Sliding Into Home (21 page)

Afterward I took Hank to my mom’s house and introduced him to my family. He found all the baby books my mom had made about me and flipped through them. I was so embarrassed. Then he got a lecture from my grandmother about what kind of girl I was (a very special one) and what he needed to do for me (treat me very well). It was funny because our relationship was so new, but considering the circumstances it seemed serious all of a sudden.

That night I threw out the first pitch, wearing my Padres jersey (Hank didn’t have a jersey, so I made him go with my brother to buy one before the game). It was so exciting. The fans were cheering, and everyone I cared about was there.

After I’d done my duty I joined my friends and family in a box to watch the game. Hank and I couldn’t let anyone think that we were together so we tried to keep our distance in the box. My family knew, and Brittany could tell something was up, but it was a big secret we had to keep from everyone else.

After the game Hank and I went back to the hotel. Hank had called ahead and had them run a bath so it was all ready when we
got there. We both knew this was the big night, and we both had a lot running through our heads.

When we got to our room, Hank went into the bathroom and got in the tub. I stayed outside for a second—I didn’t know if he wanted me to watch him get in or if he wanted some privacy. Then I walked into the bathroom wearing only my Padres jersey. That’s every guy’s fantasy, isn’t it? But he wasn’t looking! I thought,
Okay, there’s respectful, and then there is just crazy.

“Look at me, Hank,” I said.

He turned around and I slowly unbuttoned the jersey.

“You look so beautiful,” he said.

I got in the tub with him, and Hank Baskett officially became my boyfriend.

CHAPTER 17
 

No Flash-in-the-Pan Relationship

After that amazing night in San Diego, we woke up as one happy couple. We had breakfast in our hotel room, which overlooked the bay. It was very romantic, and as I looked at Hank I knew we had something special. We shared a connection that was just so perfect—almost
too
perfect. It kind of freaked me out.

Things were going well, but my guard was definitely up. What if he went back to Philadelphia and forgot all about me? I had never been in a long-distance relationship before, and I was very nervous and afraid of getting hurt. But our relationship was built on hours and hours of conversation, so the one thing I wasn’t afraid of was telling Hank how I felt.

“What’s going to happen to us?” I asked over breakfast.

“What do you want to happen?” he replied.

Don’t you hate when a guy answers a question with another question?

“You never know unless you try,” he said eventually.

I wanted to try. The truth was, we both had the same fears, but we both knew we wanted to do whatever it took to give a relationship
our best shot. No matter how it worked out down the road, I knew I wasn’t ready for our time together to end. We needed at least one more night, so I came up with a plan.

After breakfast we went to my mom’s house. While I was there I called the Mansion and told them I was spending another night at my mom’s. Then I told my mom that if anyone from the Mansion called she should say I was in the shower and that I would call them back. She should then call me immediately, and I would call the Mansion back from my cell phone. My mom—although not exactly the best liar in the world—was up for it. She knew this was important to me.

Hank and I said our good-byes to my family, and then we drove up to L.A., where we booked a hotel room for the night. By that point I wasn’t worried about getting caught at all. I knew the drill. Someone from the Mansion would call looking for me, but no one would question my mom. The toughest part would be going back to the Mansion the next day. Someone there would ask me about my trip and I would have to keep the same story going.

I wasn’t sure how Hank felt about all the lying. He was probably looking for a normal relationship, but I just couldn’t give that to him at the moment. I had to think about the show and Hef. I needed to honor my responsibilities. I couldn’t just bail on everything just yet. On the ride back to L.A. we talked about the situation a little. This was clearly the beginning of something great, so some sacrifices would have to be made.

As it turned out, Hank knew a lot about keeping relationships secret. Hank’s dad is black and his mom is white and she grew up in Louisiana, in a part of the Deep South that didn’t accept interracial relationships at the time they started dating.

His mom kept her relationship with his dad a secret from her family. When
she got pregnant and her family asked if she was keeping the baby, she told them that after she gave birth the baby would live with his father, and that their relationship was over. She’d go home to visit her parents and basically pretend that Hank didn’t exist.

When Hank was in college, his mom’s parents passed away, and his mom didn’t want to keep the secret anymore. So she moved forward with her life openly and honestly. The whole time, Hank understood. He says he doesn’t blame anyone, and considers his mother’s need for secrecy a sign of the times. Whenever the topic of racism comes up he always says that you really have to experience it firsthand to understand what it’s like.

Compared to the secrets he grew up with, what I was asking him to do seemed silly. I promised that the sneakiness wouldn’t last long, and he was okay with it.

As if that wasn’t enough, on the ride back to L.A., I decided to really put Hank to the test: I put on some country music.

“You may not like this,” I said as I popped in a Kenny Chesney CD.

“I love country music,” he said.

I couldn’t believe it. I thought,
This guy is perfect.
We listened to Kenny the whole ride back to L.A., and when we got to our hotel we took all my country CDs up to the room.

The first song Hank played was “I Cross My Heart” by George Strait. When the music started, he took my hands and began spinning me around. I had always been a good dancer, but more in a hip-hop, booty-shaking kind of way. This kind of dancing was very different, and I had no idea what I was doing.

Hank taught me a two-step dance. It was so much fun! Even better, the whole time we were dancing we didn’t worry about anyone or anything else. I wasn’t Hugh Hefner’s girlfriend who lived at the Playboy Mansion, and he wasn’t a football player returning to Philadelphia in a few hours. We were two kids dancing around a hotel room without a care in the world.

I never thought I would find someone like him. I always did whatever I wanted in front of people and didn’t care. I walked through school in a bikini! And here was this guy dipping me and dancing around like a cowboy, with no fear of what was going through my head. He was so comfortable in his own skin, and grew more confident with each dance step. I loved that about him.

We stayed up until five
A.M.
, and a few hours later I dropped him off at the airport, kissed him good-bye, and returned to being the Kendra Wilkinson the rest of the world knew. Saying good-bye was not easy for me. After the amazing weekend together it was hard to not have him close by.

Laurie, a chef who started cooking at the Mansion about three years after I moved in, became a good friend, and knew me well enough that if I tried to keep a secret from her she would figure it out. From all the times I opened up to her while she taught me how to cook soul food, she’d learned to take one look at me and know something was up. So when I got back I had to tell her about Hank. She was really happy for me; she knew that I was excited about my relationship, and she told me to focus on all the positive things about it instead of the fact that he was so far away. That helped, but coping with the distance was still hard.

Luckily I was also able to keep busy, so I had a lot of distractions.
That year, I had so many appearances and promotional gigs it was almost a full-time job. At least two days a week I would fly somewhere for an event, and the rest of the time I was busy with the show.

A couple of months later, Hank and I were ready for our next date. The plan was to go back to San Diego for the Del Mar Fair, which is a big county fair with rides, games, and awesome food. I went every year as a kid. I wasn’t too concerned about my cover story. It was getting easier and easier to leave the Mansion at that point; I think everyone knew my days there were nearing an end.

I was so excited to see Hank again, and making the trip all the more special was the fact that he was bringing his parents to meet me. Hank and I were both nervous—meeting the parents is a big deal. He didn’t really tell his mom much about me ahead of time, and he warned me that she could be rough on girls he brought around, so I didn’t really know what to expect.

Before heading down to San Diego, we all met at Houston’s for dinner in L.A. We started with small talk, and his mom and I realized that we both like our hamburgers well done and that neither of us likes seafood. Then Hank’s dad and I bonded when he found out that I like golf. Once I told him that, I was totally in.

Then Hank and I explained a little about
Playboy
and what I did there. His parents didn’t really ask questions, but I felt the need to be open with them about my life. His mom was concerned about what people would say and think about Hank and me if it got out that we were dating, since I did live at the Mansion. She wasn’t judging me—she was just as concerned for me as she was for Hank—and I felt like she was on my side, too.

“People just see you for twenty minutes on TV each week and they think they know you,” she said. “But that’s not you.”

It turned out that she was right. Hank’s hometown of Clovis, New Mexico, had a big billboard up of Hank that said
HOMETOWN HERO
; they later took it down, when they found out he was dating me. It’s a religious town and they didn’t like my connection to
Playboy
, and that pissed me off. I went on some city Web site and wrote that I was going to buy every billboard in town and put our picture on it. (I still might do that, someday!)

Hank’s mom wasn’t like some of the other people in that town, who jumped at the chance to judge me. She understood me. I was Hugh Hefner’s girlfriend, but that was just part of who I was, just like being a football player was only part of what defined Hank. Both of us were more than that. I love my family and my dogs and I’m a normal person, and both of Hank’s parents realized that right away.

Any anxiety I felt before meeting them quickly went away. I even had Hank’s mom laughing at one point. Hank was stunned—he couldn’t believe how well we were getting along. The next day when we went to the fair his mom and I were talking like best friends. By the end of the weekend his mom had nicknamed me “Little Bit” and we were practically family already. I reassured his parents that I would never do anything to hurt Hank and that we both were going to do our best to make our relationship last, and as I was saying good-bye I asked them to remember the girl they met and to not believe everything they read on the Internet.

It was a great weekend, but afterward I was back at the Mansion and Hank was back in Philly. Being apart was hard for both of us, and the closer we got, the more difficult it became for Hank to handle my job at
Playboy
.

I was still going to club appearances and parties looking sexy—it was my job. A club was like my office, and the crowd was my boss. I had to give them what they wanted. Bits and pieces of those nights would end up on the Internet, and it became tough for Hank to deal with my public persona when he could only see me in private.

Our relationship was still secret, so it’s not like he could talk to a friend about it. He just had to sit back and watch me travel around the country in tiny skirts and revealing tops. He couldn’t even attend the events because security always came with me on those trips.

It was tough for both of us. I’d be onstage at a club, shaking my booty and texting Hank in between songs. Then when I got back to my hotel I would call him and we’d talk until I fell asleep. We knew in our hearts how we felt about each other. Would I really be texting him from the club if I didn’t love him? Of course not, and he knew it.

At times, however, I would do things that didn’t really make it easier on him.

One night I was on my way to a party and a camera crew from TMZ was outside the club when we arrived. I was in a good mood and knew I needed to act a certain way in front of the cameras, so when I got out of the car I pulled my shirt down and flashed them.

I called Hank and told him what I’d done right away, and he was so mad. He knew my party-girl behavior was part of the deal, but he thought flashing was going overboard. Plus, I had been in the car with a few of my guy friends, and he hated that that was how I was acting around guys I knew. He didn’t want to start a fight because I was drunk and out at a club and I couldn’t be seen getting upset on the phone, but he did stress that I could still be Kendra without showing my boobs to everyone.