by Jillian Dodd
What did you think of Keatyn and Aiden together?
He’s the guy for her. I could see it clearly when I met him in St. Croix. And his sister. Let’s just say that she got my creative juices flowing.
What do you like to do for fun?
Chill with my friends, write music, play guitar, and surf.
Are you into the rock-star life style—sex, drugs, and rock and roll?
No comment.
What about groupies?
It’s great to have an enthusiastic fan base. That’s probably all I should say on the subject.
The songs you write are so dreamy. We’d love to know who inspired them.
I find inspiration from many sources. Friends, family, loves.
Keatyn Douglas stars in your new music video. We hear she stopped dating professional surfer Brooklyn Wright for you.
She’s my best friend. I told you that before. Nothing there, other than friendship.
DELETED SCENES
Other than scenes deleted early on in the series, it was really kind of rare for me to delete a full scene from a book. The Kiss the Wolf scene was actually important from a who will she choose standpoint, and it gives a lot of clues as to what the ending of the book would be. Crazy as I sound talking about my dreams, this scene also is something that I dreamed. I woke up remembering the wolves chanting their song. At the time, I didn’t really understand what this scene even meant. I’m not sure I do now, even. LOL. But yet, there’s something about it. The primal sounds of the wolves. The sadness in their eyes. The fairytale possibilities.
Deleted Scene from Love Me
Kiss the Wolf
I’m on stage in a full-blown musical production.
One that feels very weird.
I’m wandering through the woods like Little Red Riding Hood. Happily visiting my grandmother when a wolf starts stalking me. He’s big and dark and scary. He doesn’t sing, but rather howls as the orchestra plays the kind of music that is foreboding. Based on the music I hear, I know the wolf wants to eat me. I wrap my cape around me tighter, hoping it will protect me, and run home.
In the next scene, I’m in a cabin lying on a big fluffy bed with a patchwork quilt. The set is an exact replica of the suite in France where B and I did it for the first time.
A different wolf with eyes the color of the ocean comes into my room. I’m scared because a wolf is in my room, but when I look in his eyes, I know I shouldn’t be afraid.
Somehow, this wolf gets me to follow him into the woods.
The set background changes again. I’m now in a forest clearing surrounded by wolves. A wolf walks to the center of the circle. You can tell by the way he holds his head high, the shininess of his black fur, and the way the other wolves bow down to him, that he is their leader.
He speaks to me in a half howl-half English mix that I’m somehow able to interpret.
He tells me that the wolves need my help overthrowing the evil in the forest.
The leader sings to me in a deep baritone voice:
“Rise up and let us out.
Show the world what you’re about.
Don’t be afraid to shine on stage.
Rid him of his evil ways.
True love’s kiss will set them free.
Eyes and fur only man can see.
Feel his soul.
Rise and shout.
Kiss the wolf and let us out.”
Then all the wolves start howling/singing in chorus. “Aaaaarroooo! Kiss the wolf and let us out!”
Three wolves move in front of me. The blue-eyed wolf that led me here, an emerald-eyed wolf, and a dark-eyed wolf.
The wolves seem familiar.
Could there be a human trapped inside the wolf? Obviously, they can’t morph on their own, or they wouldn’t need my help. Maybe they are cursed? Like that fairytale of the prince who got turned into a frog.
The blue-eyed wolf nuzzles against me. His light brown fur smells salty, like the ocean. I suddenly feel like I’m home, and I know without a doubt that B is trapped inside this wolf’s body. He licks my hand then turns his head toward wolf number two.
This wolf is taller, broader, and has a shiny light-colored coat. His bright emerald eyes peer into my soul and when he sets his paw on top of my hand, it causing an electrical current to run through my veins. That would be Aiden.
The Aiden wolf slowly nods his head at me, like he read my thoughts, then turns his nose toward the next wolf.
This wolf has darker fur and eyes, his shoulders are slumped a little, like he’s casual and laid back. The wolf opens his mouth and smiles a smile that I’ve loved forever. Then he proceeds to lick his wet tongue up the side of my face making me laugh. He sits down next to me like he’s guarding me. I feel safe. Damian.
The Damian wolf sings to me:
“True love’s kiss will set us free.
Eyes and fur only man can see.
Feel our souls.
Rise and shout.
Kiss the wolf and let us out.”
Am I supposed to kiss a wolf?
My true love wolf?
Or am I supposed to kiss all three and see if one works?
And why the hell is Damian in this mix? Shouldn’t it be Dawson?
I think about curses in fairy tales. I don’t think I can kiss them all and see. I have to know the wolf is my true love for it to work. I have to feel it in my heart.
Wolf Damian stands in a line with the B Wolf and the Aiden Wolf.
The wolves howl louder and louder. “Kiss the wolf and let us out. Kiss the wolf and let us out. Kiss the wolf and let us out. Kiss the wolf and let us out.”
It gets so loud I cover my ears with my paws and cower.
Wait. I’m a wolf too?
I peek back at the three expectant wolves. They are growling at me, urging me to decide.
I look into each one of their eyes, take two steps, and kiss my true love as the wolves behind them start to transform back to men.
I wake up with a start.
Wondering who the hell I kissed.
The next deleted scene isn’t actually a scene. It’s the story of The Bachelor Prince play. I considered putting it in the book as Keatyn read the script, but decided it would be more fun for you to see pieces of it as she was rehearsing it. Also, to be honest, I was a little worried that it would give away who she would ultimately choose.
The Bachelor Prince
The Good Prince (GP) sees the Cheerleader at a football game. He falls in love with her and asks her on a date.
They go on one of those all day dates.
They have a crazy quick love connection.
And to end their date, they share true love’s kiss on the beach under a bright full moon.
(The Bad Prince (BP) and his butler witness this kiss.)
The Queen tells the Princes that they must compete in a reality TV show to find their wife. To find their love. Not really because she believes in love. Mostly, because the monarchy is going bankrupt and they need the money.
The BP gets the Cheerleader to come on the show. He knows that the GP didn’t tell her he was a prince. He knows this will defeat any shot the GP has of becoming king.
The Cheerleader agrees to go on the show and is shocked when she meets the GP. She’s very mad he lied to her. Also, he hasn’t called. (But it’s only really because of this whole reality TV thing.)
The BP wants to win the competition. He plays all the contestants, making them all believe that they are the one for him. He does this so none of them will fall for his brother. There is a hilarious hot tub scene where the BP is holding dates and kissing each contestant. The Cheerleader is the only girl he doesn’t kiss.
The GP tells the Cheerleader that he loves her and apologizes for lying. She doesn’t believe him and runs away, stopping to spill her guts to the BP.
There is a final TV scene. It’s the big night. A ball in the castle’s gardens, where each brother is supposed to announce who they love by giving her a ros
e. The BP rigs it so he goes first and although everyone expects him to pick the Debutante, they are shocked when he offers the rose and a massive engagement ring to the Cheerleader.
The GP leaves the ball, devastated. He wrongly assumes that the Cheerleader will say yes to his brother, and he can’t bear to watch. The Queen watches all that is happening.
The Cheerleader tells the BP that although being a princess would be really cool, she doesn’t love him. She leaves and chaotic hilarity ensues. All the finalists giving it one last shot to win the BP’s ring. There is kissing, fighting, hair pulling, flirting.
And once the dust settles, the BP gets engaged to the Debutante.
The Cheerleader knows she’s ruined things with the GP, so she goes to their beach, where they kissed under the moon, to cry it out.
But the GP is there.
“When we kissed the first time, I didn’t know you were a prince. You were just the man I had fallen in love with.”
She tells him she doesn’t care about being a princess, or about his brother, and that she loves him.
He pulls a ring out of his pocket and proposes in the moonlight.
And she says yes.
The final scene of the play is the Queen announcing that the GP will be the King.
The final deleted scene is from Get Me. Although I feel these scenes are important, it happened while Keatyn was planning to leave Eastbrooke to go find a kidnapped Brooklyn. Because the time while Brooklyn was kidnapped was so tense, they interrupted the flow of the book and were ultimately taken out. For those of you who have gone on to read the Hollywood Love series, which features many of the characters as adults after the Keatyn series ends, you will also appreciate this scene in understanding Whitney and Dawson’s relationship.
Wednesday, January 5th
Too tired to deal.
Lunch
Whitney is sitting at her table all by herself. This time, she doesn’t look okay with it.
“Should we invite Whitney to sit with us?” Annie, always thoughtful, asks.
“No,” Peyton says firmly. “No fucking way I’m sitting with her.”
“Oh,” Annie says. “Okay.”
I look over at Whitney. She looks miserable. I feel bad for her. And under normal circumstances, I might have gone to sit with her just to show the school that I’m not mad at her. No one knows what she almost did to Peyton. And outing me was not that big of a deal in the scope of things going on in my life.
But I’m just too tired to deal with her.
I don’t want to explain.
And what she was going to do to Peyton was horrible.
She deserves to sit alone. Have a social time out.
I stay put, pushing my food around on a tray, while everyone shares stories about what they did over their holiday break.
Unconditionally.
10pm
I’m lying in bed with Aiden, while he searches the internet and shows me all the articles about the wedding. Our quiet night is suddenly pierced with the shriek of sirens heading from the gates.
“What’s going on?” I say, suddenly panicked.
Aiden sees the look in my eye, drops the computer, and grabs my hand. “Grab your coat. I’m getting you out of here.”
His train of thought has obviously immediately gone directly where mine did. That it could be a diversion. That Vincent could be here.
As we open the door, Riley is getting ready to knock on it.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he says to Aiden.
Aiden nods and the two of them lead me all the way down the stairs to the laundry room.
Riley uses his key to open the tunnel.
“I’ll see what’s going on,” he says, then locks us in as the alarms go off in the dorm signaling that the school is on lockdown.
I start to speak, but Aiden shushes me, and pulls me down the tunnel. When we get to the entrance to Stockton’s, we realize we can’t get through this door without a key.
I slide down the wall and sit on the hard concrete.
“In what situations do they do lockdowns? I remember them going through what we were supposed to do, but I can’t remember what the reasons were for.”
“It can mean a lot of different things, typically it just means there is a credible threat to our safety. Bomb threat. An intruder on campus. A breach in the fence. A nearby police operation. A national threat. Even severe weather.”
“But there was a fire truck, police car, and ambulance coming up the drive. If we were on lockdown . . .”
“It could be that someone was injured and the details are sketchy enough that they want us to stay put.” He pulls out his cell phone. “No service,” he says, getting up and walking down the tunnel searching for bars.
I hear his phone vibrate.
He reads, “Students, details are incoming, but one of our students is in need of medical attention. The school is on lockdown while paramedics work to stabilize her for transport to the hospital. There is no threat. Please just respect your fellow student by remaining in your rooms until further notice.”
His phone buzzes again.
“It’s my sister. She wants you to call her.”
I get up and go down the tunnel to where he seems to have service and call her. “What’s going on?” I hold the phone out so Aiden can hear.
“It’s Whitney,” she cries. “She tried to kill herself. She called me to tell me she’s sorry. She was crying and sounded messed up, slurring her words, telling me what a bad friend she was. I told her I forgave her, even though I was thinking I never would, and hung up. Then I got worried, so I went to her room to check on her. Knocked on her door. Kept knocking. Finally had to get our house mom to check on her. She was breathing but unresponsive. We couldn’t get her to wake up. The paramedics are working on her now. I’m freaking out. This is all my fault because I wouldn’t sit by her at lunch.”
“Peyton, calm down. It’s okay. I’m coming over there. We’ll go to the hospital together. Be there when she wakes up.”
“Really? Can you do that?”
“Yeah, I can. I’ll be right there.”
I hang up and Aiden says, “Cooper won’t let you leave.”
“Cooper is going to be the one to drive us.”
I’ve heard enough.
12:30am
Peyton and I are sitting in the waiting room listening to Whitney’s mom being all dramatic and making Whitney’s suicide attempt about herself. They told us a short time ago that Whitney would be fine and was waking up.
Her mom is now on the phone telling everyone she knows that her daughter tried to kill herself.
Finally, I can’t take it anymore.
“Maybe you should stop telling everyone you know about what Whitney did. Did you ever think maybe it was a cry for help? That she might not want all your friends to know that she was feeling so desperate?”
She hangs up on whoever she was talking to and sits up straighter. “I don’t think what I do is any of your business, young lady. I’m in distress.”
“You sure don’t act like it. Maybe instead of gossiping about it, you should be doing some introspection. Thinking about what kind of parent you’ve been. From what I’ve seen at school, you’re awful to her. All Winnie this and Winnie that. I don’t know why you’d want Whitney to be like her. She’s just an ass kissing clone of you.”
Peyton jumps in. “You let Winnie verbally abuse her. And you haven’t let her see her father in years.”
“You haven’t?” I ask. “Why not?”
“Because he’s a asshole and she doesn’t need a man like him in her life,” she says with disgust.
“Why is he an asshole?” I ask.
“Whatever do you mean?”
“I mean, why aren’t you with him? Have you even called him? Why isn’t he here?”
“He divorced me for his secretary. I told him he could have his divorce, but I’d make sure he never saw his children again. Whitney’s just like him,”
she says, almost spitting.
“Did he want to see her?” Peyton asks.
“Of course, he did,” she says. “And I’ll be damned if I’ll call him.”
I grab the phone out of her long fingernails. I’ve heard enough.
“Give me my phone back!” she says.
“What’s his name?” I ask, scrolling through her contacts, but knowing it’s probably the one labeled Asshole.
“I’m not telling you,” she snarls.
Peyton says, “Your daughter just tried to kill herself. You’ve been taking out your hate for your ex on Whitney. She doesn’t deserve it. Do one thing decent for her. What’s his name?”
Winnie walks back into the room and overhears the last part of the conversation. “You can’t say that to my mother.”
But her mom slowly sits back down, her eyes full of tears.
“Shut up, Winnie,” she says, fussing with her skirt. “His name is Malcolm. He’s under Asshole.”
