More than Distance

22

No, no, no. That couldn’t be right. Why hadn’t she warned me?

But it all made sense now. When I’d called to tell her I was going on the show, she’d asked, “With your boyfriend?”

“No, we’re not together anymore,” I’d said. “I’m bringing someone else—Ryan Evans.”

“The Meta Entertainment guy? Wow, nice catch. I heard he’s a hard one to pin down.”

I’d thought she was joking around at the time and had laughed it off, but now I knew what she meant—she’d thought we were together together.

“It won’t be a problem, will it?” Giselle glanced back and forth between us with a frown. “You are dating, aren’t you?”

Well, that was it. Our time on the show was over already. I opened my mouth to confess that we weren’t a couple, when I felt Ryan’s arm slide around my waist, tugging my hip against his in a possessive way. “Yes, we are.”

A ripple of shock ran through me, but Giselle didn’t seem to notice. Her frown disappeared. “Perfect. How did you two meet, anyway?”

Ryan jumped in with an answer, his voice smooth. “We’ve know each other since we were kids, but we fell out of touch and recently reconnected after six years apart. It’s new, so we’ve been keeping it quiet until now, but we’re excited to be going on the show together.”

If this was how he talked in boardrooms, no wonder his company was dominating their industry. His hand was on my hip, his thumb sliding just under my shirt and brushing against my skin, and every one of my nerve endings seemed to alight. I leaned against him, smiling at Giselle like one-half of a happy couple, while my heart was doing an erratic tap dance all over the place. Good thing he was doing all the talking, because all I could think about was how it felt to have his arm around me and how much I wished everything he said was true.

“Good luck to you both. I hope you win!” Giselle gave a little wave and left the tent.

I pulled out of Ryan’s grasp. “I am so sorry. I had no idea, I swear. Do you still want to do this? Because I completely understand if you want to back out now.”

“Of course I still want to do it.”

“But the whole couples thing...” My stomach did somersaults just thinking about those sexy and romantic challenges Giselle had mentioned, wondering what they might involve. Kissing? Touching? Nudity?

“Don’t tell me you want to back out already.”

“No, of course not.” I stood up a little taller at his cynical voice.

“We both know it’s not real, so it won’t be a problem. Or will it?” His eyes seemed to bore into mine, peeling away all my layers.

“Not a problem at all,” I said quickly.

He frowned, glancing at the Couples Edition sign again. “Daniel is going to lose his s**t when he watches the show.”

“Not if we warn him in advance that we were pretending the whole time. It won’t air until mid-September, so there’s plenty of time to explain it to him.”

Ryan nodded and we let the subject drop. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through days or even weeks of pretending to be a couple with him though. Being around him was exhausting. My emotions boomeranged from wanting to kiss him to wanting to slap him and back again in a flash. I reminded myself that Ryan had no interest in me and nothing would ever happen. Anything that did happen would be fake. But if all of America thought I was dating a handsome billionaire genius? Well, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to me.

The real danger was that I’d forget it wasn’t real—and get my heart broken all over again.

* * *

Over the next hour we were given surveys to answer and then we were interviewed on camera, while we played our roles perfectly with big smiles and bright eyes. At one point we even held hands. Everyone bought it without question. Turns out it wasn’t that hard to convince people that we were a new couple, filled with the hope of true love.

Once we were done, we made our way down the rickety wooden pier toward the camera crews that were set up, past the tourist shops, the roller coaster and Ferris wheel, and all the restaurants. At the very end of the pier the other couples were gathering to wait for the host of the show to arrive and for the cameras to start rolling.

I studied the competition. There were all types of couples there—old, young, gay, straight, from all different races and cultures. I tried to size up who would be our toughest competition, but it was hard to tell at this stage. One blond husband and wife pair stood out because they reminded me of bulldogs—big, muscular, and good looking. When they spoke they had charming Southern drawls, but they eyed everyone with a predatory hunger. We’d definitely have to watch out for them.

I overhead another couple mention they were a flight attendant and a mechanic and made a mental note to keep tabs on them too, since travel and car skills were a dangerous combo in this game. There was also an older lesbian biker couple who I guessed the other teams might underestimate, but I suspected they’d prove to be one of the better competitors.

Ryan’s gaze followed mine across the crowd. “What do you think? Do we have a shot at winning?”

I tried to sound more confident than I felt. “Of course we do. I spent two days studying maps to prepare for this.”

“I bet you had a dozen color coded lists too.”