Dr. DeGraw walked back over to her mark and arranged a sweet expression on her face. “I’m ready to begin again, Colin, whenever you are, dear.”
Once everyone was wrangled back into position, and behaving, we started the shoot again. Colin let Devan present our faux evidence over. This time he went straight through it without throwing a fit, so yay for that.
Pushing her glasses up on her nose, Dr. DeGraw nodded once. “I believe we have our winners. Devan and Samantha, you two did a respectable job of searching every quadrant in a scientific and skeptical manner that was well suited to the task. And you found four clues, which is more than the other teams.” Sweeping off her glasses, she said, “I wish you luck in the final challenge.”
When the cameras cut away Devan put his hands on his knees and bent down, letting his breath out in a relieved stream, all traces of the cocky future Ivy Leaguer disappeared thanks to Dr. DeGraw. Now that it was gone, I actually missed his confidence. It was like he was a deflated balloon version of himself.
“I’m glad that’s over.” I attempted a chipper tone, but ended up sounding sarcastic. I had that kind of voice. Chipper was a stretch for me.
He nodded without looking at me. “Excuse me for a moment.”
I swept my hand to the side in a formal gesture. “By all means.”
I ripped my body mic off and threw the orange shirt over my head, not caring that the tank top underneath was more revealing than I would normally have worn. At least it wasn’t the color of a pumpkin that spent too much time in a tanning booth.
My family clustered near the Myth Gnomers banner and seemed a whole lot happier than they did yesterday.
My dad gave my hand a quick squeeze when I joined them. “You did good, Sam. So did Devan.”
Lyssa snorted. “After they all told Dr. DeGraw to go screw herself.”
I imitated Dr. DeGraw’s snobby tone, “I’m going to need you to find five fake clues that demonstrate you are indeed in hell.”
Even Sophie cracked a real smile. “I think this shirt may be one.”
“Put yours back on, Sam,” my dad said. “It’s family photo time!”
“Oooh. Great idea, Myron,” my mom said. “Let me get Mindy. I think she has a good camera.”
Not happy, I put the polyester blend nightmare back on. Mindy arrived with her camera and started directing the photo shoot. “I bet the publicity team will like these,” she said. “Myron, why don’t you stand in the middle? Brenda, you can be on one side, and Sam, you go on the other. Sophie and Lyssa can crouch down.” I put my hands on my hips and tried to look as serious as I could while wearing the aforementioned shirt.
“Where is it?” Colin bounded out of the editing trailer and charged at us like a very angry badger.
Hal stepped in front of him and held him at arm’s length. “Colin, calm down. Where’s what?”
Colin directed his laser beam glare at me. “The footage of Lyssa and Jake—the memory card is gone and the file on the hard drive is erased.”
I instinctively stepped back and held up my hands. “I don’t have it, although I wish I did.”
Colin’s raised eyebrows told me he wasn’t sure he believed me. He addressed the crew. “Everyone needs to stop what they’re doing and figure out what the hell happened.”
“Fine. But I’m sure an intern just erased it by mistake or something as simple as that,” Hal said, pulling his saggy pants up and heading back to the editing trailer. He grabbed Steve and an unlucky intern on the way. Based on his cowering, the intern had overheard the conversation and was terrified he’d be the one to take the fall for the missing film. Poor guy.
After forcing myself to stop worrying about the intern’s wellbeing, I allowed myself a little hope.
Colin grumbled, but then dashed over to his associate producer who was throwing her suitcase into the back of the Jeep. “Beth!” he said. “Please, don’t leave yet. We may not be airing that footage after all.”
She looked at her luggage for a moment, but the corners of her mouth turned up slightly. “Okay,” she replied. “I’ll finish out the day. Then we’ll see . . .”
After Colin left, I turned around and caught Lyssa glaring at Jake who was sitting on one of the picnic tables playing with his phone.
I groaned. “To quote Devan, Jake really is a first-class wanker. I’m only sorry I didn’t get to break his nose, too.”
That made Lyssa smile. “Yeah, I don’t know what I saw in him.”
“And I’m sorry I was so harsh on you.”
“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have been so naïve. Or done that to another girl. I just got carried away. I think I just wanted to be special.”
“You are special, and you deserve a great guy who is going to treat you that way. And who wants to be with only you.” I reached out and touched Lyssa’s shoulder. “I just worry, and I forget that you’re not me and you don’t want to hang out in libraries or play nerdy board games all day. So, I’m gonna back off and let you be yourself, and make your own mistakes. But I’ll be here if you need me.”
“Thanks, Sam.” Lyssa gave me a genuine smile.
Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my sister for a tight hug.
Lyssa squealed in surprise. “Ouch, Sam! It’s okay. I love you, too.”
“Sorry.” I smiled at her wistfully.
“Hey, things are starting to go our way, for once,” Lyssa said. “Kyle and Sophie are patching it up. And someone stole that footage.”
“Didn’t you steal it?” I asked. It seemed like the most logical explanation.
“No. It wasn’t me.”
Lyssa must have been telling the truth. If she had stolen the footage she would be the first to take credit for something so devious. “Who do you think it was? Jake?” I asked.
“No idea, but I doubt it was Jake. He’s not smart enough. Plus that footage didn’t go missing until after we started shooting and Jake was on set the whole time. Who knows, maybe it really did get erased by an intern.”
Lyssa gave me one more squeeze before running off to talk to Mindy. I plopped myself down at the base of a big tree on the edge of the woods. I was relieved that the footage was gone, but something tugged at my brain. It was one of those feelings like when you know you’ve forgotten something important, but can’t figure out what it is.
I was ecstatic that things were going to be okay for Sophie and Lyssa, of course, but it hurt that no one seemed to realize that things weren’t okay for me. Sure, my dad tried to assure me that our finances were okay, but I didn’t believe him. Plus, I was a mess, pining over a guy who maybe liked me for two seconds, before going back to despising me.
My throat tightened and my eyes prickled with itchy hot tears. I buried my nose in my book so no one would see me struggling to get my emotions under control.
“For all I know, you stole that footage.” Dr. DeGraw’s pinched voice echoed from around the other side of the big tree.
I peeked behind me and saw Devan with his hands on his hips. “That’s farfetched.”
“I can’t believe you would throw away the contest for that girl.” Her voice was measured, like she was finally trying to reason with him.
“Why not? It’s just television.” Devan was just inches from Dr. DeGraw’s angry face. “It’s not worth messing about with real people’s lives.”
She took a step closer to him and reached up to put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s time to learn, Mr. Das, that some people are inconsequential.”
“Sam is anything but inconsequential,” Devan said through gritted teeth.
“This is your future, and it’s important to keep your eye on the prize.”
“Is that your lesson for the day?” Devan’s voice took on a surprisingly cheerful tone.
“Maybe it is. I didn’t realize you had to learn it,” the older woman said.
He started laughing. “I think the only lesson I’ve learned today is that I wish you’d bugger off.”
Dr. DeGraw straigh
tened her spine so she could almost meet Devan’s eyes. “I think it’s time I have a chat with your father.”
“Go ahead. I just talked to him myself. He’ll probably have some choice words for you.”
Dr. DeGraw sputtered and opened her mouth. “I’ll talk to you when you’ve had some time to consider your actions. Now, I have a meeting with Colin in the production trailer. And you have a final challenge to win.” She started to walk away and stopped like she was confused about the direction.
Devan gave a wry smile and pointed. “It’s that way, Dr. DeGraw. Just go through those trees and cut through those bushes. You’ll run right into it.”
The professor stalked off without another word, into the shrubbery.
I couldn’t believe what had just transpired. Without remembering to wipe my tears or brush the dirt off my pants, I stood and strode toward Devan, leaving everything behind. “Did you just send her through the poison oak?”
He smirked. “I may have.”
My respect level for him rose exponentially. If anyone deserved to be an itchy mess, it was Dr. DeGraw.
“But what about your dad?”
Devan grinned. “I told him what was going on and you were right. He’s proud of me no matter where I go to school. He was especially proud of me standing up to DeGraw.”
“I’m so glad.” I searched Devan’s impish expression. Then it hit me. The only person who wasn’t on set when the footage was erased was Devan.
“You took it, didn’t you? You got rid of that footage.” I studied him closely.
“I had help,” he said, obviously pleased with himself. “Caroline coded a software bug that would cause any footage from that day to disappear permanently. All I had to do was get into the production trailer and install it on one of the computers.”
“Oh. So that’s why Caroline and Kyle chose to duke it out with DeGraw during the shoot. It was a distraction. Clever. But why would they do that for me?”
He shrugged. “Because I asked them to. The only really good thing about boarding school is that your friends become your family. We take care of each other. You’ve proven yourself to them, and to me, so they were happy to help. They created a diversion to give me time while everyone on the crew was occupied outside of the trailer. Although, I imagine it was obvious that they actually can’t stand DeGraw.”
“Very obvious.” I smiled at the thought of Dr. DeGraw’s purple face. “I can’t believe you pulled that off.”
“I think you’ll find that I’m capable of a lot of things, especially when you’re involved.” His tone was flirty, but his eyes were serious. He took a step closer to me, and I couldn’t help but lean closer to him, like we were connected by a magnetic force.
He bumped my nose by mistake.
“Ouch!”
He rubbed it for me, and lowered his voice. “Sam, if you still hate me, I’ll leave you alone,” he whispered. “But, I’m not sorry I got rid of that footage. Lyssa made a mistake with Jake, and you defended her. People make mistakes and get angry. That’s not something you should have to pay for forever.” He held my chin, and gazed into my eyes.
“I can’t believe you’d do that for her. For my team. I . . .”
“I did it for you, Samantha,” he said. “I wanted to make you happy. I wanted to fix things between us. I wanted to take care of you, the way you take care of everyone else. I’m sorry I don’t always get it right the first time.”
He reached out to touch my cheek. “But let me tell you now. I’m wild about you—all of you. The strong part, the gentle part, the hysterically funny part, and the scary serious one. I adore them all, because they’re all parts of you. And that’s why you make me nervous as hell. Because I like you. A lot.”
I stood motionless, mesmerized by his beautiful dark eyes. The true impact of what he was saying washed over me. Big, fat tears made their way down my cheeks, dripping on my shirt. I was so grateful someone would do that for me. That Devan, of all people in the world, cared enough that he risked his career, the disappointment of his father, and the wrath of his mentor, for me.
“I think we can try to take care of each other,” I said, punching him lightly on the arm. Yeah, he was trying to get mushy and my big move was to punch him.
Devan laughed and I joined him, before I went back to crying. The absurdity of the situation was too much.
I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. He hugged me tightly, holding me together, making sure that my huge, ugly sobs of relief wouldn’t shake me apart. He stroked my hair and kissed the top of my head, letting me cry without asking any questions.
When I finally stopped, I leaned back in his arms, and with a soft smile said, “I have to warn you, I like to be in charge.”
“I noticed.” He grinned down at me. “Are you done crying? Can I kiss you now?”
I chuckled. “You Brits are so pushy. First you want our colonies, then you tax our tea.”
I could have gone on, but Devan had other ideas. He stopped my mouth with a gentle kiss that turned hot and heavy within seconds. And it was revolutionary, for sure. We’re talking Fourth of July fireworks and the 1812 Overture with cannons, all in one.
Best of all, there wasn’t a camera in sight. Or so we thought.
Chapter 28
“Everyone needs a quest. Knights had dragons to slay. We have Bigfoot to find.”
—Myron Berger, president-elect, Northern Ohio Wood Ape Conservation Society (previously known as the Northern Ohio Bigfoot Society)
“Nice!” Hal was behind us with the camera. “Can you guys put your mics back on and do that again?”
Devan rolled his eyes. “If we ignore him will he go away?”
“Better not chance it. Run!” I shouted playfully and I grabbed Devan’s uninjured arm, pulling him up the trail away from Hal.
Devan squeezed my hand and we giggled maniacally, scurrying into the heart of the forest. In a matter of minutes Hal was pretty far behind us, his boots and gear slowing him down.
“I can’t run with this big camera. No fair!” he shouted.
When we got to a sunny spot, far enough from base camp to feel completely alone, we collapsed onto the grass still laughing. Devan brushed a stubborn curl away from my face.
“Running away was a good idea,” he said.
“It’s not my usual way of dealing with things, but I didn’t overthink it. I just wanted to be alone with you,” I said, blushing. That had come out cheesier than I had intended. Devan didn’t seem to mind. He took my chin in his hand and kissed me in a way that was far from suitable for prime-time television, but A-OK with me.
“Mmm. You taste like a Cadbury bar,” Devan said, once he came up for air.
“That may have been one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.” I rested my head on his chest. “Plus it means I have a very good reason to keep up my chocolate intake.”
Devan lifted my chin and kissed me again. “Mmm, delicious,” he said.
I couldn’t agree with him more. The only thing more fun than bickering with him was kissing him.
I giggled. “If I had known it would be this easy to shut you up, I never would have insulted you so much. I would have just grabbed you and kissed you whenever you annoyed me.”
Devan’s face twitched into a wicked smile. “Your lips would be sore from all the snogging. I can be pretty infuriating. So I’ve heard.”
We sat together in our little woodsy hideaway for a long time, my head resting on his chest, his arm around my waist. We talked and kissed and occasionally fell into a comfortable silence.
It was starting to get late, and I knew I should get back to my family for the instructions for the final challenge, but I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to. Devan shifted and seemed to know what I was thinking. He picked up my wrist and looked at my watch, and then tracing circles on my arm, sighed. “I guess we should head back soon.”
I forced myself to sit up, not wanting to face reality, which
was kind of ironic considering it was a reality television show.
“Yeah. I guess you’re right,” I said. “What happens now? I mean with the contest?”
“We go back to our teams and finish the game,” Devan answered.
“Yeah, but . . .” Suddenly I felt very shy. I was unsure what his reaction would be if I told him the truth about how I was feeling. He gazed down at me warmly, while I struggled to find the right words. Looking up into his eyes, I realized I didn’t have to always worry that I was going to say the wrong thing. We’d already established that we could fight and debate and make up afterward.
The words escaped my lips, before I could change my mind. “I’m scared that if I win, you’ll be upset,” I said. “And I need to win, for my parents, and for college. I’m not going to back down at all.”
“I won’t be upset. I don’t really care about the contest anymore,” he said, pulling me close to him. “And honestly, I hope your team wins. You deserve it, Sam,” he said, squeezing me harder. “You deserve to go to a fantastic pre-med program—and so much more.”
I blushed and snuggled close to him, putting my hand on his chest.
“Okay, good. May the best team win.” I smiled up at him and began to untangle myself from his arms to stand up. He gently pulled me back down with his functioning arm and initiated a whole new round of kissing and nuzzling, and again the world disappeared.
Until we caught a whiff of something truly foul-smelling. Devan’s face scrunched up in an adorable grimace.
“Ugh, what is that?” he asked.
“It smells like a wet dog that rolled in fresh manure and then got sprayed by a skunk,” I said, turning to face upwind in the direction of the stink. My breath caught in my throat.
I froze, partially with fear, and partially with amazement. On the top of the hill, only thirty feet from where we sat, something big covered in brown fur darted behind a tree. I blinked, wondering if I imagined it. “Um. Did you see that?” I asked, more casually than I felt.
Devan followed my gaze and gasped. “Was that a bear?”
“I’m not sure. It looked awfully tall to be a bear.”
Sasquatch, Love, and Other Imaginary Things Page 22
