Walk of Shame (11 page)

"But," I continued,
maintaining Ardent's full attention, "I can say that he won't be earning a
white flower. At least, not this week anyway."

Ardent winked, and I grinned back
at him before turning and heading for the trail back to my house.

"All right, what's up?"
I asked her as I made my way through the shadows and brush.

"You didn't call me last
night after your group date. I need to know how to update my chart."

"I thought it was a
notebook."

"There's a notebook, but now
I've made a chart, too."

"Are your classes not
challenging enough for you?"

"I need something to break
up all the studying for finals. Let me live vicariously."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine."

"Good. So, who was on
yesterday's group date?"

"Ardent... Um... Mitch and
Mack... Jared and Phillip," I answered as I turned the handle and entered
the cottage.

"You don't sound too sure.
Do you have the names right?" she teased.

"Yeah. Yesterday was exhausting,
but I've been studying their pictures and getting to know them more. It might
take me a minute to make sure, but I think I pretty much have them down."

"Ok, so who's the
frontrunner from yesterday?"

"Jared picked me up and
carried me at the end. He loved the pizza and beer. And he broke past the
pleasantries and started talking about how he lives and how his job and RVing
work together. He's just... he's just all kinds of
man
, you know? He
likes everything I've dished out and has jokingly promised a proposal because
of it, which means that I know he likes me, and that's half the battle, right
there."

"He's the mountain
man?"

"No, the swamp boy."

"Got it. Who's next?"

"Phillip. We did a 5k Mudrun
for cancer. He put it together that there must have been a reason I chose to do
a fundraiser for cancer and we got to talking. He's a widower."

"And how is that good?"

"Because, he's thirty-seven.
If he hasn't been at least in a very long-term relationship by now, I don't
know that he'd be family-oriented enough for me. But beyond that, he opened up
to me, which means he's beginning to trust me a little. Then, afterwards on the
beach, everyone took me for a walk on the beach to talk. He made our time
different and took me into the surf to get to know me better. I just like that
he thought to change it up."

"Next?"

"Ardent. He and I had a cool
conversation. It's very easy-going between us and I like it."

"All right, next?"

"Mitch seemed disappointed
with the date, and it just wasn't one of Mack's strengths. There's nothing
really wrong with them, but they just aren't striking me as someone I'd
normally go for."

"But, maybe that's why you
should give them a chance. None of the guys you've ever gone for have ever
turned into anything long-term."

I sighed. "Yeah, I guess, but
I'm getting close to having to send some of them home. Do you want me sending
guys home that I see something in?"

"I'm not saying do the
opposite of what you're gut is telling you. I'm just saying, keep an open mind
with them. Don't send them home just because they didn't like one activity,
look at the week overall."

"I got it."

"All right. That leaves Mike
and Stephan for dates. Who went today?"

"Mike. We went to the
aquarium."

"How boring."

I rolled my eyes as I sat down at
my computer to scan over the list of emails I'd gotten throughout the day.
"That's what he thought, at first. He accused me of giving him a 'safe'
date. Something he couldn't hurt his disabled body by doing."

"It sounds like you
did."

I stared at a point on the wall.
"I'm getting a little tired of defending my choice. I needed someone who was
scuba certified to go with me. We dived in the main exhibit.
And
, it was
the longest date because there was a three and a half hour whale watching tour
afterwards. Doesn't that count for anything? Forgive me for wanting to pet the
penguins!"

"You petted penguins on a
whale watching tour?"

"We did a behind the scenes
penguin tour before we dove."

"Was he the only one who was
certified?"

I sighed. "No. But of the
ones certified, he was the only one I wanted a one-on-one with this week."

"You wanted to know if you
were hung up on the uniform, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Chloe's voice dropped down a bit.
"Admiring his service and sacrifice is vastly different than living with
him for the rest of your life."

I closed the lid on my laptop.
"That's exactly why I wanted to be alone with him. I wanted to be able to
focus on him and figure it out."

"And?"

"And, oh my God, he's still
towards the top of the list. He's sweet, he's considerate, and it doesn't matter
if he's diving or crossing a moving boat on the ocean, there's a sexy
confidence in everything he does."

"All right, so, it sounded
like you were spending some time with the entire group this evening, any
impressions or revelations from that?"

"Yeah. Phillip can cook, is
always cooking. It's like he saw a need within the house and is filling it. I
love eating over there. But it's not all about the food, that's just part of
the package. And Drake is the most considerate of me. He made my favorite drink
for me and then winked at me as though he knew. But Mack, he just seemed like
he wasn't interested in spending any kind of time with me at all. And if that's
his attitude, then he doesn't need to stay."

"Anybody kiss you yet?"

"No," I said with a
frown.

"So, here's the real
question. Who do you want to pull you into a room and kiss you?"

A slow smile spread across my
face. "Phillip... Jared... No, Phillip."

She let out half a laugh.
"Are you sure?"

"You're
asking me impossible questions."

I slept hard again and got up
before anyone from the camera crew had arrived, and threw on some workout clothes
and sneakers. Venturing outside, I kept my head down as I made my way over to
the closest point on the track. I could only hope that if anyone saw me, they'd
take my body language as a cue to leave me alone for just a little while.

I was almost used to the cameras,
almost. But right now, I just wanted to run. I wanted some uninterrupted time
to clear my head and get it on straight. I was sending guys home tomorrow. After
some of the things Chloe had said last night, I was trying to make sure I
wasn't going to send someone home when I haven't given them a fair chance. At
the same time, I didn't want to keep someone for superficial reasons.

This brought me to thoughts of
Stephan. Between his cologne and the intensity of his eyes, I felt like a warm,
giggly, blathering idiot. Worse, I freaking loved the idea of his photography
job. What I didn't know about him was whether he was truly a good man, a loyal
man, a family man.

I finished my run, purposely
oblivious to whoever on the property might be watching, and walked back up to
the house, stretched to cool down, and got in the shower. When I finished, I
put on my robe, opened the bathroom door, rounded the corner, and ran smack
into Troy.

"I heard about your
conversation with Chloe. Sounds like you're settling into some rankings,"
he said as I stepped back and gathered myself.

I had to remind myself that my
phone was tapped and the recording was active when calls came in from certain
people. "Yeah."

"Good. Now, my next question
is whether you want to continue with the color-coded flowers. We've been
keeping some on hand, but you haven't seemed to need them."

"I haven't. They can stop
buying them," I said as I sat down at the vanity to let the hair and
makeup artist work her magic. This one's name was Lorraine, and she liked to try
out neat braids she found on YouTube videos.

I glanced up in the mirror and
saw that Troy was using it to stare at me. "What?" I asked.

"It's just that production
liked the idea of it. You know, any way to make this season different from
others and keep it fresh for the viewers is a good thing."

"You want color-coding guys
to be my thing?"

"Not me, production."

"They're not going to carry
flowers around."

"Well, yeah, but if you'd
just let production know what colors you've assigned to whom, they'd handle
it."

I sighed and thought back to my
conversation with Chloe. "Phillip and Jared, red. Mike and Drake, pink.
Mack gets white."

"Is that set in stone?"

"It's never a thing that's
meant to be set in stone. It can change at any given time. Tell production to
think of it as intrigue."

"Do you have any issues for
me?"

"Yeah, if I could continue
to exercise outside in the morning and have the cameramen wait until I get back
to the house before bugging me, like they did this morning, that would be
awesome."

"As long as your workouts
remain boring, that shouldn't be a problem. Besides, it allows the overnight crew
to let the morning shift guys sleep and relax until they see movement. Then
they can send out the wake up calls and have time to get themselves
ready."

"Cool. I'll try and have my
workouts outside much more often."

He nodded and turned. "Fifteen
minutes," Troy called over his shoulder on his way out the door.

The makeup
artist groaned, secured the end of a braid, took another look at the clothing
that wardrobe had lay out on the bed, and grabbed her palette of lipsticks.

Omelets were on the menu when I
arrived in the house. A barstool was abandoned and offered, and a plate
appeared before me. I took a bite and sighed. "Phillip, I am never
disappointed."

He shrugged and finished peeling
a banana before handing it to me. "I can't take the credit this
morning."

I took a more scrutinizing look
around and realized Liam was manning the stove this time. "Just so you
know," I told Liam, "mistaking this for Phillip's cooking is high
praise."

"That's a bit of a stretch
in your effort to cover your mistake," he replied in his delicious accent,
"but I'll take it as a compliment."

Stephen rounded the corner and
entered the kitchen wearing casual clothing and a smile that quickly put me at
ease. He slid onto a barstool next to me, "How bad are you going to beat
me up today? Because, rumor has it that Mitch still has bruises from the
Mudrun."

I raised an eyebrow at Mitch, who
just shrugged.

I looked back
at Stephan. "Depends on how the landings go."

"Have either of you ever
been skydiving before?" the instructor asked.

Stephen and I both nodded.

"Excellent, you've both just
made my morning easier."

I was sitting there, getting the
rundown on the process and procedures of indoor skydiving, but all I kept
thinking about was how freaking good the man next to me smelled. Maybe I should
take him to a forest, wait for my allergies to kick in and get good and stuffed
up, then try to have an intelligent conversation with the man. And, if he
didn't make it to the end, I really needed to have production find out what he
uses and buy the guy I do end up with at least a half-dozen or so cases of the
stuff.

As I watched Stephen go first, I
thought back to the photos and video clips in his photography portfolio that
production had given to me on a flash drive the morning after I'd met them all.
There were a couple that sure looked like a skydive in reverse, used to
demonstrate how large structures seemed to get smaller and smaller the further
away from it you got.

I took a turn next, followed by
one flight where we both went together. We were back in the car and being
driven away not long after.

"Where are we off to
next?" Stephen asked.

"The house. That's all I had
planned for today."

His face fell a little. "Oh."

"I'm joking. I didn't make
you wait to go last, just to give you the shortest date. Now we go out and get
up in the air for real."

"We're jumping?"

"No, just flying."

"Where to?"

"You'll see."

He landed his eyes on mine in
response to my non-specific answers, gave me a flirty smile, and my knees got a
little weak. By the time we reached the helicopter pad, I'd finally gotten away
from wanting to go all shy and giggly around him to wanting to put myself in
his lap.

He looked out at the chopper.
"At least now I can pretty much bet you're not whisking me out of the
country."

"Scenic tour up the
coast."

It's hard to carry on a
conversation during a helicopter flight. So, it mainly consisted of comments
about the coastal features. But when we landed, we were driven to an Italian
restaurant, and then seated on a patio that sat just above a rocky shore.

"So, where do you stay when
you go home to visit family?" he asked.

"With my parents."

"What about your rig?"

"My parents have a large
driveway, I back it in and take it to the far end, the cars get parked off to
the side. How about you?"

"I have an apartment above
my parent's garage. The rig goes to a storage lot nearby."

I gave him a knowing smile.
"Your Mom has a problem with your living out on the road, too?"

He laughed. "She says I'll
never find someone who'll marry me if I can't even commit to a home."

I rolled my eyes. "You have
committed to a home."

"That's what I tell her. She
says a house on wheels is cheating. A home sits on land and is part of a
town."

"She sounds like she isn't
any closer to getting it than my Mom is. What about your Dad?"

"He keeps threatening to
leave her and join me. He's only joking, but if something ever happens to my
mother, I'm going to have to get something with two bedrooms."

I laughed. "My Dad did join
me once, took two weeks off to get a taste of what I was doing. And my sister
came out with me a few times during breaks from school and summers."

He excused himself to go to the
restroom, but I saw that he used the time to go speak to one of the production
guys. I didn't know what he said, but a ripple went through the team. He'd
definitely stirred them up.

I looked at him with amused eyes
when he came back to sit down.

"What?" he asked. "You're
not the only one with a surprise up their sleeve."

When we returned to the
helicopter, he went up and shook hands with the pilot. They talked for a few
moments, and then the pilot handed over his headset and Stephen put it on.
"Come on," he called out. "You and I are sitting in the front this
time."

"You're a pilot," I
stammered out.

"A helicopter pilot, yes. I
can also fly small craft like bush planes. It's a skill that comes in handy
with what I do."

"Damn, you just keep getting
better and better."

Stephen flew us back down the
coast and the cameraman had to deal with only filming us from behind. He'd never
thought to bring a dash cam because he never imagined that he'd be behind us.

We were in the rear of the
vehicle, on our way back to the compound, when he pinned me with his eyes and leaned
toward me. "I'm about to break an agreement the guys all have."

I inched closer to him.
"What agreement is that?"

"The one where we all agreed
to keep our hands off you until you'd narrowed the field down a bit and could
keep us all straight."

I smiled in realization. "Oh
my God, that explains so much. I was wondering why I wasn't getting any action from
anybody."

He grinned. "We didn't want
you kissing someone, have them be a bad kisser, or there be no spark, and then
you getting the guys mixed up and ditching the wrong one."

"Well, I've got everyone's
names down. And I know enough about who I like and don't like to know that
you're not going anywhere tomorrow night. And..." I unbuckled my belt and
reached over to pin his wrists down at his sides, then leaned over him and
whispered, "there's no reason for your hands to have to touch me."

He grinned as
he leaned forward, his lips touched mine, and we kissed. My hands ended up
gripping his wrists, and I ended up back in my seat with him leaning over me before
we were done.