Especially if it wasn’t true.
Tomorrow, he’d put his most professional foot forward and show everyone there wasn’t anything going on between them, even if that meant turning a blind eye to Cassidy in her hot pink bikini.
• • •
Evan stood in his usual spot alongside the action as the girls waited to find out who would leave the show. Paige looked as if she was on the verge of tears the entire day, as did Cassidy. It would hurt her if Paige went home.
Zoe tried to hide her worry, but Evan could see it. She’d spent her time since being nominated laughing and joking with the girls as always, but Evan had seen her playing with her necklace more than ever. Obviously it was some kind of comfort to her in times of stress and she had certainly been stressed a lot in the last twenty-four hours.
“Welcome to another elimination ceremony. Tonight we’ll find out who America has voted to send home.” Evan tuned out as Spencer and Brad did their usual mindless and only-for-show cheesy banter.
“Here’s the first envelope, Brad.”
Brad opened the envelope, pulling out a white card. He paused for a moment before reading the name. “Nicole.”
“Nicole, please say your goodbyes and head back into the house to collect your things.” Spencer gave her a look of sympathy before shoving her off in the direction of the girls waiting to give her farewell hugs.
“Tell us the final girl going home tonight.” Spencer handed Brad the last envelope as soon as Nicole disappeared into the house.
Brad took it, glancing at Zoe and Paige before opening it. Evan zoomed in on Cassidy to capture her reaction as the last name was read. Either her only real friend in the house was leaving or her only real enemy in the house would.
“The last girl going home is,” Brad said, slipping the card out of the envelope, “I don’t believe it. I — I really didn’t think — ”
“Who is it, Brad?” Spencer encouraged. “Who’s the last girl going home?”
Brad looked up, obviously stricken with surprise. “Zoe.”
Chapter Twelve
Cassidy eased onto the sofa as a soft groan escaped her lips. She gingerly adjusted the pillows before sighing and remaining still. Evan knew she’d been to makeup before the interview, but he could still see the darkness beneath her eyes peeking through the makeup foundation.
“Tired today?” He moved the light so it would bounce off her face at a slightly different angle. It wouldn’t cure the darkness under her eyes, but it would minimize it to the best of his abilities.
“Very.” She yawned. “I haven’t been able to sleep well even with that huge comfy bed. I think my body is mad at me for abusing it.” She chuckled and rubbed her hands along her thighs like she was trying to massage the aches out of them.
I could massage those.
“I’ll try to make the interview as quick as possible today,” he said, focusing on the details of the shot so he wouldn’t get distracted with thoughts of Cassidy again.
“Thanks. I plan on soaking in the tub for the rest of the day. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do the next challenge feeling like this.”
“I’m sure you’ll be good as new by then.” He tried to sound reassuring, but truthfully it seemed like the last challenge had really taken everything out of her. He grabbed his stool, the interview notes he’d made and sat behind the camera, clicking it on to record. “Okay, let’s get going. What was the second challenge and how did you like it?”
“We went horseback riding at a beautiful ranch near the mountains. It was one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been, but I can’t say as I loved the experience.”
“Have you ever been horseback riding before?”
“No, but I’ve seen people riding in Central Park and I always thought it looked like fun.”
“And was it fun?”
“Nope, not even a little.”
“Why not?”
“Because horses don’t speak English very well and I had some major communication issues with mine.” Cassidy folded her arms across her chest.
“So you’re saying that maybe if you had a different horse, one that listened, your experience would have been better?” he asked, unable to stop himself from smirking at her apparent hatred for her horse.
“I’m saying my experience would have been better if it hadn’t involved a horse at all. Horses and I don’t get along apparently.”
“Can you explain a little more for me? What exactly went wrong?” He sat forward in his chair. He’d been there for the event, but she hadn’t spoken about what had happened to anyone, not even Paige. He was eager to hear her thoughts.
Cassidy shifted on the sofa, grimacing a little as the movement undoubtedly made her muscles scream again. “First my stupid horse sneezed in my face, which was completely disgusting. Then she body checked me into the wall like an angry hockey player. And if that wasn’t enough already, she tried to crush my foot with one of her giant hooves. Happy?”
He suppressed a laugh. “How’s your foot now?”
“It’s getting better. It wasn’t broken, just badly bruised. The blue bruises go great with my pedicure.”
“So, after you got out of the barn, and onto the horse, did your experience get any better?”
“No, I wish.”
He made the hand signal for her to keep talking. Cassidy’s short answers weren’t enough.
“I don’t want to elaborate on it.” She spoke to him instead of the camera. “You elaborate on it, you were there. Why do I have to relive it when all I want to do is forget?”
“It’s not as bad as you remember. Why don’t you tell us what happened?”
“First of all, who’s ‘us’?” Cassidy asked, motioning around the room and peeking under a couple of throw pillows. “There’s no one here but you and me. And secondly, I remember it perfectly well, and I don’t want to talk about it.”
Evan tried to remain calm even though he was on the verge of laughing out loud. She was even cuter when she was upset. “‘Us’ is the viewing audience who’s going to watch this interview during the show. I’m supposed to ask these questions, and you’re supposed to answer them. What happened during your trail ride, Cassidy?”
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?” She glared at him around the camera. “Fine. After I left the barn with Corona, my stupid horse who should be sent out to pasture permanently, I waited for the other girls to get their horses ready. Then we went for a lovely trail ride.”
“Did you have any trouble mounting Corona?”
“You know I — ” She glared at him again. “If that stupid horse would have just stayed still. It’s not my fault she moved right when I swung my leg over her back.”
“Well, you did sort of kick her,” he added quietly.
“Don’t you dare laugh,” she shouted, pointing at him. “It hurts to fall off a horse. You try it sometime and see if you’re still laughing after that.”
“You also had a picnic with Brad and some of the others. How was that?”
“It was fine.”
“They’re going to want more than that. Why don’t you tell us what happened when you got to the picnic area?”
“Okay, fine. Let’s just say I discovered getting off my horse wasn’t any easier than getting on it so I fell. Again.” Cassidy folded her arms defiantly across her chest. “And to make it even more embarrassing, I fell right into Brad and knocked him down, too. Can we please move on now?”
Evan motioned for Cassidy to take a deep breath. He didn’t want her getting this worked up on camera since there was no telling what Chip would do with the footage. He had very good editors working for him and Chip used them to their full potential. He needed to make sure Cassidy didn’t give Chip anything too juicy to pass up messing around with in editing.
“It sounds like there were some pretty intimate moments between you and Brad during this competition.” Evan ground his teeth together as he waited for her to respond.
<
br /> “Oh, Christ. I didn’t get intimate with him. You make it sound like we were out doing the nasty in the bushes. It wasn’t like that. I don’t consider falling off a horse onto someone and knocking them and myself, asses first onto the ground, very romantic. So don’t start with me about getting intimate with him when you know it wasn’t like that.”
“But you did end up lying on top of him, didn’t you?” He smirked again at her irritation. It was sort of fun to watch her get all riled up and hotheaded.
Hotheaded and sexy.
“Technically, but not in any sexual way.”
“You also shared a rather intense moment in the barn before the trail ride even started, correct? Why don’t you tell us about that?”
I wish I didn’t have to sit here and listen to it.
“Brad helped all of the girls pick a horse and I chose mine very quickly, so we had a few moments to sit and talk. He wanted to know how things were with me back home, and he also asked how I was feeling about him now that we’ve been thrown together into the show.”
“And how do you feel about him?” Evan could feel the first bubbles of annoyance building in his blood.
“The same as I did before, only more embarrassed.” She rang her hands together in her lap. “Just because we had feelings for each other at one time doesn’t mean they’re going to come back or be the same this time around.”
“But hasn’t he already been kissing some of the other women? So he must be developing feelings quickly for some of them, right?”
“Yeah, he kissed Zoe in the barn. I honestly can’t speak for how he’s feeling about the other girls.”
“So if he kissed Zoe, why didn’t you kiss him?” He wanted to know the answer for his own personal reasons. “Didn’t he ask for a kiss?”
“Because I’m not the kind of girl who goes around kissing every guy I meet, even if I’ve already known him for a while. Yes, he sort of suggested he wanted to kiss me, but I had just watched him make out with Zoe. I wasn’t really feeling in the mood to kiss him after she’d just had her tongue down his throat.”
“So you’d like to kiss him, but maybe in a more private setting, when he hasn’t been kissing other girls moments before?” Another wave of annoyance flashed though him as he asked the question. He wanted to know what she planned on doing with surfer boy. Did she want to kiss him?
Cassidy rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say that. I just said that was one of the reasons I wasn’t into kissing him at that time. I don’t know how I’ll feel at another time in another place.”
Wrong answer.
“So you might want to kiss him?” The tension boiling inside of him erupted to the surface as he imagined having to film Cassidy kissing that punk.
“I don’t know.” She rubbed her hand across her forehead as though she had a migraine starting. “Sheesh, how many times do I have to say it?”
Evan leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “You seem awfully defensive about the whole thing.”
“The only reason I’m being defensive is because you’re twisting my words.”
“I’m not twisting your words. I’m simply asking questions based on your answers. Moving on. Are you happy you’ve survived the vote again this week?”
“Of course. I may not be good at the challenges, and it’s really weird to sort of re-date my ex, but for the most part, I’m having a good time being here and I’d like to see what happens next. I’m getting used to doing all these new adventurous things every few days. It’s exciting.”
And dangerous. Why can’t she see that part of it, too? How many more times does she have to get hurt before realizing being adventurous isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?
“How do you feel about Zoe going home?”
Cassidy tried unsuccessfully to hide a grin. “I think it sucks for her but it’s kind of nice for the rest of us. There’s already a lot less drama around here.” Cassidy laugh rang out in the room as he switched off the camera.
“Great job, Cassidy. We’re all done here.”
• • •
Cassidy glared at Evan as he turned his camera off and started shuffling through papers. How could he be so calm after all that?
Oh right, he laughed at me the whole time.
She fumed inside after barely keeping her cool during the interview. Now the cameras were off and she felt like a pot of steaming water on the verge of boiling over — and Evan risked a severe burn.
“So, you think everything that happened at the challenge was pretty funny, huh? Do I amuse you?”
“Actually, you do,” Evan said, not turning around. “And it was pretty funny.”
“You don’t even try to hide laughing at me. Do you have any idea how embarrassed I am?”
“I have a pretty good idea, since I was there when it happened.” Evan turned and smiled at her. “But honestly, Cassy, you need to calm down. I promise you it wasn’t as bad as you think. You should try to laugh about it, too.”
“I don’t want to laugh about it. It happened on national TV. I’m going to go home eventually and I’ll be teased forever about being the stupid girl who fell off her horse — twice!”
“It’s not that bad.” Evan laughed out loud this time.
Cassidy glared at the smirk on his face, the playful twinkle in his eyes. She grabbed a pillow and threw it as hard as she could at his cocky smile, hoping to wipe it off his face so she wouldn’t have to see it anymore.
“Hey.” Evan deflected the pillow with his arm. “What’s that for?”
“It’s for being such a cocky jerk and thinking my humiliation is hilarious.”
“Cassy, I didn’t mean to be a cocky jerk — ouch, name calling hurts, by the way. It’s not very nice to call me names. I think you need to be a little less serious and laugh at yourself a little more. It’s really not worth trying to destroy the props over.”
“I’m not destroying the props. It’s a throw pillow — I threw it. It’s not my fault your annoying face got in the way.”
Annoyingly cute. How is that possible?
Cassidy stormed passed Evan and out the door.
“Wait up. Where’re you going?” Evan called, chasing after her.
She didn’t glance back. “I’m going to my room, so you don’t have to follow me with your camera.”
Cassidy limped up the stairs as fast as her foot would let her, trying to escape Evan and his stupid smiling face. She fumbled with the lock to her door. Frustrated, she jammed the key in again but still the door wouldn’t budge.
“Come on.” She fiddled with the lock again. Why won’t you ever work, damn it?
“Let me help you,” Evan said quietly behind her. He took the key from her hand and slowly, purposefully slid it into the lock, twisting the handle and pushing it open.
Cassidy stared straight ahead at the door, refusing to acknowledge his help. When the door opened she pushed past it into the room.
Cassidy heard the door click closed behind her, followed by silence — glorious, laughter-free silence. If there was one thing she hated more than anything else, it was being laughed at — and horses. They were on her shit list now, too. Defeated, she sat on the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands, the tension from the day aching in her neck and shoulders.
“You know, I wasn’t really laughing at you.” Evan’s quiet voice spoke from inside her room. “I thought I was laughing with you.”
“Oh great, you’re still here. I thought I made it clear your filming services weren’t needed for the rest of the night.”
“Good, because I left my camera in the interview room.”
“Evan, please go. I can’t deal with this anymore today. I’m exhausted and sore and I really need to get some sleep.”
“I’ll leave you alone, but not until you let me apologize.”
“Apologize for what? I was under the distinct impression you didn’t do anything wrong when you spent the entire interview laughing at my expense.”
�
��I don’t exactly feel like I was wrong, but you do and I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to make you upset.” He threw another cute smile her direction like he was trying to charm his way out of being in trouble.
No way, Cameraman McCutiepants. There’s no way you can win me over that easily. You need more than a nice smile to get your ass out of this fire.
“Enough already, Evan.” She sprang from the bed, charging at him. “If you were really sorry, you’d wipe that annoying smile off your face. You’re still laughing at me even now when you claim to be apologizing.”
“Cassy, come on. Let me talk for a minute.”
My name is Cassidy.
“You think you’re so cool, hiding behind your camera. But how would you like it if every little thing you did,” she said, poking him in the chest with her finger, “was on film for everyone in the world to see?”
She poked him a few more times as she spoke. “Huh? How would you like that? Would you still think everything was so funny if you were the one people talked about and laughed at?”
“Cassy, stop poking me.” Evan caught her hand and held it against his chest.
Evan’s heart raced under her hand. Her heart picked up its pace to match. His hand was warm on top of hers. The heat spread quickly up her arm, dampening the angry fire inside her and replacing it with a different kind of flame, one burning even hotter. She stared into his eyes, almost forgetting her anger and annoyance.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have been laughing at you. It’s not as funny when you’re the one in front of the camera.”
Cassidy held his gaze. She could see in his eyes he meant every word.
“I couldn’t help but laugh. Watching you just be you, almost like the camera wasn’t even there, was great. You’re a funny girl despite all that sarcasm and tough New Yorker attitude you try to conjure. I’m sorry if I find it amusing that you’re a magnet for trouble, but you make it so damn easy.”
Cassidy held her breath, not sure if she was still mad at him. He certainly didn’t seem like a cocky jerk anymore. Not when he was holding her hand to his chest and staring at her with intensity she’d only seen in movies.
Falling for You Page 11
