Adventure to Love (10 page)

Their table for two was set with crystal champagne glasses filled to the brim, fine china, and crisp linens. She had hesitated at the beginning of the meal before she sat down. She was waiting for someone—Ky, a server, anyone—to pull out her chair for her and place her linen napkin in her lap.

When no one came to her aid, and Ky never made the gesture, she finally sat down since she was the only one left standing.

And here she sat. Looking into the face of one of the most handsome men she had ever met, racking her brain for some way to break the ice. Normally, she didn’t have this much trouble starting a conversation with a man. All she had to do was smile, put her hand on his arm, and let him do the talking. But Ky was like a vault tonight. He wasn’t letting anything out.

Damn him. What on earth could he be thinking about?
He’d better not be wishing he were here with someone else, someone more adventurous, someone like Morgan.

She wrinkled her brow in frustration. She had to get Ky’s mind off of whatever he was brooding about, and fast. She had to make the date all about her so that she wouldn’t risk elimination the next day in whatever stupid contest or group date was planned.

She cleared her throat. Ky looked up in surprise, as if he had forgotten she was sitting across from him. As if he had forgotten he was on a date with her. On camera. On national television.

“Beautiful night, huh?”
God, that sucked. What was she thinking?
She would have to do better than that if she wanted to keep Ky’s attention for the rest of the evening.

Ky nodded and continued to cut the steak on his plate, giving it his undivided attention. She forged ahead. If she was one thing, she was persistent. “Ky, I really want to get to know you better. I was just wondering why you chose me to go on this date?”

At that, Ky finally cracked a smile. “Well, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? You looked the best in a swimsuit. You were the winner of the swimsuit competition, so you got to go on the date.”

Was that it?
Not because he saw something special in her? Not because he wanted to get to know her better? But because she was the only woman in the contest without a muffin top?

Like it or not, she was getting sucked into the emotional aspect of the competition. She’d thought that she was there to win, and to do whatever it took to beat out all the other women in the competition. But as she got to know Ky better, she realized that she wanted him to want to get to know her, too.

She didn’t just want him to choose her as the winner. Obvy, she wanted to win. But she wanted Ky to
want
her to win, if that made any sense at all. All of the emotional games were making her head spin. Maybe she should just come out and say something, tell Ky how she was really feeling.

“Was that it?” she asked in a playful tone. “Was there was another reason you wanted to go on a date with me tonight?”

Ky gave her a small smile in return. “Like I said before, all of you women are truly beautiful and have something special to offer. I’m here looking for my best friend and my soul mate, and I’m just lucky to have the chance to get to know you better.”

Chapter 8

Brinkley

Brinkley’s Confessional:
I don’t want to be a gossip, but I thought it was kinda funny that Harper came back from her date so early. I mean, I haven’t had the chance to go on a one-on-one date myself yet, so I couldn’t say for sure. But I know that Morgan was out like really, really late on her date. And Harper came back to our room pretty early and went right to sleep. She didn’t seem like she was in the mood to talk about anything when I asked her how her date went.

Brinkley began to stir as the piercing light from the sun filtered through the gauze curtains of the suite. She was no expert in telling time by the sun, but it seemed much, much later than when they normally woke up to meet at the Great Pool. She sat up with a start.
Had they missed their wake-up call?

She looked over and was relieved to see Harper sprawled out in her bed next to her. At least Harper hadn’t woken up either. At least Harper hadn’t gotten the wake-up call and left her behind.

So what was going on?

She reached over to shake Harper awake when she heard a knock at the door. That was even stranger since no one ever came to their room. It wasn’t like they had room service or anything. And all the women were encouraged to talk and spend time together in common areas so that the cameras could film the conversation.

Brinkley threw on the only thing she could find over her Johnson High School Blue Jays T-shirt that she had slept in—Harper’s cashmere robe. Hopefully, she wouldn’t mind.

One of the many butlers at the resort stood smiling on the other side of the door. He extended a silver tray to her with a silver card on it. She looked over his shoulder where two cameras were filming her every move.

Great.
That was just what she needed. To get caught on camera with puffy eyes, frizzy hair, and mascara smeared all over her face. But she stuck to the training she had been given at orientation before the show started filming.

No matter how surprised, upset, or shocked you might be, never, ever, look directly into the cameras because it would ruin the shot.
The whole point of reality television, the producer had told them over and over again, was for it to look real.
So don’t look into the cameras when they’re filming!

She stared down at the silver card in front of her. She assumed she was supposed to read it since the cameras were there.

She opened the card and scanned the message. Her eyes lit up. Then she remembered her training. The producers had also told the group that whenever possible, they needed to read and repeat the written messages that they would get from production, for the sake of the cameras, of course.

Even though she felt awkward reading the card aloud to the butler in front of her, she carried on.

“
Ahem
. It says: Ladies, today is your last day at the Emerald Palace Resort. Pack your bags because the seven of you will leave for an exclusive jungle getaway in two hours for the show finale. Now the fun begins!”

She couldn’t help but to grin, even though it was just her, the butler, and the cameramen that she was reading the card to.
An exclusive jungle getaway!
As if it wasn’t good enough that they’d been at this beautiful resort for the past few weeks, now they were going somewhere even better?
She couldn’t even imagine how the next resort would compare, especially since she’d never been anywhere as beautiful in her life as where she was now.

She heard Harper groan from inside the room. “Who the hell are you talking to?”

She had to tell Harper the news! She sprinted back into the room and jumped onto the foot of Harper’s bed.

“Harper!” she hissed in a loud whisper. “You’re never going to believe this!”

She waved the silver card like a prize in front of Harper’s face.

“Seriously? I’m sleeping. Get that out of my face. And get off my bed. What’s wrong with you?” Harper barked.

“No, really, Harper, you’re going to want to hear this.” Brinkley reread the card for Harper, fully aware that both cameramen were still filming from the doorway. When she got to the end of the message, Harper finally showed signs of life.

Harper pulled herself up in her bed and said, “Are you wearing my robe?”

Her cheeks flushed. “Sorry, it was all I could find. But that’s beside the point, isn’t it? Where do you think we’re going? Do you think we’re going to stay in Bali? Do you think it’s a good sign that we made it to the finale? I just can’t believe it! I really never thought I would get this far in the competition. Did you?”

She chattered on until Harper interrupted her, “Of course, I knew I would get this far in the competition. Why do you think I came in the first place? I’m going to win. Now get the fuck off my bed. We need to pack.”

Brinkley packed her bags in record time. Which was pretty easy to do since she had never really unpacked in the first place. Maybe it was superstition, but she didn’t want to get too comfortable at the resort in case she was sent home on one of the dates.

Speaking of dates, she still hadn’t had her one-on-one with Ky. She didn’t want to get too worried about that unsettling fact, but it was hard not to. Already Ky had gone on an individual date with both Morgan and Harper in the week that they’d been there. So the two women were clearly at an advantage.

In fact, the only time that she’d had with Ky was on their mini-group date and when she’d been able to pull him aside for a quick conversation. Once. But there was so much more that she wanted to know about him before they got to the finals. And there was so much more that she wanted him to know about her so that she’d have a real chance at love.

For instance, Ky had absolutely no idea that she taught Sunday school every Sunday morning for the fifth-grade class at her church. And he also didn’t know that she was considered to be the 4H Queen in high school. She’d won the most blue ribbons for her prize pig Polly four years in a row.

And she loved to ride horses. It was the only time she felt truly relaxed and like herself. She had been secretly hoping that she would be able to go on a one-on-one date with Ky where they rode horses at sunset on the beach. Even though it was a long shot, she’d seen it on a commercial for some honeymoon resort in the Bahamas and had wanted to do it ever since.

But some small part of her knew that she was here for a reason. Why else would God have brought her through casting, the final interviews, and all of the cuts made so far to reach the finale?

She knew what her pastor would say in this situation. That she just had to have faith and believe in God’s greater purpose. If Ky were the man God had for her, then she would stay in the competition until the end. She could only hope.

After their quick packing session, another silver card was slipped under the door of the suite, encouraging Brinkley and Harper to meet the group down in the lobby restaurant for brunch. Then the remaining women and Ky would leave the resort for good to move on to their next undisclosed destination.

Brinkley sat at attention all through breakfast. It was her only chance. She watched Ky like a hawk. She had to get just a few moments of alone time with him so that they could really connect. So that they could finally have a meaningful conversation that Ky would remember before the next round of eliminations.

She had no idea that the show was going to be so cutthroat. She figured that she would have tons and tons of time on her hands to talk with the bachelor, walk on the beach with him, and even get to know all the girls a little better. And if everything went according to plan, God’s plan, then she’d go home with a fiancé and a few good girlfriends.

But every day in the competition was tense. Granted, she got to spend unlimited amounts of time with the other women, but it was spent discussing the competition. There was absolutely no downtime. There was absolutely no time for bonding. There wasn’t a spare second where she actually got to rest and relax and hang out with her new friends, if she could call them that.

Harper certainly wasn’t someone that she could consider a friend. Not because she didn’t want to, but because Harper so obviously disliked her.

As if reading her mind, Harper looked over at her and asked, “Why are you sitting like that? Why aren’t you eating your breakfast?” Harper sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in a dramatic gesture. “Just looking at you is stressing me out. You’re giving me a headache.”

“Maybe you’re hung over again?” Brinkley suggested with absolutely no malice.

But the comment came out much ruder than she’d expected. Harper glared at her and continued to eat her breakfast in silence.

She hadn’t meant anything by it. She just meant that Harper seemed to really enjoy relaxing and drinking. And since she was brand-new to the world of drinking, she now knew firsthand how easy it was to get a hangover. A really bad hangover that made her eyes swell shut and her head feel like it was being squeezed in a vise first thing in the morning.

She had more important things to worry about. She looked down the long, family-style table where the women and Ky were eating their breakfast. Ky sat at the head of the table with Kendra and Morgan on either side. He seemed to be enthralled in his conversation with Morgan. Whatever she had said to him had made him laugh so hard that he almost choked on his orange juice.

Gosh
. This was going to be much more difficult than she had thought. What was she supposed to do? Was she supposed to stand up at the table, wave her napkin in Ky’s face, and ask if she could have a few moments of his time?

It was tempting, but she was too embarrassed to draw attention to herself like that. That was something Harper would do in a heartbeat, but she was intimidated.

Ky put his napkin on his empty plate, stood up, and addressed the group. “Okay, ladies, today is our big day! We’re going to be leaving in about forty-five minutes. So after you’re finished eating, the butlers will help you bring your bags down to the lobby so that we can leave. But take your time.”

Ky smiled and made his way to the bank of elevators in the lobby behind the restaurant. This was her chance. The other women seemed perfectly content to finish up their breakfast after all the mimosas and Bloody Marys at the table had been topped off for the third time.

She slid her chair back and followed a few feet behind Ky to the elevators. Just as he reached up to press the button, she grabbed his arm. “Hi!” she said breathlessly. She’d had to run to catch up with his long-legged strides.

“Oh, hey, Brinkley! I didn’t see you behind me.”

Wow
. What was it about the way that he said her name that made her weak in the knees? It sounded like a corny line from a 1950s sitcom, but now she knew that it was possible to swoon when she was around Ky.

She had to pull herself together. She had to take advantage of this opportunity. She couldn’t be the same old Brinkley, quiet, reserved, and a total pushover in a conversation.

“I’m glad I caught up with you. I’ve been wanting to find a few minutes to talk to you, but I haven’t gotten the chance yet.” Why hadn’t she tried this before? It felt so good to say exactly what she was thinking.

She continued. “So would you mind if we went on a walk before they bring our luggage down?”

“Absolutely.” Ky grinned and offered her his arm.

He was such a gentleman. She just knew he’d fit in perfectly in her hometown. For one, her mother would absolutely love him. And she could just picture herself walking arm-in-arm with him into her church on Sunday mornings, all of the guests in the congregation turning to the beautiful couple as they strolled up the aisle to the front pew.

“I just wanted to know more about you. I feel like we’ve been in all these group conversations, but we haven’t really connected one-on-one.” She didn’t want to say it out right, but clearly, their lack of connection was because she hadn’t been chosen for an individual date yet. But all of that was about to change.

“I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m glad you pulled me aside. So what do you want to know?” Ky gestured to a bench in the courtyard of the hotel.

She took a seat, crossing her legs carefully in front of her. Ky sat down next to her, his thigh just a few inches from her own. She couldn’t help it. She was acting like a total high schooler around him.
What grown woman paid attention to how close a man’s leg was to her own?

Ky put his arm behind her on the back of the bench. She shivered with excitement when his bare arm grazed her bare shoulder.
Seriously. What was
going on here?
She felt like she was fourteen years old again and was about to get her first kiss.

Oh my gosh
. Kissing hadn’t even entered her mind. What if Ky decided to kiss her on camera? What was she supposed to do? How long were they supposed to kiss for?

She realized that Ky was waiting for her to answer his question. “Um, so, are you close to your family? I only ask because I am. Like, my dad always calls me a daddy’s girl because I’m the oldest of three boys, and our relationship is really, really important to me. And my mom and I are like best friends, even though that sounds totally cliché. Our family spends every single weekend together because we have horses that we own boarded at a ranch a few miles down the road. So, a normal Saturday for us is horseback riding, fishing, or even four-wheeling with my brothers.” She stopped to catch her breath.

Why couldn’t she slow down? She’d just had total verbal diarrhea and had probably made no sense. That was the reason why she normally kept her thoughts to herself in a conversation. Because who knew what she was going to say or if she would ever shut up? She was acting like a complete idiot.

Ky laughed a friendly laugh. Oddly enough, he didn’t sound like he was making fun of her.

Brinkley looked up into his deep brown eyes rimmed with long, full lashes.

“You’re funny, you know that? Actually, your family sounds really amazing. I don’t think that I’ve ever gone fishing in my life, but I’d love to try it.”

She was taken aback. “Really? You’ve never gone fishing before? Where did you grow up?”