Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1) (7 page)

Alex watched Kina get out of the golf cart and go straight to Eddie’s office. He remembered the producer said that Kina was with Sammi. He followed Kina into the tent in time to hear Eddie bellow, “Where the hell were you guys?!? She missed the bus! How come you didn’t tell us where you were when we asked?!?” He sounded more upset now about the situation than when Alex talked to him earlier. Then he didn’t seem like it mattered or that he cared about Sammi missing the bus.

All the camera operators wore little two way microphones, that way they could communicate with production at all times.

Kina responded, “I couldn’t, we were out in the middle of nowhere. If I’d started talking to you the camera would’ve picked it up and the footage would’ve been ruined.”

Eddie sighed. He knew Kina was right, and there was nothing more he hated than great footage ruined by the chit chat of a camera operator.

Kina continued, “She went for a walk, I followed her. She took a nap by a tree, then we started back toward camp. On our way back, I think she might have saved my life.” Eddie snapped to attention.

“What?” he yelled. “Did you get it on tape?”

“Sort of,” Kina told him honestly.

Kina didn’t say anything else, but held out the tape that had been in her camera that day. Eddie snatched it out of her hand faster than the snake could have bitten her today and put it into the player.

With Alex, Eddie, and Kina watching, the tape was played. They watched Sammi’s face as she realized what the problem was. They heard her talking to Kina. The camera was glued to Sammi as Kina stood still above the snake. Then they saw Sammi walk out of the line of vision and continue to tell Kina what she was going to do and what Kina should do. The camera microphone had picked up Kina’s frantic breathing. Finally, the camera moved and swung back around to Sammi and the snake. Alex about had a heart attack. Sammi was leaning over, waving a stick, trying to get the snake to follow her. Eventually, the snake slithered off.

“Damn, that’s good footage,” Eddie said, “but since the cameras aren’t supposed to exist, we can’t use it.” Alex just looked at him incredulously.

“Sammi was talking to the camera operator, and Kina was talking back, that’s not a part of the ‘reality’ of this show. We can’t use it,” Eddie defended himself as Alex glared at him.

Eddie continued, “Good job today, Kina, get some rest and you’ll be back on Sammi tomorrow. Maybe she’ll feel more comfortable around you and tell you juicy secrets on tape that we can use. Just don’t talk to her.” He grabbed the tape out of the machine and held it out to Kina. “Take this back to the production tent.” And with that, he shooed Alex and Kina out of the tent.

“Kina,” Alex said once they’d left, “I think that was what’s known as a Fierce snake. I’m not completely sure, but I’ve heard my aunt talk about them enough and I’ve heard stories about them and how deadly their bite can be.”

Kina paled. “She really
did
save my life then. Al, I was about to bolt or do something stupid and she calmed me down and led that snake away. I could feel it slithering around my legs and
knew
it was going to bite me any second.” She shuddered, then continued, “That wasn’t all that happened out there, you should watch the entire tape.” She handed the tape they’d just watched to Alex.

“Is she really all right?” Alex asked urgently.

“She’s okay, she was really quiet afterward and had a bad moment or two, but she’s okay.” Kina reassured him.

Alex took the tape back to his tent and watched Sammi’s entire afternoon. She looked really peaceful resting against trees and he could see that she really loved being out in nature. She seemed really relaxed until Kina almost stepped on the snake. He observed again her facial expressions and watched as she tried to lead the snake away from Kina. It was just as scary the second time he saw it as it was the first time. While he was scared to death for her, he was also proud. She’d handled the situation with a sense of calm. She didn’t panic, she did what she needed to do. There was nothing he wanted more than to hold her and comfort her, and that freaked him out a little bit. He wasn’t like this. He never felt like this about a woman this quickly before. Hell, he really didn’t know her that well, but there was something about her.

Alex watched as Sammi continued walking back toward the camp. She wasn’t looking around her at the scenery like she did on the way out. He thought he could even see her shaking. Then he saw her dart to a bush and throw up. She then wiped her mouth and continued on her way without even looking at the camera.

Alex was stunned. He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. He didn’t know many people that would be able to handle that kind of stress and not collapse. He was surprised it’d taken her so long to lose it. He wished he could talk to Sammi about what happened, but again, he knew no one was to know that he had access to the show’s tapes. He sighed and again felt the urge to wrap Sammi up in his arms and not let go. What a predicament. He honestly admired her. Yes, she’d wandered off on her own, which wasn’t that smart of a thing to do, but in a crisis she’d held herself together and not fallen apart. He couldn’t image any of the other women on the show doing the same. And after she’d thrown up, she didn’t throw a hissy fit, she just continued on her way. Sammi certainly was an interesting woman. One that Alex knew he’d like to get to know a lot better.

The next day started out like any of the others at the camp. There was a mad dash for the bathroom and for the shower followed by a flurry of hairspray, makeup, and bickering. The women apparently decided that cold showers weren’t that bad when the alternative was no shower. Fourteen women all intent on getting the same man was wearing thin, however. Like usual, Sam waited until most everyone was done with the bathroom before taking her turn. She’d slept in later than usual this morning, but she was so exhausted from the stress from the day before that she couldn’t make herself get up.
I wonder what fun and games the producers have in store for us today.
She put her hair up in a clip and left the bathroom.

Soon the bus pulled up to the camp. Eddie and Robert got out of a golf cart following behind the bus and assembled all the women in their customary lines.

“I have good news and bad news,” Robert intoned. “The good news is that no one is going home today.” He paused to allow the cameras time to pan over the women who were cheering and smiling. “The bad news is that today and tomorrow you’ll work harder than most of you have before in your lives.” The cheering stopped as if a TV was unplugged suddenly.

“What do you mean?” Candi asked. “What kind of job could there be out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“Well,” Robert continued with a smirk, as if he knew what he was about to say would ruin the women’s day. “Part of Al’s life is to work on his ranch back in Texas, so today and tomorrow you’ll be working on a cattle ranch. Here in Australia a ranch is typically called a ‘cattle station.’ Your jobs will involve all the daily activities that are usually undertaken on the station. You need to pack an overnight bag with outdoor clothes and sneakers, or comfortable shoes if you brought them, and we’ll leave in about half an hour.”

As soon as Robert stepped off the podium and was back in his golf cart heading out, the girls started complaining.

“I can’t believe this,” Missy snapped. “I’ve never been around a
cow
in all my life, how can I work on a ranch when I don’t know what I’m doing?”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Brandi chimed in. “What are we, slave labor? This was supposed to be fun!”

Kathi exclaimed, “I better not break a nail!”

As the women continued on with their complaining, Sam wandered back to her tent to pack her belongings. Since she shared it with some of the other contestants she couldn’t get away from their mumblings, but she did her best to block them out. Courtnee nudged her in the side as she was packing.

“Are you going to run away again, Miss Bitch?” she asked nastily. “It doesn’t matter to me one way or another since there’s no way in hell you’re going to last much longer. Why don’t you just quit now?”

“Why do you say that?” Sam asked, knowing full well she wouldn’t like the answer, but trying to stand up for herself nonetheless.

“Look at you,” Courtnee continued, “You’re short and dumpy. You have no fashion sense and you don’t wear makeup.” Looking around, she noticed the other women watching and it fueled the venom spewing out of her mouth. “You don’t belong here. You aren’t in Al’s league. He needs someone who will look good by his side. Someone with his wealth needs a beautiful woman on his arm, and you certainly aren’t it. I mean really, why are you even
on
this show? You don’t fit in.”

Sam stood there, looking at Courtnee and the other women who were watching from a small distance away.

“How would you know what he needs?” Sam fired back. “None of us know Al, we’ve met him what, twice? For that matter you don’t know me. So what I don’t look like you? I know I’m not beautiful, but that doesn’t diminish my value as a person. Maybe I’m just here for the free trip to Australia.” Then she glared at Courtnee. “We don’t like each other, that’s not big news, but Courtnee, I’ll stand up for myself, so let’s agree to stay away from each other and let the game unfold. I’ll stay out of your way and you stay out of mine.”

With that Sam turned her back on Courtnee and continued to pack. She knew she’d made an enemy, but she simply wasn’t up to taking the other woman’s crap like she usually would in a similar situation back home. Just because she wasn’t five feet eleven inches tall and she weighed more than a seven-year-old child would, didn’t mean she wasn’t a good person.

Their thirty minutes to pack was up and they all piled back on the bus. The ride to the ranch was about forty-five minutes long. Sam had no idea where they were going, all she knew was that it was dusty and they seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Finally, they saw a line of trees in the distance and buildings slowly began to take shape. They pulled into a large circle driveway in front of one of the most beautiful houses Sam had ever seen. It was huge. And was three stories high with a beautiful front porch. There were rocking chairs set out on the porch and dogs running around the yard and property. It was wonderful, beautiful, and Sam couldn’t wait to get out and meet whoever was lucky enough to live in such a wonderful place.

The women filed out of the bus and were instructed to stand in their customary two lines. Robert stood in his usual spot and began talking.

“Welcome to the Choxie Station. There are over eight hundred acres on the property and you’ll begin working right away. There are many different types of chores, and we’ll draw from a hat to see which you’ll be doing. We will choose different jobs for each of you in the morning. Are there any questions before we begin?”

Ashley raised her hand and asked, “Will Al be joining us?”

The question was one that all the women really wanted to know the answer to. They wanted to know if he’d be there to watch their supreme efforts on their chores. They wanted to know what kind of effort they’d have to put forth. If he was there, they’d try harder, if not, then they’d get by with the minimum effort they could.

“Al will be joining you later tonight. He’ll spend time doing each of the chores with you tomorrow. The chores you’ll be assisting with are helping in the kitchen, working with the maids, mucking out the stalls, riding the fence line, feeding the animals, and weeding the garden.”

There was complete silence from the women. Sam wanted to laugh. It was too perfect. She didn’t really want to do any of those jobs, but she knew she was in far better shape to do them than the other spoiled contestants. She cleaned her own house, fed her three dogs twice a day every day, cooked her own meals…she knew most of the other women probably had hired help to do all those things, or at least relied on someone else to help them. She looked around and saw the shock on their faces. She again had to stifle a giggle.

They started to draw jobs from the hat one by one. Ashley and Kathi pulled kitchen duty first. Missy, Brandi, and Katie got maid duty. Cindee, Sammi, and Amy were going to be mucking out the stalls. Nikki and Lori were going to be riding the fence lines. Kiki and Courtnee would be feeding the animals, while Jennie and Candi would be weeding the huge garden out back.

Sam figured she’d get the “poop” job…with three dogs at home it seemed as if she was constantly picking up poo at home, so why shouldn’t she do it when she was on vacation too? It was actually pretty funny. She figured she could’ve gotten stuck with worse people than Amy and Cindee to work with as well.

The women all went off to do their respective chores. They hadn’t seen Al yet, and they weren’t sure when he would show up and who he would “help” first. Sammi, Cindee, and Amy were brought into a huge barn. There were stalls alongside stalls alongside stalls. No wonder there were three of them assigned to this chore. Cindee and Amy immediately scrunched up their noses at the pungent smell emanating from the stalls.
It is a bit strong.
Sam thought. But
what did I expect, it’s a barn!

They were handed long pitchforks by one of the ranch hands. He told them that in Australia, typically the male employees were called jackeroos and the females jilleroos. He gave them a quick lesson on how to shovel the horse droppings out of the stalls and into a large bin. Most of the horses were out in the pasture so they’d have the place mostly to themselves. They were given gloves—which of course were too big for them—and set to work. Sam and Amy started on one side of the barn and Cindee started on the other.

The time went by pretty fast for Sam. The job was backbreaking, but not hard. All three of the women were sweating pretty hard. The barn was insulated, but the heat of the day combined with the hard shoveling was no match for the ceiling fans lazily circling above their heads. After about three hours the girls were told they were done for the day.

“Good job, ladies, I’m impressed,” a jackeroo named Henry told them. “I didn’t expect you’d get as much done as you did. Thank you.”

It
was
a job well done if Sam did say so herself. Together they’d mucked out all the stalls and had gotten a good start on spreading new hay as well. It wasn’t perfect, they’d taken quite a few breaks to rest, but they’d done it. Henry told them they were to meet back out at the front of the house where they’d assembled when they’d first arrived. They trudged out front and saw the other women were slowly gathering. The women who were working in the house didn’t look too much the worse for wear, but the women who worked outside in the sun looked very bedraggled.

Once everyone had assembled, Robert spoke, “Hopefully you enjoyed your first few hours here at Choxie Station. I think we’d all enjoy hearing about how your day went. I’d like for each group to come up and talk about how the job they did today and anything else interesting that happened. And since none of you got to work with Al today, he’d like to hear how things went as well.”

Alex strode out of the house and stood next to Robert.

“This should be interesting,” Sam muttered under her breath.

First up was the garden crew. Jennie and Candi walked up to join Robert and Al. Both were a bit sunburned, but not too bad considering they were pretty tan to begin with.

Jennie started discussing how their day went. “Well, the garden is huge. There are flowers as well as vegetables. We were told what we should be looking for to pull, but it was a bit difficult since neither of us has really worked in a garden before. I guess we kept pulling the wrong thing. Candi actually pulled up something that she thought was a weed, but it turned out to be a vegetable!” At that, Jennie giggled.

Candi interrupted, “Yeah, well, what about when you sat on a bunch of flowers to get a better grip on the weed that you were trying to pull?!?”

It seemed as if the light humor of the moment was gone. The competition was on. Candi and Jennie were not looking happy and were starting to glare at each other.

Alex broke the tension and said, “Did you enjoy your afternoon? Did you learn anything today?”

Jennie spoke up before Candi could. “Well, I wouldn’t say it was
fun
, and I guess I learned that it’s hard work and if you’re going to have a big garden it’d be best to make sure you hire someone to pull weeds!” She giggled again, and Sam couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She looked at Al to see what he thought about what Jennie said, but his face was blank and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

Next up was Nikki and Lori who talked about their “fence riding” experience. It didn’t sound like they got very far. Neither had even been around horses before and so they were nervous and spent a lot of time walking the horses instead of riding them because of their inexperience and fright around the horses. They watched a few jackeroos check the fences and claimed they couldn’t help because the gloves didn’t fit them and it might mess up their manicures.

Next it was Sam, Cindee, and Amy’s turn. Cindee spoke for them all and talked about how the barn was very smelly and hot and definitely not something she wanted to do. She even complained a bit about how they didn’t even get to meet the horses, only dealt with their droppings! Sam couldn’t stand it anymore. It seemed like the entire session was becoming one big complaint after another.

“It wasn’t too bad,” Sam piped up, interrupting Cindee’s complaints. “Yes, it was hot, and yes it was definitely smelly, but it felt good to be able to help the animals by making sure they’d have a clean bed when they came home for the night.” Sam looked at the faces of the women in front of her. Some looked bored, others looked indifferent, but a few looked at her with daggers in their eyes. Sam didn’t know why, didn’t know what she said that was so bad, but then she figured that the ones who were glaring at her didn’t like her anyway, so no matter what she said they’d still probably be glaring at her.

Missy, Brandi, and Katie were up next discussing the chores they had to do around the house. Missy was appalled that she had to clean toilets. She said it was degrading and “icky.” It didn’t sound like the things they had to do were too bad. And their description of the house was amazing. Sam wished she was able to walk around and examine the house. It was fascinating from the outside. She just knew it’d be just as beautiful inside.

Ashley and Kathi discussed the kitchen duties. They helped with the afternoon meal for the employees. Apparently Kathi dropped and broke a platter, but the head cook assured her that it was okay. They claimed to have washed “thousands” of dishes—Ashley’s words—and talked about how they had to mop the floor twice.

Last to go was Kiki and Courtnee whose job it was to feed the various animals around the farm. They gushed on and on for about twenty minutes about how cute all the animals were. They made it sound like they were angels who were feeding starving animals. Sam noticed they didn’t talk much about feeding the pigs. Sam had seen pigs being fed before, it wasn’t a pretty sight.