Walk of Shame (38 page)

It was time to meet all the guys'
families. We all put our rigs into storage for the week, before heading out.
Three guys went to the airport with Chloe on Monday morning. Jared's plane
headed for Alabama, Phillip's for Maryland, and Liam's for Edinburg, Scotland.
It was easier and cheaper for the network to fly us out, rather than to try to
gather family and fly them in.

Mike lived a nine and a half hour
drive away, in Riverton, Wyoming. In quiet whispers, he asked production to
arrange for him to drive an SUV the distance, instead of flying. And then, he
asked me to make the drive with him. We'd have to drive through Yellowstone and
Shoshone National Forest, he'd warned with a hopeful gleam in his eye.

The thought of it made me smile.
They'd have cameras set up in the vehicle and be eavesdropping on everything we
said, and there'd be a convoy of vehicles behind us, but the sound of a road
trip with limited people immediately around me right now sounded so good.

Besides, it was either that or I
wait around for five hours, so Mike would have time to get family together
first, and then we drive the distance behind him. And I'd have to spend the
drive being interviewed by Troy. So, um, yeah, I chose to let Mike steal those
nine hours, whistled for Goldie, and got into the SUV.

In retrospect, I should have
requested a long-haul drive with each if my suitors. Knowing how we'd get along
in the cab of a truck for hours on end could have been very beneficial when
considering my future.

He made his phone calls and told
family to gather at his parent's house. The last I heard, his mother had gone
into full cooking mode.

We talked about everything under
the sun during those nine hours. And the more we talked, the more I felt myself
falling for him. I just simply liked everything about him.

And I felt safe with him. Every
time I hit the road, there'd be this niggling voice in the back of my head. It
was my father's voice, talking about all the concerns he had about a lone woman
taking to the road by herself. Goldie or no Goldie, there was always a level of
nervousness that hit me whenever I set out for a new location and adventure.
And it would stay with me until I'd settled into my new surroundings a bit. But
this time, no nervousness.

I'd wondered if it was just
because I was with someone, but no, this was different. He was making me feel
safe. I took a moment to stop and think if all four of the guys left would each
make me feel safe in a similar situation. Two of the others, yes... but damn, I
didn't think the fourth one would. That thought made me sigh. If I still felt
that same way by the end of this week, I may have just figured out how to
narrow it down by one more.

"Nervous to meet my
folks?" he asked, drawing me out of my revelations.

I smiled at him. "Not if
they're as awesome as you've described them."

"Just don't let my brothers
intimidate you."

"Should I have packed my
gun?"

He laughed. "No, I just mean
that they might act protective."

"Did they do that before the
leg?"

"No. And in all fairness, if
it wasn't for them, I might very well still be spending my days holed up in my
old room, only doing computer work. They drug me thirty miles out into the
mountains and then helped me figure out how to survive out there. Weekend after
weekend they drug my ass out there, to the point where it stopped being funny.
And since they know what they had to drag me through, to get my head back on
straight, they don't want to see a woman come along and undo it all."

I nodded.
"I can respect that.

Dinner with his family was
wonderful. They did an outdoor barbeque for us. His father was funny, his
mother beyond sweet, his six brothers were outrageous, and his two
sisters-in-law were apologetic for their husbands.

Both his mother, and then his
brothers cornered me. I did my best to answer their questions and put their
minds at ease, but there was only so much reassurance I could give them, given
the situation.

They liked to laugh and have fun.
They liked to make insults directed at one another, and any opportunity at a
dirty joke or a good-natured dig at another's character was not to go untaken.
Mike joined right in, dishing it out as well as he was taking it. And it did my
heart good to know they showed him no favoritism, except for when they cornered
me to let me know, in no uncertain terms, that if I was keeping him around for
any other reason than for the hope of falling for him, they'd track my ass down
when this was all over. But I got the distinct impression that they would have
done that no matter which one of the boys had been on the show.

I swept my annoyed gaze across
all six of them. "You're brother is a grown-ass man. And I'm pretty sure
he did the math and knew what the chances of his heart getting broken on
national television were. It was his chance to take and he took it. I can't
make any promises on whether or not I'll break his heart, I can only tell you
all the same thing I keep telling him."

"And what's that?" the
blondest one asked.

"That there's not a damned
thing about him that I don't like."

"So, you're trying to tell
us that you like the fact that he's missing half a leg? Is that what you want
us to believe?" the tallest one asked, incredulous.

That one threw me for a small
loop. It took me a half moment to come up with a response. "You know what,
yes, I do. It's helped to make him the wonderful man he is today. He lives a
fun, fulfilling, and adventurous life, that takes nothing for granted. So all
of you can get the hell off my back about it," I told them.

"Yeah," the dark-haired
one said with a nod, "if he can bounce back from losing a leg, he can
bounce back from a woman."

"I'm sure his ego was in a
fragile state after the leg," I said. "But he's not still as fragile
as all of you are trying to make him sound like he is."

"Maybe he's just masking it
well for you," the hazel-eyed one suggested. "Maybe he is still more
fragile than you'd like to think. But I hope you're right."

It was then that I turned and saw
that their father was listening in as I took on the six-man firing squad. I
turned to him, "Anything else you want to add in, here?"

"He said he met your
father," he said.

"Yes."

"And are you a Daddy's
girl?"

"Yes, sir."

"And did your Daddy like my
boy?"

"Your boy was my Daddy's
favorite."

He nodded to himself before
looking at the guys. "Ease off her, boys. Mike's holding his own just fine."

I walked away while the getting
was good.

His Dad followed me. "Don't
do anything stupid like dump Mike this week because of those knuckleheads back
there," he said with a gesture over his shoulder.

I smiled. "If I can't hold
my own against a group of concerned brothers, then I'm not worthy of you
son."

He smiled. "True. I'll tell
you what. If you get to the end of this and decide that none of those fellas
you got is just the right one, you come back here and I'll figure out which son
to give you to try out next."

I burst out laughing so hard, all
eyes turned to me.

"What?" he said.
"I know a good woman when I see one. And I liked the way you put those
boys in their place. You come back and I'll get you matched up."

"Okay," I said through
my laughter. "But I'm pretty sure I've got the pick of the litter."

He nodded to himself again.
"It does my heart good to hear you say that."

Overall, the entire day was a
success. And by meeting his family, I'd learned exactly where Mike had gotten a
lot of his mannerisms, ideas, and general attitude.

The family house was situated on
the edge of town and before I left, Mike took me by the hand and led me on a
short walk. "I hope you enjoyed today," he said.

"I really did," I said.
"I think if we ever lived in town for long, your brothers would drive me
nuts. But I thoroughly enjoyed myself today."

He laughed. "Well that
sounds about right. The wives say they can only handle the group of us together
in short spurts. I guess we can be a bit much to handle."

"It's like walking into a
wall of sporty, competitive, testosterone."

"But Mom counter-balances it
so well," he joked.

I laughed. "She surely does.
I've never been to a picnic where elbows weren't allowed on the table during
the meal."

"She says pumping manners
into us was her way of keeping us civilized."

"Did you guys ever rebel
against it or anything?"

He chuckled. "Once, when she
tried to feed us some tofu dish. We decided that since the food wasn't any
good, it didn't deserve our respect and we started flinging forkfuls at each
other. We had it all over the walls and ceiling of the dining room."

"Oh, I bet she loved
that."

"She sat there all calm and
stewing as food flung around her. Once our plates were empty of ammo and the
laughter died down, she told us that the manners weren't for the benefit of the
food, but for the benefit of your host and the time and effort he or she had
put into preparing the meal. Then she declared that she was on a cooking strike
until her dining room was re-carpeted, wallpapered, and the ceiling
repainted."

I laughed. "She made you
guys remodel her dining room?"

"Yep. Made us pay for it,
too."

"How long was it before you
guys were done?"

"We took two weeks, dragging
our feet and arguing over who had to do and pay for what the whole time. We ate
enough canned soup and spaghetti to last us a lifetime."

"And when you guys were
done?"

"Well, we botched it pretty
bad and she made us do it all over again. Once we had it done properly, she
asked us which room we'd like to have our next food fight in. Said she wouldn't
mind having the living room redone, too."

I chuckled. "She sounds like
she was made to mother boys."

"She certainly rose to the
occasion when she needed to." He turned and pulled me into his arms.
"I'm glad you liked my family."

I smiled, and my gaze on his
mouth. "Me, too."

I leaned up and he met me
halfway, kissing me as I wound my arms around him. He shifted his weight and
lifted me up, an arm under my rear and the other against my lower back. My
fingers threaded through his hair.

Eventually my pocket buzzed with
a text, probably from Troy to remind me of the early morning ahead of me.

Mike lowered me to the ground and
held me in a close embrace. He dropped his head to my shoulder and whispered in
my ear, "I don't want you to go."

I sighed against him. "I
don't want to go."

"Stay."

I nuzzled his neck and teased his
earlobe. "I can't. You know I can't."

His hands started massaging my
back. "Let me see you back to your hotel."

I gave him a squeeze. "If
you did that, you'd still be there come morning."

"No, I wouldn't."

"Yes, you would, because I'd
keep you there. And you know I can't do that."

"Am I that hard for you to
resist," he asked, sounding pleased.

I gave him a downright sultry
look.

"Mmm, don't look at me like
that," he whispered. "Or I'll take you out behind the woodshed and
have my dirty little way with you."

I threw my head back and laughed.
"The woodshed, wow, thanks."

He laughed and kissed my neck,
then kissed my lips one last time, before walking me back and handing me into the
awaiting car.

I turned in the seat and watched
him disappear as we drove away. "Ouch," I said to the camera.
"This is the first time I'm sad to leave one of them. Like, I really don't
want to go, even though I know it's the right thing to do."

Troy regarded me for a moment. He
wasn't going to be heavily involved this week, except to make sure I got to
where I needed to go, without the travel arrangements going haywire.
"You're going to miss him."

"You know," I shook my
head. "It's so strange to say this, but I feel like I already do miss
him."

"Is it that you're feeling
the absence of having at least one of them around? What I mean is, is it that
there isn't anybody here? Or that he isn't here?"

I shook my
head. "I don't know. Maybe I've just grown too used to having them around.
I just know that I feel like something is missing."

I'd passed out as soon as my head
had hit the pillow the night before. Now I was cozied up in a recliner, on the
show's private jet, flying to Alabama so I could meet Jared's family. I dozed
the whole way there.

I ended up at the family
business, the Westmoreland Animal Sanctuary. The first place onsite production
led me to was the amphitheater, where Jared was in the process of leading an
alligator show and demonstration. It was impressive to watch him work the
animals. He was very mindful of each alligator's response, position, and
seeming mood. I paid attention to his eyes, to see them always looking around
and scanning the reptiles as he talked. Then he let the gators go back into the
water trough that ran at the edge of the stage area and assistants helped him
bring out some snakes to show. Next, he brought in some caged birds that live
around swamp areas and worked with them one-on-one.

All in all, it was a good show. I
was just thoroughly glad that he either didn't realize I was there yet, or he
was content to let me watch. If he had tried to pull me up on stage, I might
have run out, screaming.

He was in the middle of talking
to the visitors, as they made their way out of the show arena, when his eyes
landed on mine and he smiled. He was obviously glad to see me. He returned his
attention to answering questions, and I waited for him, trying to get my head
on straight about actually being here.

If I was just here as a regular
visitor, I could probably be tentatively looking forward to seeing what would
come next in my day. But circumstances being what they were, I was dreading
what he might take me by the hand and show me next.  Behind the scenes stuff
that regular people wouldn't get to see, and probably wouldn't want to.

I was scared. Terrified that he'd
show me something during my visit that would have me telling him not to even
bother coming to the next
Walk of Shame
.

"Hey, sweetie," he said
when he'd finished with the people and had come over to me.

I smiled where I stood,
"Hi."

He greeted me with a hug and a
kiss and swept me off to tour the preserve. I watched the food for the animals
be prepared before I helped feed the animals I dared to go near. I met his
parents, and saw his niece and nephew running around. Jared knew all the
employees names and greeted them as we went. He put me on a boat and rowed me
around the sanctuary, pointing out plant life and some of the animals. He did
everything he could to help make me grow comfortable in my surroundings.

We were at our final stop, the
gift shop and offices, when he grabbed the doorknob and turned to me. "I'm
figuring that however much you might manage to help out around here would more
than likely happen inside here." He opened the door and stepped aside so
that I could go in first.

The gift shop was gorgeous.
Beautiful posters of swamp blooms filled the top portion of the walls all the
way around. His sister's preserved flowers in resin were there, along with all
manner of knick-knacks and toys that they could link to swamp creatures. I'd
never seen a mosquito stuffed animal before.

The air conditioning was very
welcome after an afternoon spent in the humidity. His brother-in-law was
working in one of the back offices, talking to someone about a snake that had
wondered into their house, and the park was dispatching one of their guys to go
help the homeowner out.

His family invited me to dinner
at his parent's house, which I accepted. I met Buster there, the big, beautiful,
black lab that turned into a hundred-pound baby when Jared walked into the
room, whining and climbing up on him for attention. They were a tight-knit
group, sweet and fun loving. They were every bit as gracious as the man they'd
raised. I felt very welcomed and appreciated.

I can't say a single word against
the day, other than it was in the swamp. Granted, the park was much more
civilized than the boat tour had been. And I'd love to help in the gift shop,
maybe write up a book or two set in the area. But, it was the hot, humid,
swamp. Things had slithered past the boat and something thumped it from
underneath. I didn't feel safe in the swamp. I felt confident Jared would
wrestle anything off me that might attack, but I didn't feel confident that I
wouldn't be missing a chunk of flesh by the time he'd rescued me.

I kept looking around me
throughout the day, trying to tell myself that I could live here, that I could
be happy. Then I'd look at Jared and mentally scramble that much harder to
convince myself that the swamp was a fun place to be. I kept telling myself
that I could have Jared. That all would be okay because he did travel up and
down the eastern half of the country, and we could steal extras days before
returning here. I kept repeating his thoughts of traveling for me in the
winter, in my mind.

I wanted to like the swamp, damn
it.

Because then I could have him.

These were the secret thoughts I
had every time I spent a day with Jared. I was so in like with him that it was
pathetic.

Jared took me back to the park
that night. He wanted me to hear the nighttime sounds the animals made when they
were free from the crowds, and the sounds of the humans no longer drowned them
out. "What do you think?" he asked.

"It's peaceful," I
said, meaning it. It was easy to relax and enjoy the various sounds and noises
when I knew the animals were all locked up and put away for the day.

"It's my favorite part of
the day. I usually volunteer to walk the last security check of the day, after
the gates are closed. You can feel them all settling in for the evening."

"You look totally at peace
here."

He shrugged. "It's
home."

Jared out of his element was
sexy. Jared in his element was enough to make a girl weak in the knees without
him even trying.

"Does the accent lose
something for you when you're surrounded by it down here?" he asked as he
turned to pull me into his arms.

"No. None of them are
speaking with the combination of that accent and your voice," I said with
a smile.

His thumbs brushed across my
cheekbones as he smiled down at me, "I love you," he whispered before
leaning down and kissing me. I rose up on my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around
him, answering the only way I could. He leaned down again and scooped me up
with both hands under my rear. I squealed and tightened my hold when he started
walking.

The camera crew scrambled to keep
us in a lit shot as they tried to follow behind us.

He backed up and sat down on one
of the tables in the food stand area. He shifted to my neck as my knees hit the
surface of the table and released my hold to run a hand up through his hair. He
pulled the neck of my shirt off a shoulder and began kissing the skin he'd
exposed. His other hand massaged the back of my scalp and I dropped my head
back, humming on a sigh.

He came up for air. "Is it
next week, yet?"

I giggled at him. "No,
why?"

He shifted his hold and brought
me flush up against him. "So I can get you into a bed without an
audience."

"Oh,"
I breathed on a heady sigh.

"How slutty would you say I
am?"

"Like on a scale from one to
ten? Three, maybe four," Chloe answered without hesitation. "Why?
Who'd you do?"

My eyes rolled. "I haven't
done him yet."

"Yet? Who are you gonna
do?"

"Chloe, stop. I need an
opinion here."

"All right, hit me."

"Jared is expecting sex on
the twenty-four hour lockdown."

"Yeah, so?"

"So? Do you think they're
all expecting sex on the twenty-four hour lockdowns?"

"If you haven't clearly said
'no' by now, then yes, they are."

"So they're expecting me to
sleep with three of them next week? Where's that going to put me on the slut
scale?"

"First of all, it'd put you
at a ten, no doubt. And second of all, hold on." She put the phone on mute
for a few minutes as I paced back and forth across the hotel room I was
supposed to be sleeping in.

There was a click and a breath
taken in before I heard Dad's voice. "They don't expect you to sleep with
all three. They each expect you to sleep with them and no one else. And whomever
you sleep with will expect to be the final one standing at the end of this.
They each might be willing to accept the idea of you sleeping with maybe one
other, but not all three. And if you do sleep with two, they better be the last
two standing."

"Hi, Daddy."

"Hi. Can I be done with this
conversation now, or do you have any other questions your sister thinks you
need a guy to answer?"

"Any pieces of sage advice
you can give me? Because I'm getting down to the wire, here."

"Marriage is compromise,
baby girl. But don't set yourself up to lose who you are, and don't expect them
to lose themselves, either. Be realistic about who you are, who they are, and
what you both want for your life."

"Love you."

"Love you, too."

I hung up and flopped into bed,
weighing my choices between Mike and Jared, now that I'd met their families and
seen home.

With Mike, I'd bounce from one
national park to another, some more scenic than others. And we'd set up home
base wherever the park put us, the best spots taken by paying customers. No
more resorts or handpicked spots in private campgrounds for a month.

With Jared, at most I'd have a
few months in the winter to choose where to go, with half the country covered
in snow and ice. And the rest of the time, I'd spend traveling from one swampy
spot to another. And how many times will his obligations interfere in my
wintertime travels? Can he even handle being that idle for an entire winter?

Sleep did not
come easy that night.