She scoffed and turned to him, giving him a wide-eyed look and then a smile. “No, you did amazing. You spoke to him like a pro. I think the producer even gave you the magic ‘word,’” she said, making air quotes. “It’s a word he gives when he’s signaling his group that this person should go on the show.”
“Magic word?”
“According to my research, when they want you to go up, they say something specific. And I was noticing that from every group they only asked one person ‘what’s your favorite game?’ And he asked you that.”
A stir of nervous excitement went through him. “Wow.”
She grinned and reached up, cuffing the bottom of his chin playfully. “The cowboy wants it.”
Feeling playful, he grabbed her in a bear hug and pulled her in, brushing his whiskers against her cheek. “Heck, yeah, I want it.”
Giggling, she pulled away.
He let her go, but loved her response and the way her brown eyes sparkled. She pushed him gently away, but didn’t object when he took her hand into his. “Just to keep our story.”
Their eyes locked and every part of him wanted to kiss her again.
Just then, a bigger lady in the group standing next to them wearing an alien antenna and a white and green shirt that said “Waiting for the Aliens”—turned to him and asked, “So are y’all really engaged?”
Hoping that Autumn might “prove it” to the group of women like she did to the producer, he gave Autumn a smile.
Autumn merely pointed to the lady’s antennas. “Are you really an alien?”
The lady burst out laughing, sounding like the Chewbacca lady on YouTube.
Laughing as well, Chase turned to Autumn. “This is fun.”
She winked at him. “The fun is just beginning.”
Chapter 10
Two hours later, Autumn stood next to Chase in the studio where they filmed The Price is Right. She looked around, marveling at how it felt the same as it looked on television, but totally different. The camera crew moved on a small stage. A guy holding different signs for the audience stood up on stage behind the cameras. The gorgeous smiling girls who showed products moved around on the set with not-so-happy smiles on. In fact, one of them looked totally ticked off.
Music blasted through the speakers, and Chase raised his voice. “Should we stand and dance? Would that increase our probability of getting chosen to go up?”
It’d been fun hanging out in line with him for the past two hours. The audience members with them could have concessions and then watch already-done episodes of The Price Is Right. Anticipation sizzled in the air as everyone around her guessed the prices like they were studying for a big test.
Autumn grinned back at him. Chase was easily convinced to play her game, and it was nice. Unlike Brad, who had never wanted to play a game with her. No games and no silliness. Mostly, she realized later, she had been arm candy for him, as her mother had put it. He’d dragged her to all of his father’s political events and made sure she was next to him at every campus thing.
Sure, they both had a love of jazz music and fine food, but he’d never taken that much of an interest in her. Only later did she realize everything had revolved around him.
“Yeah.” She smiled at him and stood, starting into a standing dance.
To her delight, he stood and danced as well.
Others around them followed suit. Before long, Autumn found herself turning to put her back to him and shimmying into his chest.
He responded by putting one hand on her hip and letting out a loud yell.
She laughed and looked up at him.
He made a roping gesture above his head. “That’s called a redneck yell, baby.”
She giggled again. Their eyes met, and she found herself lost in a sea of blue.
He stopped dancing, slowly putting his hand softly onto her cheek. He dipped his head like he would kiss her again. Her heart raced.
Then he stopped, staring at her lips. She deflected by pushing him lightly and then dancing again, and he followed her lead.
Another guy from across the studio pointed at Chase and let out a howl. The guy was surrounded by what looked like a group of college students, and they all started dancing.
It was electric. She and Chase danced even harder.
When the applause guy was settling them all down and giving them directions, she noticed the producer standing on the sidelines, pointing at them.
She hoped Chase would have a chance to get picked. She loved his energy and the way he looked at the whole world like it was his personal party. Other people clearly picked up on that energy. It was such a stark contrast to how Brad had been.
She mentally chastised herself for continuing to compare Chase to Brad. It was stupid anyway. They’d only agreed to pretend they were a couple for this. It was all just a show.
“What?” Chase suddenly leaned in and asked her.
But she shook her head. “Nothing.”
Squinting at her, he cocked his head to the side. “That’s the second time you haven’t told me what you’re thinking.”
She kept dancing, giving him what she figured was a mysterious look. “Once again, don’t accuse me of thinking, Mr. Moon.”
He laughed and began dancing, again.
Drew Carey was received with a huge applause. He was graceful, telling a joke and then explaining that the producer would let them know their job here. He did say he would talk with them during commercial breaks.
As the show started, Autumn noticed everything Drew Carey was saying sounded muffled, and no one could hear exactly what was going on. The camera guys surrounded Drew so much that Autumn could barely see him.
Out of the blue, everyone around them started screaming, and she looked up to see the applause guy holding a sign that said “Chase Moon.”
Elbowing Chase, she pointed to the sign. Startled, he jumped up and gave her a wide grin. Then he moved down the row to get to the front. A woman at the end—part of that moms’ group—threw her arms around him and tried to kiss him.
Chase neatly dodged the full-lip kiss by turning his head. Instead, he lifted her up and let out another redneck yell before going down to bid. He turned to meet Autumn’s eyes, winking and pointing at her. She pointed back, laughing hysterically. Dang, the man was handsome.
After a whirlwind of calling the next two audience members down, Drew Carey grinned at all of them and asked Chase, “What’s your name, and what do you do?”
Not missing a beat, Chase answered, “My fiancée and I are starting a dude ranch retreat.”
Drew appeared interested. “Dude ranch retreat?”
Chase nodded. “And she’s going to do summer theater for children on the ranch too.”
“Really?” Drew paused, and Autumn felt her insides turn inside out. “And where is this woman that is with you?”
Chase turned and pointed to her.
The camera zoomed in on her face, and she saw herself on the screen for a second. It was weird.
“That’s really cool. I hope things work out for you today.” Then Drew continued down the line.
The first bid was on a furniture set. When Chase was deciding, he turned back and looked at her. She held up three fingers, and he said into the microphone, “Three thousand.”
Other bids were submitted, but he won. Unable to believe it, she shot to her feet. She ripped out the same kind of redneck yell he’d made earlier. “Boo-yeah, baby!”
Grinning, he turned back and gave her a thumbs-up.
Drew took him up on stage, and he played the hole-in-one game and won again.
Chase took his hat off his head and threw it up in the air. “For my fiancée!”
Two more people were then selected for the bidding from the audience, then there was the spinning of the wheel, and finally the showcase.
While Chase spun the wheel, Drew asked him who he wanted to shout out to, and he said, “I just want my fiancée to know I owe all of this to her.”
Drew asked, “You’re pretty in love with her, aren’t you?”
“More then she even knows.”
Another flip flop in her lower gut.
Chase let out another howl as the wheel landed on a dollar.
The crowd went wild. She went wild. Honestly, watching him felt like she was playing the game. All her desire for her to win anything had passed to him.
When the showcase revealed a trip to Rome, Italy a surge of desire swept through her. It was on her bucket list to travel the world, and she felt more than a tinge of jealousy.
To her amazement, Chase won the showcase. The couches. The trip. A car. Knife sets. In total, it was a package worth over thirty thousand dollars.
The show ended with her running up on stage to him. He picked her up and swung her around, and she smacked him on the lips with another big kiss.
When she pulled back, he was smiling. She winked at him. “Good job, cowboy.”
After the show, Chase rushed toward her with a handful papers, and she couldn’t stop herself from jumping into his arms again. He whirled her around and laughed. “We won!”
Her heart raced as he put her down and looked at her lips. “You won.” She corrected.
He shook his head. “No way. We did this together. I’m going to give you half.”
“How do you split the dining set?”
He nodded and stared at her lips. “With a saw.”
She laughed.
He hesitated. “Do you want to kiss me again, cause you can.”
Not wanting this to be more than it was, she pushed away from him and playfully stuck her tongue at him. “Just giving the people a show.” She stuck her chin in the air.
He laughed and took her hand. “That’s all it was, a show?”
A stir of something deep went through her at the way his eyes met hers. Dang it if it wasn’t more, but she still didn’t trust herself. She dropped his hand. “That’s all it can be.”
He studied her eyes and then shook his head. “I just don’t want the start of this, whatever it is, to be mixed up with what you just went through.”
Her heart picked up speed, and she felt everything in his eyes. Eyes that were fun and clear and honest. The strength that surrounded him was good. He was good, hard-working, handsome, everything she’d dreamed about in a man as a little girl.
He was a cliché cowboy movie kind of guy. A gentleman who protected women.
She did want to kiss him again. “I think whatever this is has already started, wouldn’t you agree?” She whispered. The tension between them was palpable.
Shaking his head, he gently pulled back, slipping his hand down to his side. “Something’s started for me, but I just want you to be clear before it goes further, that you want it.”
She stared into his beautiful eyes, never wanting to look away.
Neither of them spoke for what felt like eons.
Finally, he smiled wide. “How about we go to the beach?”
Chapter 11
Chase watched Autumn on the Santa Monica beach. They’d gone to a beach shop and bought swimming suits and beach towels. They’d gone into the water together and bodysurfed and then made a sand castle.
Now he was lying on his back with his cowboy hat over his eyes, letting the sun work its magic. What could he say? He liked California. It wasn’t super warm, but seventy-five and a warm ocean was much improved compared to the Snow Valley weather.
Turning his hat a bit so he could sneak a peek at Autumn without her seeing him looking, he watched her sit on the edges of the ocean. Her legs were stretched out. Her hands were stacked behind her head, and her face was tilted up to the sun. She’d bought a hat and sunglasses, and he thought again of how she looked like a movie star.
For some stupid reason, he thought of the idiot, and a fierce protectiveness grew inside of him.
Then he thought of earlier on The Price Is Right when they got up and danced together. This surge of attraction only grew stronger and stronger. It felt like anything she did, any way she laughed, cried, or fought him, just made him like her more.
Honestly, he’d never experienced anything like this.
He was falling for her. Hard.
Falling for a woman perfectly wrong for him.
Closing his eyes, he tried to think of another time in his life he’d been swept away like this. The only thing that came to him was bronc riding. The joy. The rush. The pain. The need to keep trying.
He felt a nudge to his toe. “Hey, cowboy.”
Removing his hat, he sat up, staring into her beautiful face. She’d taken her sunglasses off.
He stood, brushing off the sand—mostly because he didn’t want to seem a fool and just gawk at her.
She grinned, completely relaxed, and studied him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
To cover his embarrassment, he flexed his arm. “You were checking me out again. Admit it.”
Shaking her head, she bent to pick up the towel. “Should we get something to eat?”
For a second, she was so beautiful, so model-esque, that he was speechless.
“Chase?” A smile played at her lips.
Jolting himself out of this crush-like thing that he had, he bent to pick up his towel and his boots. “Yeah. Where should we go?”
Gesturing to the restaurant next to the beach, she asked, “Bubba Gump’s?”
“Perfect.”
* * *
After dinner, they both sat at the table on the deck, which overlooked the beach. The sun was setting. Autumn had taken her hat off, but she still wore her swim top. She had put her jean skirt and shoes back on. Truly, she looked like she’d planned the outfit.
He’d left off the pink shirt and opted to buy a Bubba Gump T-shirt.
She grinned at him. “Did you like your shrimp?”
As usual with her, there was this tension between them. A good tension, a tension that made him want to be near her and simultaneously have to restrain himself from getting on his knee and asking her to marry him this instant. “I did. What about you?”
Ceremoniously, she ate her last one and licked her finger. “The best.” She relaxed back into her chair and turned to face the sunset. “It’s so beautiful here. More than I ever could have imagined.”
This intrigued him. “Have you ever been to the beach before?”
Shaking her head slowly, she let out a sigh. “Nope. It was just me and my mom, and the beach never happened. We talked about coming to California, about going to Disneyland and seeing the ocean, but there was always a theater thing or a big case at her work. She’s a paralegal.”
In this moment, he wanted to show her everything, give her the world.
“Have you been to the beach before?”
He nodded. “We did Disneyland twice as kids with my grandparents, and a couple of years ago we did Hawaii. I love the beach.” And he did, but did he love the beach enough to give up his land in Snow Valley? To go to a city with a big theater? He didn’t know how to answer that.
She searched his face. “What is Cowboy Chase thinking?”
He scoffed. “It was a good day.”
“Perfect, she agreed.” She put her hand gently on top of his on the table. “You were great today.” Her grin widened. “On the show, you really performed.”
Of course. It was all a theater performance for her. He grinned. “I should have been in Oklahoma.”
Her eyebrow cocked up. “Can you really sing?”
He laughed, loving her hand on his. There was some uncertainty though. Thinking of Brad the other night, he’d definitely been a lot more polished than Chase. More …
“What’s wrong?”
Chase didn’t know what was happening between them, but he decided the momentum of the day had been good to him, so he may as well ask. “Why did you agree to marry Brad?”
Slowly, she slipped her hand off of his and turned back to the sunset, letting out a long breath. Her reaction made him regre
t the question. “I’ve asked myself that a million times,” she said quietly.
He didn’t want to push her, but man, this woman had taken hold of him in some kind of fierce way. A way he hadn’t thought possible.
“I thought he was a different man.”
This intrigued Chase. “What kind of man was that?”
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I thought he was kind, but really, he just wants to go to law school and then follow in his father’s footsteps and become a politician. Looking back, I guess I didn’t see all the signs. My vision was clouded. I thought he wanted to do something good with the law, but then he kept talking more and more about the connections we needed to make for his career.” She turned to him. She sighed. “I was the real idiot.”
He wished he could tell her how amazing he thought she was, but he didn’t know if it was the right time.
“What about you, Chase Moon? Was there somebody before?”
It stunned him. Fate’s face flashed into his mind, but she’d been gone before they’d ever had a chance. Then there was Jenny. The feelings of unimportance and rejection pulsed through him, nearly taking his breath away.
“Chase?”
“Nobody.” He found his sunglasses, wanting to avoid her eyes.
For a few minutes, they stared at the sun without speaking. Then she let out a light laugh. “Wow, why am I not surprised?”
He didn’t respond right away, but he couldn’t help asking, “What?”
Turning to him, she pulled her sunglasses off, revealing her beautiful brown eyes. “Why am I not surprised that a cowboy like yourself, who wants to be strong and brave, won’t reveal his pain?” She shook her head. “It goes with your character. Totally goes with your typecast.”
Somehow, he felt like whatever she meant, she meant it as an insult. “Why am I not surprised I’m just a character to you?” The momentum of the day, the momentum that had been good and wonderful, turned sour. “Why wouldn’t I just be a cowboy? Simple, country boy. Nothing in my head.” He stood, screeching back the chair across the deck. “If everyone’s just another role in your mind, what am I, the pass-the-time guy?”
Winter in Snow Valley (Snow Valley Romance) Page 61
