Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1)

by Stoker, Susan

  After about eight minutes, most of the fish had been collected. Jennie and Courtnee were neck and neck in the fish department. There were two fish left in the barrel. Sam retrieved one of them and was headed back down the path toward her pail when Jennie and Courtnee came running up the path. They were both determined that they were going to get that last fish. Whoever got it would be the heat winner with eight. As it happened, Sam, Courtnee, and Jennie reached the bend in the path at the same time. Sam couldn’t move out of the way fast enough and when Jennie brushed past her on her way to the barrel Sam lost her balance and slipped down that same slope that Kimmie almost went down. But this time, Sam went sliding into the river.

  It’s cold, was Sam’s first thought as she went under. The water wasn’t very deep, maybe about four and a half feet, but it was freezing. Sam looked up at the path and saw Kina pointing her camera down at her. Great, just great, I know this is going to make the show. Since the fish she’d been carrying was long gone, having been dropped as she tumbled into the river, Sam looked up at the bank and tried to climb up. She figured out pretty quickly that she wasn’t going to be able to get back up to the path the way she’d come. It was pretty steep and covered with mud and rocks. Sam knew there were rocks under the mud because she could feel her side throbbing. She’d obviously scraped herself on those rocks on her way down. In order to get out of the river she’d have to go upstream and see if she could make her way back to the clearing and climb out that way.

  She heard Jennie and Courtnee go running back down the path making enough noise to wake the dead. It sounded like Jennie had retrieved the last fish because Courtnee was bitching that Jennie had cheated as she followed her down the path toward their pails. They didn’t even notice her down in the river as they were concentrating on the sound of Robert’s voice counting down the time.

  With Kina still filming, Sam started making her way back upstream. It was slow going since she slipped on hidden rocks every few feet. Sam was really starting to get cold. She wished she could ask Kina for help, but she knew the rules…she had to pretend the cameras didn’t exist. Finally, she made her way to the clearing where everyone turned to stare at her.

  “What are you doing?” Brandi asked incredulously.

  “I thought I’d take a swim,” Sam replied sarcastically while climbing out at a slope leading down into the river, dripping water all the way up the bank. When no one said anything else, Sam finally said, “I slipped.” She then turned to Robert and asked, “Are all my fish counted?” When Robert answered affirmatively, she walked to her bucket, picked it up and walked back to the stream.

  “What are you doing now?” Brandi asked again.

  “What does it look like?” Sam responded with a bite to her tone. “My fish are counted, there’s no need to let them die needlessly.” And with that she emptied the pail into the river and watched her four fish swim away.

  The last heat went off without a hitch. Lori and Brandi each retrieved eight fish and Ashley got four. The women who’d get to meet the bachelor that day were Missy with eleven fish, Candi, Katie, Kiki, Jennie, Lori, and Brandi, who all had eight fish, and Courtnee who had retrieved seven fish. Sam didn’t really care. She was cold and wet and she knew she’d scraped her side pretty good on her way down the incline into the river. All she wanted to do was get back to camp and take a shower, even if it was a cold one, then get into clean clothes. But Robert had another surprise up his sleeve.

  “Okay, ladies, everyone did a good job in collecting their fish. If the eight of you who retrieved the most fish would come with me, it’s time to meet the bachelor.” At his statement words of protest rang out.

  “No way,” Missy complained loudly. “I’m sopping wet, my makeup is gone and my hair looks horrible. This isn’t fair…I want to go and change first.” The other ladies agreed. Robert stood and looked at the group of women. They really did look bedraggled. He smirked.

  “Okay, you have a choice, the eight of you who collected the fish can either come right now to meet the bachelor, or you can go back to the camp and meet him first thing in the morning. If you choose to meet him in the morning, the other seven women will go right now and meet him. It’s up to you.”

  Sam laughed inside. These reality shows really were full of twists and turns. She wasn’t sure what decision the winners would make. She knew they really wanted to meet the guy first, but they also wanted to make a good impression and showing up as they were wouldn’t do that. But on the other hand, they really didn’t want anyone else to be able to get to him first. It really was going to be a tough choice. Sam hoped they’d let their greediness get the better of them. She really, really wanted to go back to camp. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to meet the guy looking like she did, she was just cold and miserable. And fixing that came before a man. She probably wouldn’t have been so cold, but the sun had disappeared during their little competition, and with the loss of the sun went the loss of much of the heat of the day.

  The eight women were huddled together a bit away from the camp. The ever-present Kina hovered as close as she could with the camera. Sam tried to ignore her, she hadn’t quite gotten the hang of ignoring the cameras, but she figured by the time this show was over she wouldn’t even think twice about them being around.

  The women who hadn’t won the contest could all hear a bit of the conversation the winners were having every now and then, but for the most part they were being pretty quiet, all things considered. Finally Missy stood up. Since she retrieved the most fish, she obviously felt like she was in charge.

  “For the record, we don’t think this is fair. We won the competition fair and square and you tricked us,” she said loudly. “But we’ve decided that we’d rather put our best foot forward tomorrow morning and meet the bachelor then. The losers can meet him now the way they are.”

  Of course the last was said with such distain it was impossible to miss. So the eight winning women climbed back on the bus and were taken back to camp. The seven women that were left standing in the clearing giggled nervously. They weren’t happy at having to meet the bachelor looking like they were either, but they were a little less wet, except for Sam, than the others because they didn’t retrieve as many fish from the barrel.

  They were instructed to sit and wait. Next thing they knew there was a team of people setting up a table and mini-work stations. The fish were brought out by a crew of chefs. The chefs immediately started preparing them to be cooked. Sam laughed. We’re going to have quite the meal! At least the fish didn’t die in vain. It was hard to get excited about it, though, since her jeans were molded to her body with river water, her side hurt from where it was scraped, and she was so cold. She was glad the fish would be eaten—she assumed they’d be cooking the fish from the contest—and not just die for the sake of the contest and the show.

  The women sat together and watched the meal being prepared. They tried to finger comb their hair back into some semblance of a hairstyle. Because of the dry air their hair was mostly dry when they heard from behind them, “Hello, ladies.”

  It was the guy!

  Chapter Six

  The women all abruptly stood up and turned around. It was time to meet the bachelor. Sam slowly stood up and faced the man she’d been calling “the guy” in her mind. He was tall, about six feet tall. He was wearing a pair of gently worn jeans and a blue long sleeve collared shirt. He had on cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. Sam couldn’t really see the color of his hair, but his eyes were a deep chocolate brown. He had what looked like laugh lines around his eyes.

  The ever present Robert spoke then, “Ladies, I’d like to introduce you to our bachelor, Al. Al is from Austin, Texas, and owns his own ranching operation outside of the city. He’s thirty-eight years old and has never been married. He likes to hunt, fish, camp, and work with animals. He’s an expert horseman and I feel confident he’ll keep you safe out here in the wilds of the Outback. I’ll leave the seven of you to get acquainted. In four hours I’
ll return to take you back to camp. Ladies. Al.” And with that, Robert turned around and left the clearing.

  Alex thought it was amusing that first of all, they’d shortened his name. Never in his thirty-eight years had anyone ever dared to call him Al. He guessed the producers wanted to try to preserve some of his privacy when the show finally did air. At least that was what he hoped, otherwise he had no idea why they’d shorten his name to something ridiculous. He also chuckled at the spin they put on his life. He did like to hunt and do the other things Robert said, and he was an expert horseman, but he knew with the outfit he was wearing, it would produce erroneous assumptions about what he did for a living.

  Ashley immediately walked over to Al and introduced herself.

  “Hi, my name is Ashley. I’m from Toledo, Ohio. It’s great to finally meet you. We’ve been very excited, you’re even better looking than I could’ve imagined. It must be great to own your own ranch!” Alex chuckled to himself. He knew that with that introduction they’d assume he was rich and owned a big ranch.

  “Nice to meet you, Ashley,” Alex responded neutrally.

  One by one the other women lined up to meet Al. They all said where they were from and gushed on and on about how happy they were to meet him. Finally, it was Sam’s turn. She held out her hand, shook the guy’s hand and simply said, “Sammi” by way of introduction. Alex’s mouth turned up in the corners.

  “That’s it?” he asked with a smile.

  “Yup,” Sam replied. “What ya see is what ya get.”

  With that Alex took the time to look up and down Sam’s body. He noticed her jeans seemed to be wet, while her hair was dry. He couldn’t help but notice her curves. Her jeans were molded to her body, allowing him to see that she was all woman. The blouse she was wearing was also clinging to her body. Sam had her arms crossed defensively in front of her, but that just pushed her breasts up, making them more noticeable. Alex didn’t usually ogle women, but damn, this woman had a body that was built to be ogled. His eyes made it back up from his perusal of her body to her face and saw she was blushing. When was the last time he’d seen a woman blush from just a look?

  His mind went back to the fact that her jeans were wet. None of the other women’s clothes were clinging to them as hers were. None of the other women seemed to be as soaked as she was. And now that he thought about it, when he shook her hand, it was ice cold.

  “You seem to be a bit wet,” he said with one eyebrow raised up in a question.

  “Had a little incident earlier, it was nothing,” Sam replied, turned around and went back to sit on a log. She was too embarrassed to get into it. If she hadn’t been so clumsy and if she’d paid more attention to what was going on, she wouldn’t be in this situation now. She was also embarrassed at the way Al had looked at her. She wasn’t an idiot. She knew with her clothes wet, they’d cling to her. She couldn’t interpret Al’s look, though. She wanted to believe that he was looking at her in a flirty way, but she couldn’t fathom it. As was typical for her, when she was embarrassed she retreated into herself and it usually came across as disinterest.

  The other women quickly tried to manipulate Alex’s conversation. Alex couldn’t wait to get back to his tent and watch the tapes of what happened that day. Somehow he just knew there was more to this meeting than the women were letting on. He thought the women all looked nice, he just couldn’t put his finger on why they looked different than yesterday when he saw them on the bus. As part of the “meet and greet,” Alex was required to spend one-on-one time with all the women. He started with Cindee and then met in quick succession with Amy and Kimmie. They were all pleasant. He didn’t have any real positive or negative thoughts about any of them so far.

  After speaking with Kimmie, it was time to eat. Sam was starving. It seemed as if shivering used up a lot of energy and probably calories as well. Fish wasn’t her favorite food, but at the moment she was starving and would eat anything. The platter of fish was passed around and everyone took some of the delicious smelling meat. The chefs had outdone themselves!

  Sam was so hungry she just dug right in. She’d taken two large chunks of fish from the platter. It was quiet for a bit and slowly conversation started back up. Sam wasn’t interested in what the other women had to say. It seemed the longer she sat out in the clearing, the colder and more miserable she got. The lack of sun and the lateness of the day made the weather cool off quickly. This was ridiculous. Eddie knew she fell in the river, why wasn’t he helping her get dry clothes? She knew this was supposed to be a reality show, but so far there hadn’t been too much reality from her perspective. She finally looked up and noticed everyone else had finished eating. She was the only one left. Oh well, she was hungry and she wasn’t going to let the meal go to waste. Hell, they’d probably give them rice and beans to eat back at the camp!

  Alex didn’t want to be rude and continue his one-on-one sessions with the women until Sammi had finished eating. He thought it was unusual that she was actually eating. It was his experience that most women, when in the company of a man, just picked at their food or ate very little. Not Sammi, she’d taken a large helping of the fish and was eating it with a look of pleasure on her face. Finally, Sam pushed back her plate.

  “All done,” she said with a smile.

  One of the chefs came and took her plate. Before he could back away, Sam touched his sleeve and said quietly, “Thank you, honestly that was the best fish I’ve ever eaten, whatever spices you put on it really worked well...and I don’t even really like fish!”

  The man laughed and said, “I’ll pass the compliment on to the other chefs as well,” then he backed away.

  With that, Alex knew it was time to finish up the one-on-ones. He talked with Kathi, Ashley, and Nikki, and then it was time to meet with Sammi. He’d been looking forward to talking with her for some reason. He wasn’t sure why. She was an odd woman. She didn’t seem to fit in any better today with the other women than she did yesterday. She seemed nice enough, but he wasn’t sure what to think about it all yet. He looked up as Sammi came around the tree. They were sitting a bit away from the other women in order to give him privacy as he spoke with each lady. Sammi sat down on the log about three feet away from him. Alex was surprised. All the other women had sat so close to him, they were practically in his lap.

  Sam sighed. She knew this was going to come. She didn’t really want to be last, but she was tired and cold and didn’t feel like fighting the other women for when she would meet with him. She had to be careful, though, because Kina was right there with the camera and she didn’t want to look like a pathetic loser on national television.

  “Hello, Al,” Sam said.

  “Hello, Sammi,” Alex replied.

  “Good fish, didn’t you think?” Sam asked.

  “It was great,” Alex answered.

  God. Sam thought to herself. This was not going well. She sounded like a complete dork.

  She laughed self-consciously. “Sorry, Al, I don’t really know what to say being this is the first time we’re really alone.” With that she laughed and motioned at the camera a few feet away.

  Alex laughed. “Yeah, a bit awkward. Where are you from? You never told me anyway.”

  “I did tell you,” Sam responded.

  “No, I distinctly remember you telling me your name and that was about it,” Alex said with puzzlement. Where was she going with this?

  “I told you in my introduction tape…didn’t you watch them?” Sam asked with a smile on her face.

  Alex knew that he was caught. She was right. He’d forgotten all about the tapes. He didn’t need to watch them, he’d been there.

  “You’re right, I’d forgotten...” He searched his mind to try to remember where she said that she lived. “Albuquerque, right?”

  “Yup, good memory, Al,” Sam replied. “I’m surprised you can keep us all straight with our names and all.”

  “What do you mean?” Alex asked.

  “Come on, you can’t r
eally tell me you haven’t noticed,” Sam asked incredulously.

  “Noticed what?” Alex asked, honestly confused.

  In a sing-song voice Sam answered, “Samm-i, Miss-y, Kath-i, Kimm-ie, Lor-i, Brand-i…get it now?”

  Alex threw his head back and laughed until his sides hurt. He’d honestly not even noticed that all of their names ended in the “ie” sound. It was utterly ridiculous.

  “I’d thought that perhaps your name would be something like Charlie or Bobby,” Sammi said with a laugh.

  And with that Alex howled with laughter again. “That would be really over the top, huh?” he asked with a grin.

  Sam relaxed a bit. It seemed like Al had a pretty good sense of humor after all.

  “Come here,” Alex said, patting the space next to him.

  Sam looked at him with her eyebrows raised and he could see the distrust come over her body. She stiffened and sat up straight on the log. He stifled a sigh, knowing he’d just made her uneasy again and ruined their camaraderie.

  “I’m not going to make a pass or cop a feel,” he told her gently. “I just feel like I’m shouting at you sitting all the way over there.”

  Sam slowly scooted over closer to Al. She could feel the warmth emanating off of him, but maybe that was because she was still cold, sitting in damp jeans in the shade. She shivered.

  “Are you still cold?” Alex asked, taking her hand in his. “Holy cow, you really are cold, aren’t you?” he exclaimed, looking into her face a bit closer.

  Sam pulled her hand away from his and said, “I’m fine.”

  “You’re not fine!” Alex exclaimed and went to grab her hands back, and in doing so brushed his hand against her leg. “Your jeans are still soaking wet!” he said in shock. “How long have you been walking around with wet clothes on? Tell me it hasn’t been the entire time!” he demanded.