of hotels."
I smiled. "That sounds even better."
We arrived at the theatre and the conversation turned to finding our seats and reading the programs. I'd always enjoyed watching the movie over the years, but seeing it on the stage renewed my love for the story of the isolated brothers on their misguided path to securing brides for themselves.
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