by Jillian Dodd
“So you want to continue to sleep with Shelby?”
“I like sex, Ariela. I always have, and I’m not going to apologize for that. I still love you. Remember when we first started hanging out, before I asked you to be my girlfriend? I wasn’t talking to anyone else even though we weren’t in a relationship yet. The difference now is that I have to talk to Shelby. I have to help take care of her. And you’re going to have to be okay with that. To not get jealous and worry. The question is can you do that?”
She shrugs, finally taking a bite. I don’t plan on sleeping with Shelby again, but I’m also not ready to commit to someone who is still married and who has been out of my life for the last ten years. At least not until we figure some of this shit out.
We finish our breakfast in silence. I pay the bill. We walk outside.
“So,” she says, “if we’re starting over, that means we don’t talk about our baggage on our date. Because we don’t have any. Let’s pretend it’s our first date. Just have fun.”
“You still want to go on a date with me?” I ask, shocked.
She stands on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “Yeah, Riley, I do.”
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21ST
Knox’s home — West Hollywood
KNOX
I’m just getting out of the shower after my morning workout. I can’t get Miss Bite Me out of my head. The texts at the wedding stopped, and I assume that’s because she was with the guy she brought to the wedding. I didn’t stick around to see them together.
It was amazing to me that over all these years, I’d never met her. So when I got back home yesterday, I pulled out my advance copy of The Keatyn Chronicles trilogy and watched every single Katie scene, fast forwarding through the rest. I wanted to know everything about her.
What I learned is that in high school she was impetuous, bubbly, and cute. She was on the dance team. She always chose the wrong guy. Tended to drink a little too much. Had the same amazing rack that still bounces when she dances.
When I got to Keatyn’s eighteenth birthday party, I realized that our paths crossed on that night. She flirted with Keatyn’s friend, Cush. When Keatyn suggested Cush and Aiden, who both played soccer and were both played by young, buff actors, have a face-off, Katie giggled and said, “I vote for a shirtless face-off to commence immediately.”
I study my reflection in the mirror. I’ve always kept myself in shape, but had to get particularly jacked for this last Trilogy movie due to the number of the shirtless scenes I have. So even though a lot of my custom suit jackets have gotten tight in the shoulders, I’m glad I look good. I close my eyes and imagine Katie’s hands running down my chest . . .
My eyes fly open when I realize I’ve quickly become aroused—at just the thought of her hands on my chest.
“What the hell?” I say to my dick. He doesn’t reply. Nor does he seem embarrassed.
I think again about the party, wondering what would have happened if I’d talked to her then. Would we be like RiAnne and Dallas and have been together ever since then? Would we have shared the best kiss of our life like Dawson and Vanessa did? Would she have been my green flash?
I finish shaving, dry off my face, throw a towel around my waist, run into my bedroom, and fast forward through the trilogy again, looking for a particular scene.
Okay, here it is. Keatyn and Aiden are in St. Croix.
Aiden grabs Keatyn’s hand. When he squeezes it, she yells, “Oh my gosh!”
“Did you see it, too?” Aiden asks excitedly. “Was that it? I’ve never seen anything like that before. The sun literally turned green for a second. How did it do that?”
“Yes, I saw it! But I’ve never seen it do that before! It was amazing!”
“But you told me that you had seen it before.”
“I think I lied,” Keatyn says. Aiden cocks an eyebrow at her. “Not on purpose. I think I’ve wanted to see it so badly that I thought I had. But I didn't know I hadn’t really seen it until I just saw the real thing.”
Aiden reaches out and touches her cheek. “Kinda like the difference between loves.”
“The sunset was like love?”
“Yeah, like, everyone falls in love at different times in their lives. And when you’re in it, you think you know what it’s like to be in love. Until you meet your true love and then you know the other love wasn’t the same thing.”
I fast forward to another scene. At the beginning of the first movie, Keatyn made a wish on the moon for her perfect boy, causing fans to dub the boy Keatyn would choose as Moon Boy. In St. Croix, Aiden told Keatyn he wished on the moon for his perfect girl. At the time, Keatyn was still being stalked by Vincent, so she didn’t tell Aiden about her wish. Or that they made their wishes at the same time. It wasn’t until the end of the last movie that Keatyn finally tells him.
“Remember how I told you about my prom night? How it didn’t go according to my script, and I sat on the beach afterward?” Keatyn points down. “This is where I was sitting.”
“And Brooklyn was sitting here with you?” Aiden snaps back.
She turns around, looking surprised by his question. “Well, later he came out to talk to me. That was the night when he and I sorta got started. But, I meant before that. When I was sitting here alone. It was about two in the morning. I was sad and, it sounds crazy, but I was sort of talking to the moon. Telling it what I wanted. What I didn’t tell you in St. Croix, Aiden, is that I made a wish on the moon, too.”
“What did you wish for?”
“My perfect boy. And I thought he was staring at the moon at that very moment, wishing for me, too. I swear, I could almost feel you.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we wished on the moon at the same time. If you had told me about your wish the night we first danced, I would’ve let myself fall in love with you right then because I so desperately wanted it. I would’ve loved you even if we weren’t right for each other. When I made my wish, I didn’t really understand what love was. What it should be. What it could be. I just knew I wanted it. It was like the green flash. I didn’t know I hadn’t felt it until I experienced the real thing.”
There are tears shimmering in Keatyn’s eyes.
Aiden’s too. Because he swore that night he felt her too.
Keatyn smiles and takes his hand.
“Through all of it. Taunting Vincent. Taking over his company. Fighting him in the van. Trying to save him from getting shot at. Finding B. Throwing a bomb in the ocean. Getting my family back home. You motivated me. Because every time I closed my eyes and wondered if I could—if I would—survive, all I would see is you. You’re my green flash, Aiden. Our moon wishes may have brought us together, but it’s our hearts that led us home. To each other. I know with everything I am that you’re it. My true love.”
I pick up my phone and call Aiden. I know he’s on his honeymoon, but I need to talk to him. I need to get my head around all of this.
“Sorry to bother you on your honeymoon,” I immediately apologize when he picks up.
“It’s okay. We’re just hanging by the pool. What’s up?”
“Maybe you should put me on speaker,” I suggest. Really, I need to talk to them both.
“Okay,” Aiden says and then I hear Keatyn say, “Hey, Knox! What’s going on?”
“When I got home from the wedding I fast forwarded through the entire trilogy just so I could watch the Katie scenes.”
“She really must have made an impression,” Keatyn laughs.
“Was Keatyn playing matchmaker?” Aiden asks.
I don’t get a chance to reply, because Keatyn says, “No, he saw Katie and asked me to introduce him.”
“Wasn’t she there with a date?” Aiden asks.
“Yeah, she was with one of those younger boys—”
“Will you two shut up!” I rudely interrupt. “Sorry, just, please, let me talk. I’m going crazy. Obviously, I’m very interested in her if I went through over six hours of footage of
someone else playing her life. Anyway, today, I was thinking about how I’ve been in love before. How it has never worked out. And so then this morning, I remembered the green flash scene in St. Croix. And then I watched the green flash part at the end. What I need to know is if it’s all true. Keatyn, did you embellish that shit to make it more romantic? Do you both really believe you made a wish on the moon at the same time? Do you think I’m crazy if I think Katie might be my green flash?”
“I’ve never had to embellish anything regarding Aiden,” Keatyn says, sounding offended. “And, yes, it all happened that way. I fell for him the first day I saw him. When he held my hand for the first time, I knew. And when he kissed me at the top of the Ferris wheel—”
“You felt like you had died and gone to hottie heaven,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Knox,” Aiden says, “if you feel that way about Katie, then you owe it to yourself to call her. Ask her out. It’s my understanding the guy she brought to the wedding was just a date, not a relationship.”
“I thought I had never met her, but I did,” I admit, because this is the part that bothers me. “At Keatyn’s eighteenth birthday party. If she is really my true love, wouldn’t something have happened then? Shouldn’t we have at least had some kind of moment or something?”
“You weren’t ready for true love at that point, Knox,” Keatyn says. “She would have been just a notch in your bedpost, because that’s what you were into then. You had become famous quickly. Your ego was freaking ridiculous. Don’t you remember what a jerk you were to me the first time we met? You weren’t looking for love. Weren’t even open to it.”
“So you think I am now?”
“Yes. You just bought a house. You’re ready to settle down. Maybe have a family. You told me all of that just the other day. Before you met Katie. Maybe you had to get to that point in your life before life was going to present you with the right girl.”
“But what if the only reason I think she’s the right girl is because I’m desperate?”
“Knox,” Aiden says. “You’re not desperate. You’re lucky to have met someone who made you feel that way when your heart was ready for it. Don’t fuck it up.”
“So, I should go for it?”
“Yes, you should go for it,” he says.
“Keatyn, you’re being awfully quiet about all this. What do you think?”
“That’s because I’ve been holding my hand over her mouth,” Aiden says with a laugh.
“Are you sure that’s really why she can’t talk?” I joke. “You are on your honeymoon.”
“Eeeekkkk!” Keatyn screams in a high-pitched dolphin sound. “I’m trying not to be too excited, but, Knox! You and Katie would be perfect for each other. She’s smart. She has a wicked sense of humor. She loves excitement and adventure. She’d totally keep you on your toes.”
“So it won’t be crazy if I just show up there?”
“Not if you make an impression,” she says.
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re Knox Daniels. You’ll figure something out.”
I hang up and realize a few minutes later that I don’t have any fucking idea what to do. I think back to the way her mouth hung when she met me. How when women do that upon meeting me it usually goes one of two ways: they are super embarrassed and say nothing, or they go crazy overboard, screaming, touching me, and taking a million selfies.
I thought she was going to be shy, but I think her shock was more centered around a conversation she and Keatyn must have had about the question Katie always wanted to ask me. She was so adorable when she asked me about my character’s lip biting. If I, myself, used that technique. How I boldly showed her that I do, indeed. And then how she frowned.
No girl has ever frowned after kissing me. I think about how her demeanor changed from shy and innocent to bold and daring as she put her hand on her hip, smirked, leaned closer to me, and said, What I really wondered is if you do it when you kiss somewhere lower. Then I was the one standing there with my mouth open. I quickly recovered though, asking if she’d like to find out. But she had a date. And although I wanted her to ditch him and be with me, looking back, it says something about her character that she didn’t. The girl has some morals. And I respect that.
I also can’t stop thinking how she described the men—well, the younger guys—she dates. How they were good for fun and intensity, but not big on finesse. I want nothing more than to prove to her that I am the best of both worlds. I want to show her I have all the finesse my age and experience dictates, but that Knox Daniels has plenty of intensity. I also can’t stop thinking about the long, hot kiss we shared when I pushed her up against the side of the barn. How I begged her to come to my room. How even though I’ve never done what she asked me about, it’s all that is on my mind now.
I reread the cute texts she sent me.
I love how bold she was. How she told me if I was good in bed, I could take her to D.C. this weekend. Hell, I’m going to do a lot more than that.
But how?
A text pops up on my phone screen.
Keatyn: Aiden will kill me if he sees me texting during our honeymoon, but if you haven’t figured something out, watch The Bachelor. She’s obsessed with that show.
I have heard about the reality TV show, but I have never seen an episode. I might know someone who has, though.
I get dressed quickly, run downstairs, and yell into my assistant’s office. “Talk to me about The Bachelor. What do you know about it?”
“Oh gosh!” Missy exclaims, her eyes wide with excitement. “Which season? I mean, there have been so many good ones.”
“I’m wondering more about the structure of the whole thing. What happens on the show? What about the show do you like?”
“Well, it starts with a bunch of girls who want to win the bachelor.”
“Win the bachelor? So, it’s not about love?”
“Sometimes its about love. I mean, it’s supposed to be about finding love, but most people love it because of the drama that goes on to get to that point. Have you ever had two girls fight over you?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Imagine twenty women fighting over you, and you are all living in the same mansion. And to get to know them, you go on dates with them. And if you like them, you give them a rose so they can stay. Girls who don’t get a rose have to leave the show.”
This piques my interest. “What kind of dates?”
Most of them are group dates where they get to spend time, hopefully, with the guy. They can be anything. Olympic style events, an activity, a cocktail or pool party, at some point they go home to meet certain girls’ families, but my favorite part is when they get an invitation to the fantasy suite.”
“I like the sound of that. What do they do there?”
“Well, first they travel there in high style. A private plane, I think. Then there is an amazingly luxurious and romantic suite and when they go in there, the cameras are off so they can get to know each other better.” She lets out a wicked laugh. “If you know what I mean.”
“So that’s when they sleep together?”
“The official word is that they talk all night. I suppose some do. But for others I’m sure it gets physical.”
“So the fantasy suite is a big deal?”
“Yes.”
“So roses, dates, the fantasy suite, what else?”
“The final rose ceremony is when he gives the girl he loves a rose and then proposes.”
“That’s what I want to do then. Shower her with roses. Take her on a date. Meet her family. Take her to a fantasy suite. Then a final rose ceremony with a proposal. Will you help me set it up? And make sure the press doesn’t find out?”
“Wait! You want to do all of those things?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Oh, Knox. She’s not worth it. She was cheating on you. You can’t be serious about—”
“I’m not proposing to my ex-girlfriend. I met someone ne
w.” I can’t help but smile widely just thinking about her.
“Look at you,” she says, swatting my shoulder. “You’re all smiles. Who is this girl? Where did you meet her? How long have you been dating?”
“Her name is Katie. She’s a school teacher. We were at the wedding together.”
“As in Keatyn and Aiden’s wedding? I heard it was beautiful.”
“And a big surprise. In large part because of what you leaked to the press the morning of the wedding.”
“I wish I could have gone.”
“You would have loved it. It was perfect. How is your grandma doing?” I ask. Her grandma fell and broke her wrist, which is why she couldn’t come to the wedding.
“She’s good. Tough old bird, that one,” she says. “So, Katie was your date for the wedding? Why haven’t you told me about her?”
I take a deep breath. She’s going to think I’m nuts. But she can’t say much. She and her partner were married only three months after they met.
“No, she was actually there with someone else. I met her for the first time at the wedding.”
“Wait. Let me get this straight. You want to propose to someone you met three days ago, when she was on a date with someone else? Are you crazy?”
I nod and grin like an idiot. “Actually, yes. I am. I’m crazy about her.”
She frowns and studies my face. She’s been my assistant for over ten years and probably knows more about my life than I do. But after a few moments, her face softens and then she grins. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this, Knox. You’re smitten.”
“I am. Completely. I can’t wait for you to meet her. She’s funny, and cute, and sweet, and a little ornery.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No,” I say. She listens carefully as I animatedly tell her what all went down. Her connection to Keatyn. How we briefly met years ago. The question she asked me.
