"So, where are we off to next?" I asked after the show was done.
"What?"
"What did you plan for me?"
"Uhhh, was I supposed to plan something for the evening?"
"Well, no. But the other three did, I guess I just assumed you would, too."
He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't know they were doing it."
"No problem. It wasn't a requirement or anything. It was just sort of something that evolved this week."
"We can go back to the cottage and rent a movie on-demand," he suggested.
"Sure."
We spent the drive back chatting about the show and other small tid-bits about how we would live and manage our two careers together.
The driver parked us at the back entrance so we could better sneak over to the cottage, without being spotted by one of the other guys. We approached from the back, and entered through the sliding glass door of the dining area.
We were only inside for a few moments when Liam drew his brows together and gave a nod toward the living room windows. "What's going on out there, do you think?"
I walked over to the windows and peered out. "What in the world?" I gave a questioning look to Liam.
His smile was smug. "You honestly believed that I wouldn't have planned a little something for you?"
"Well, yes."
He chuckled. "Production came to Phillip and I yesterday and asked what we'd like to do so they could have a head's up."
"Ah."
Outside, the hot tub waited, with candles and rose petals all around it. We changed and went outside with a bottle of wine that was chilling in the fridge. The man gave me a hell of a back massage in the hot tub, and followed it up with a foot rub. He spent the time just simply spoiling me, and helping me to relax.
"Why was Goldie such a secret?" he asked.
"She was my spy," I told him. "She screened everybody at the house, and I watched to see who she favored. And you'll notice her favorites are still here."
"She started sleeping with you again after we all found out. But I noticed she slept with Jared last night."
"The storm held Mike and me up. We couldn't get back before she went to bed."
"You wouldn't pick someone who Goldie didn't like?"
"I've never met anyone who I liked and Goldie didn't. So, I figured if she didn't like someone, she had good reason."
"Well, you had us all fooled. We always saw her running around the estate. She acted more like a stray."
"At first, we didn't let her know where I was staying, and she was too curious about all the people tossing her table scraps to really care since I still saw and interacted with her every day. By the time she put together where I was staying, I think she'd come to understand her job here."
"Well, we're all glad she has a home, but some of us are disappointed for ourselves. If she had been a stray, she'd have had a home by the end of filming."
I laughed. "I heard. On the upside, one of you will get to keep her, if all goes well."
We went on to talk of other things, even covering the benefits of having a dog on a mountain, and the risks to a dog from other wild animals and falling rocks. And then I had to stop and consider again if only one child was going to be enough for me.
Saturday
"Last but not least," Phillip greeted me when I walked into the main house the next day.
I smiled. "You've been very patient this week, I must say."
"Slow and steady wins the race."
I started laughing.
"Laughter is the best medicine," he said with a wink.
I shook my head at him.
"What's on the docket for today?"
"Well, we're going to go watch a sit-com be filmed, and then we're off to a murder/mystery dinner."
"Nice."
I greeted and then said goodbye to the others before Phillip and I headed off. "Sit down activities today?" he teased.
I clicked the seatbelt into place and leaned back into the car seat. "Yeah. I knew it would be a long week, so I figured to be sitting at the end of it."
"It's like you've been on a whirlwind vacation that you need a day or two off at the end of, just so you can recover."
"No crap."
I kept turning my head to watch Phillip during the filming. In those moments, while blocking out the stuff happening around us, when I could just contemplate him, some of the things I appreciated about his personality struck me. He was always calm, intelligent, and surprised you when you least expected it. I'd just labeled Phillip as being more mature than the rest of the guys and chalked it up to his age. But, the more I thought about it, I think Phillip was more of an old soul. I'd thought that seeing his wife through her death had done it to him, but now I wondered if he'd just been born this way. Whatever the cause or inclination, he wore it well and I liked it.
"So, kids," I said when we got back into the car to drive around and sightsee a little before it was time to go to the dinner.
"Sure, what about them?"
"Thoughts on how many you do or don't want?"
"I'm content to go it one at a time and reevaluate after each one."
That gave me pause. "That's a take I haven't heard or thought of before."
"How can I tell you how many kids I want when I've never had any to truly know what we're in for?"
"But you are willing to commit to at least one, right?"
"Yeah. Let's get a couple rings on your finger first, then hell yes, let's have a kid."
"And where will we put these kids?"
"You mostly deal with computer work and so do I. So, we could customize some desks that fold down from the wall and some makeshift seating on the bed with some sort of supportive pillows, maybe, to have the master bedroom double as an office. And there are all kinds of two-bedroom fifth wheels out there. If you get one that has a bunkroom in the back, it can sleep up to four. It would be a crowded way to live, but it would do."
"What about when they start aging up and differences between boys and girls begins to matter more?"
"We'll get something custom designed with three bedrooms. I saw a floor plan for a three-bedroom model online. Or even a loft floor plan might work."
"And what about when I have to go to conventions?"
"Do you get your dates well in advance?"
"Almost always. And if not, an approximate date is given. Mostly all of what I go to are yearly events."
"Excellent, me too. We can probably plan around it. And just like you being able to write when I have to do fieldwork, I can do all my research when we're in a town for your articles or conventions."
"That sounds amazing. We won't have to separate all the time."
"No. Much of what I do is compare collected data over time and going over available research on a given species. I have some flexibility as to when the fieldwork involved has to be done."
"You make it sound like it would be so easy."
"For us, in the wondrous world of computers, it can be."
"And will we be boondocking when you have to do your fieldwork?"
"No. I have to walk in and out each day. We don't want to mar the land. And with kids, you're going to have to keep them back at the site. They can't be scaring away wildlife when I'm trying to observe how many there are and where they like to hide."
I nodded. "Understood. So, I'll be around civilization when at the rig. I like that."
"Hey, I like modern day conveniences," he said with a laugh.
"Awesome. I'm rather fond of them myself. I don't have to have daily showers and 'round the clock internet availability, but it sure is nice."
"Amen."
We finished our Tour of the Stars, or rather, the location of some celebrity homes, and made it in plenty of time for our murder/mystery dinner. Production hadn't been entirely comfortable with the idea of putting us in with other guests from the general public. So, the extra guests at our table consisted of two makeup artists, a cameraman, an event coordina
tor, a maid, and a caterer - not that the general audience would ever be told that. In hindsight, I should have made this a group date, but too late now.
The dinner team pulled me aside, under the guise of doing a quick interview for production, about the date, and asked me to be the murderer. Not only would that have been predictable, this was supposed to be a date. I wanted to work together with Phillip to figure it out, not work against him by trying to dupe him. I declined, and told them I was really looking forward to trying to solve the mystery. Then I glued myself to Phillip's side so they couldn't snag him without me knowing and turn him into the murderer.
A half-hour in, I saw the change in Phillip's expression and his whole manner of playing and realized that he'd figured it out. It took me another twenty minutes because he refused to ruin it for me. They chose the event coordinator because she had the least amount of contact with us on a regular basis. It made sense. We wouldn't know her little quirks that displayed themselves when she was lying. As it turned out, she was pretty poker-faced.
"Oh, my God. What did you do?" I asked, later that night, through my laughter when I'd stepped out onto my patio and stared at the sight in front of me.
"Turned on the hot tub light and poured in glow in the dark bubbles," Phillip answered with a smile.
I laughed so hard, I snorted. Bubbles were billowing up from the water, onto the patio, and were spreading outward. Everything glowed blue. "If we get in, would we be able to find each other?"
He chuckled. "I'm sure we'll manage."
"Are they non-toxic? Because I guarantee we'll be eating and breathing them in while we're in there."
"Um, I don't know."
We changed and got in slowly, picking our way through the bubbling mass. We pushed the bubbles away from us, carving out our own little spot as the mess piled inches above our heads. We kept on having to push the bubble walls out again and again because they kept closing in on us.
"How many bottles did you dump in here?" I asked.
"A few."
I threw back my head and laughed as he pulled me onto his lap.
Sunday
I spent Sunday morning pacing. I paced in my bedroom. I paced from the dining area to the kitchen. I got into the pool and swam lap after lap, in yet another form of pacing. I drove Goldie crazy. She finally started barking at me and wouldn't quit until I stopped to look at her. "What?" I asked with more impatience than she deserved.
She picked up a nearby tennis ball and tossed it out in front of her with her mouth, then used her nose to nudge it forward.
I climbed out of the pool, put on my cover-up, picked up the ball, and walked around the house to the backyard. I proceeded to throw the ball and then I paced while she fetched and brought it back to me, over and over again.
My afternoon looked pretty much the same, except I paced around the island in my kitchen, eating a sandwich.
Evening rolled around quicker than I was ready for it. I wondered off-lot with Goldie and wound up sitting on the beach, staring off into the horizon. Night fell, and Troy came to fetch me so I could get ready, and I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do.
A jewelry box was delivered to the house for Stephen. All five guys were present as he opened it on camera. Inside was a simple, braided, red-stringed bracelet. Stephen grinned as he put on the anticipated display of red. The guys looked around for another box or two, but found none.
Four nervous guys stood on risers around a grinning Stephen as Troy introduced me and called me in. I was shaking. Troy took my hand, felt my trembling, and frowned.
"Are you okay?" Troy asked as he maneuvered me around to my mark.
I forced a smile and nodded. I looked up at the guys and found five sets of intense eyes staring back at me.
After his typical speech, Troy's eyes bounced from me, to one camera, to another camera, to the show's director, and back to me. "Whenever you're ready, princess."
I closed my eyes and tried to take a calming breath. I blew it out slowly and opened my eyes as Troy stepped back. "Stephen."
His smile returned and he moved to pick a spot on the line across from all the cameras.
"Mike."
He flashed a smile before he dropped it and the concerned expression returned by the time he'd taken a spot on the line.
"Jared."
A gentle smile and a nod in my direction before he moved to the line.
My trembling got so bad that it became visible, and I was wearing a silver, sequined gown. The light bouncing off the dress was wreaking havoc with the cameras, so they panned over to Liam and Phillip on the risers.
I'm going to throw up. My breaths started coming quicker. My head swam for a second or two. Then I turned panicked eyes on Troy.
"Do you want to change your mind and have one of the guys step back onto the risers?" Troy asked.
I shook my head.
He took a few steps forward. "You don't know who to send home, do you?" he whispered.
Again, I shook my head.
He smiled and winked. "So, break the rules."
I looked at him in confusion.
"It's our job to make sure you go home with the right guy at the end of this. What do you need in order to make sure that happens?"
I smiled as I finally got it. It's something that had crossed my mind before, but not something I actually thought of as a viable option. I turned back to the guys with more relief than I'd felt all week. "Liam and Phillip," I declared.
They looked at each other and then back at me.
"I'm keeping you both," I told them. "I'm not sending anybody home this week."
Troy had to gesture at them to move over to the line, hoping that it would be edited out before airing.
"I'm sorry, I am," I told the five guys. "I'm scared. I don't want to mess this up and you guys are all so great. You have ideas and plans as to how we can combine our lives and manage kids with our lifestyle. I like the way you guys work, I like the way you think. And I'm stuck. I'm overwhelmed by how great you all are. I keep looking for duds and I don't think there are any more. I know I can only have one. But right now, I'm scared that I'm so overwhelmed that I'll camp out on one fault and ditch the wrong guy based on it. I don't know what else to do except keep you all around for another week and keep trying to sort it out."
"Unless, of course," Troy stepped forward and said, "one of you would like to call it quits and decline the invitations to stay."
The guys all looked at each other, but stood their ground.
"Looks like they all like you, princess."
I smiled. "I don't know if that makes me feel better because my desire to keep them around is returned, or worse because the pressure is still all on me."
"Oh, sweetheart, America will not feel sorry for you because you're surrounded by too many great guys."
I laughed because I knew that if I were watching someone else going through this, I'd be rolling my eyes, thinking that she couldn't possibly be this clueless. Except, I was. I didn't have the luxury of being on the outside looking in on this one. I was smack dab in the thick of it, and didn't have the advantage of hearing all the interviews and seeing all the footage.
Troy gave his traditional end of the episode speech, threw in a little comment about next week being even more exciting as we find out whom I finally decide to send home, and then grabbed my arm and pulled me into the interview room.
"Production will be fine with this," he said as he sat me down. "You just bought them another week to put back in their schedule."
I just looked at him, dumbstruck as to what he might want from me.
"All right," he said and took a seat opposite me. "Go ahead and run down their big selling points to me, one by one."
"Stephen was never given a fair chance simply because he's a rule follower. He never really exerted himself in making an impression because he was content to let me get around to him. On the one-on-one date, he proved himself. I had such a good time that I couldn't justi
fy sending him home until I got to know him a bit more.
"Jared has the best plan for having a family, he's put a lot of thought into it, and he's serious. I can tell he's totally ready for marriage and a family. And while he has a certain amount of roots, I like the idea of a family business to be somehow involved in. I'm not too keen on the swamp, but he's so great, it makes me want to go give it a shot.
"Mike is Mike. I know he and I can get along on a day-to-day basis. I confide in him more than anyone else. He has a plan for our future, as well. And I still come back to the fact that I like the places his job will take me. I just like everything about him.
"Liam is confident, solid, and surprising. He's a man's man, and yet romantic at the same time. I'm telling you, the man belongs in a soap opera. He's that yummy. There's just something about him. I'm smitten and intrigued by him.
"And Phillip is so damn mature and thoughtful, very cerebral. His plan for our future allows our lives to just sort of slide together. It sounds like he would be the easiest scenario for our careers to continue as they always have, and that counts for a lot. He's always so serious all the time, but then he does something like pour bubbles into the hot tub and ends up creating a memory that I'll carry for the rest of my life."
"Wow," Troy said when I'd finally shut up. "You just rattled all that off the top of your head."
"I didn't freeze up tonight because I hadn't taken this seriously enough. I've done nothing but think about this every moment I wasn't focused on spending time with one of them. All that these one-on-ones did for me this week was reinforce how great and good all these guys are. There's seriously not a stinker in the bunch."
"You're going to have to come up with someplace to go this week. We're not travelling around to five different families. There isn't enough time. So is there a city or another area you'd like to visit? Unless, of course, you can think of more stuff to do around here."
Troy sat patiently for a few moments while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with this seemingly stolen time. Finally, an idea struck and I looked up at him with a smile.
Walk of Shame Page 30
