The first and second runners-up for the Gettin’ Hitched title were brought out next and sat next to Lexie’s bathtub in a pair of rawhide chairs. Cindy Lee from Clearwater, Florida, and Summer from Bell Buckle, Tennessee, cried huge tears as clips from the show replayed snippets of each woman’s private “dates” with Pete in the Pig Pen, and him leading each girl to the Hog Heaven bedroom. Lexie thanked God she hadn’t been filmed anywhere near Hog Heaven or the subsequent walk of shame the next morning. The clip ended with Cindy Lee’s and Summer’s tearful exits from the show.
“You didn’t choose either Cindy Lee or Summer,” Jemma pointed out to Pete when the camera returned to them. “They cared enough about you to sleep with you in Hog Heaven.”
Pete shrugged a nonchalant shoulder. “In the end, it came down to how I was raised. I’m an old-fashioned guy.”
“Are you saying you didn’t choose them because they had sex with you?”
“It was a consideration, Jemma. Someday I hope to have children, and wouldn’t want any of my future children to see their mother being promiscuous on television.”
The women beside Lexie gasped.
“I loved you,” Summer managed through her tears.
Cindy Lee crossed her arms over her chest. “I thought we had good chemistry.”
Lexie frowned. “You’re a jerk, Pete.”
Summer and Cindy Lee turned toward Lexie, and instead of agreeing, they turned on her. By the time the final segment started, Lexie was tired. She had a headache. Her face hurt from smiling and her stomach was twisted into a knot.
The other hitchin’ brides returned to their hay, and a crew member took Yum Yum to her pet carrier. As soon as the cameras turned off for the last time, Lexie planned to run as fast as her Manolos could take her, and put this chapter of her life in the rearview mirror.
“What are your plans now?” Jemma asked the other women. The first few cast members answered, but after a few minutes, the question got turned and twisted back on Lexie. She was called Lex Luthor and heartless and an entitled bitch, again. Davina threatened to smack her in the face and charged across the stage. A crew member detained her, and the audience cheered and booed at the same time.
“I’m not heartless or entitled.” Lexie put a hand on her chest and felt her heart pound. “I am comfortable with who I am, and if you think that makes me a bitch, that’s your problem.”
“No, that’s your problem,” someone countered, and the conversation warped into everyone’s problem with everyone else. Mandy and Desiree almost came to blows. Summer and Whitney cried big weeping tears, as Pete sat back, loving every last minute.
“Everyone calm down,” Jemma spoke above the bickering.
“Someday you’re going to get what’s coming to you!” Davina yelled, and even though Lexie knew it was all for ratings and an attempt at ten extra minutes of fame, her heart pounded and she swallowed hard.
“Speaking of getting what’s coming to her, we have one last guest,” Jemma announced.
Lexie tried to recall which cast member wasn’t on the set today. Rhonda, the girl who was kicked off on the first episode, maybe. But she was fairly certain she’d never done anything to Rhonda.
Jemma looked offstage to her left. “Come on out, Sean, and tell us what you think of all this drama.”
Right. Lexie hadn’t spoken with Sean since the last text. Even then he’d made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with the reunion show.
A smattering of applause started toward the front and grew louder as a knot of production crew members moved from the left wing. In the middle, Sean’s dark hair and face towered above them. Lexie’s heart felt like a five-point star and got stuck in her windpipe. He wore the blue dress shirt and gray trousers the Chinooks always wore on the road. He’d loosened the striped tie around his neck and unbuttoned his collar like he’d been about to undress when he’d been interrupted.
Applause and a few whoops broke out as Lexie stood and straightened her dress. A strange sob clogged her throat just above her stuck heart. He looked so good, she wasn’t positive he was real. Maybe she was suffering from some sort of stress-induced delusion. A delusion of dark scruffy beard and big shoulders that made her feel a little light-headed. Then he stood before her and wrapped her up in his arms. It was all for show, but she didn’t care. He was warm and solid and she felt protected. “You’re here.”
“I just got in.” He pulled back far enough to look into her face.
“You’re here,” she repeated herself.
“What my baby wants, my baby gets.” Then he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her several seconds past a simple hello. For all the world, and especially the television audience, they looked like two young lovers, their lips clinging in anticipation of more. Lexie’s sore stomach got hot and squishy, and the sob clogging her throat came out as a breathy sigh.
Sean pulled back and softly pinched her chin. “You look beautiful.”
She opened her mouth, but all that came out was a weird garbled sound.
He bent forward and whispered in her ear, “You’re supposed to say, ‘You make me feel beautiful,’ or ‘I want to feel our beautiful love forever.’” She recognized the sayings she’d sent him but she was too shocked to respond at all. “And my personal favorite, ‘I want to be filled with your beautiful love lance forever.’”
Lexie’s neck and face caught fire and her throat closed. She’d never added that last one to the list. Ever! “Love lance?” she managed.
He pulled back and laughed.
“Ahh . . .” Jemma said, “I think we caught some of that on Lexie’s hidden mic.”
“Sorry.” He dropped a quick kiss on her lips but he didn’t look sorry at all.
“Why don’t you take a seat with Lexie,” Jemma suggested. “We only have about five minutes, and I’m sure viewers would love to hear your thoughts and what’s been going on.”
Clearly, she and Sean couldn’t fit comfortably in the tub, and a stagehand brought back the two rawhide chairs. Silence fell over the hay bale section, and Pete went from looking smug to looking very uncomfortable.
“We know that you’ve been on the road, but we’re glad you could join us at the last minute.”
“Anything for Lexie.” He took her hand as they sat next to each other.
Lexie looked up into his face. “I appreciate you coming.”
Amusement creased the corners of his green eyes as his gaze met hers. “Sorry I didn’t shave first.” A lock of his hair fell over his forehead like a big comma and touched his dark brow. “But I couldn’t let you face the wrath of those other girls all by yourself.”
Her poor heart grew bigger, the points sharper, her breathing impossible. This was bad. Really really bad. He’d rescued her again, and she hadn’t even had to blackmail him this time.
“Have you watched the show?” Jemma asked.
“Bits and pieces here and there. Watching my woman compete to be another man’s wife wasn’t high on my TV viewing list.” He looked down at her hand and played with her fingers. It was the day. The whole emotional day was playing tricks on her. “It’s over now and we’ve moved on.”
“Pete, do you have anything you’d like to say to Sean? Now’s your chance.”
That had to be it, because, God help her, falling in love with Sean Knox was impossible.
“No,” Pete answered. “Not really.”
Jemma looked at Sean. “Anything you want to say to Pete?”
“No. I think he’s suffered enough without my opinion.”
“What is your opinion?” Jemma wanted to know.
If Lexie had her wits about her she might have intervened before Sean answered, “He must have a small dick if he needs a TV show to get women.”
But her wits were nowhere near the Fairmont Hotel, and she could only gasp, “Sean!”
“Luckily that will get bleeped out in production.” Jemma gave a bark of laughter and was joined by a few of the girls across the stage.
“That’s not true!” Pete defended himself and turned red in the face. “I didn’t need the show to find women.”
Sean looked at him and grinned like they were standing in the face-off circle at the Key, and he was going to drop his gloves the second the whistle blew. “Some of us don’t need a TV show. We’re good on our own.”
If Lexie didn’t know better, she might think he was jealous, but she did know better. This was all an act. One she’d outlined for him, including sections, subsections, and bullet points.
He squeezed her hand and said against the side of her forehead, “You know it’s true.”
Lexie didn’t know what was true anymore. Not him or her or her pointy heart.
Jemma cleared her throat and continued, “It sounds like you don’t like reality TV.”
“It’s fine.”
“Sean doesn’t like chaos and drama,” Lexie provided for him. He glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes and she added, “I’ve given him both and I am sorry for that.”
“You two look like a couple in love,” Jemma said with a sigh.
“Yes.” She’d really done it this time. Despite her notes and memos and knowing better, her heart twisted and turned and gutted her from the inside out.
She was in trouble. Deep, deep trouble. She sat between her fake ex-fiancé on one side and her pretend boyfriend on the other:
She’d tried to love Pete. a. That had ended in disaster.
She’d tried not to love Sean. a. That was a disaster waiting to happen.
It didn’t matter. She’d gone ahead and done it. She’d gone ahead and fallen in love with Sean Knox.
Chapter 13
•love to love you, baby
“That looks like a good bush.” Sean pointed to the shrubbery outside his apartment building. “Take a leak on that.” The white dog sniffed and moved to a different shrub altogether. Sean still couldn’t believe there was an actual dog at the end of the blue leash. Let alone one with only three legs. Growing up, he’d never had a pet, no matter how many legs, because his mother thought all animals were filthy.
Now she was upstairs with a “migraine” and he was on poop duty with Buddy. The dog kind of hopped and walked at the same time, and Sean did feel sort of sorry for the little thing. Together they moved down the street a little ways, stopping when Buddy sniffed a tree.
His mother had told him that the idea for a “therapy dog” had been hers, but he had his doubts. She’d spent a few days with Lexie and came back with a disabled dog. This had Lexie’s fingerprints all over it.
Buddy circled the tree and Sean followed. After the reunion show yesterday, he’d wanted to put his fingerprints all over her.
“Come home with me,” he’d whispered in her ear as they once again found themselves in a parking lot. When they’d first made their agreement, they’d decided not to have sex. Well, she’d mostly decided and he’d gone along with it because he hadn’t known that almost every time he was near her, his body would react. He wanted her again. Naked like before, and she could deny it all day, but she wanted it, too.
“I can’t go home with you.” They’d stood at the back of his SUV and he’d had to fight an urge to open the hatch and stuff her inside. “We’d end up in bed.”
“It’s gonna happen sooner or later.” Her eyes hid behind black sunglasses and he pushed them to the top of her head. “I vote for sooner.”
“We can’t,” she said, but with little conviction. He pulled her long body against him and pressed her into his chest and belly. He let her feel how much he wanted her, and he took advantage of her gasp and opened his mouth over hers. Everything about Lexie turned him on. The touch of her hands sliding up his chest. The smell of her neck and taste of her lips. She opened her warm mouth a little wider, and her slick tongue tangled with his, drawing him in deeper. The suction got a little tighter, the kiss a little wetter, the world around them a whole lot hotter.
Raw lust pulsed through his body and hers. So good he slid his hands to her behind and pressed her into his erection. She felt so good and he could hardly control the sharp edge of desire slicing through him.
He lifted his head and gasped for air. “Let’s take this to a bed.”
He looked into her eyes, hazy from passion.
“Come home with me.”
She blinked and her brows drew together. The wrinkle on her forehead wasn’t a good sign. “I can’t do that, Sean.”
“Yes, you can. All you have to do is get in my car.”
She took a few steps back, and his arms fell to his sides. “There’s too much at stake now.” As she turned away, he thought he saw a tear spill from the bottom of her lashes. At the time, he’d been too turned on and too frustrated to care. He hadn’t been able to think past his throbbing hard-on.
Buddy sniffed a light pole, and apparently it was a better spot than the shrubs or tree. He lifted one leg and finally went. Sean had a little poop baggy, but he didn’t know the rules for where a dog could whiz and where it couldn’t. The light pole looked as good a spot as any. Instead of taking the time to slowly walk back to his apartment, Sean picked Buddy up, careful not to touch any wet spots on his fur. The dog licked his chin and mouth when he made the mistake of looking down. “Stop,” he commanded, but Buddy didn’t. He licked Sean’s throat and the front of his Pabst T-shirt from halfway down the block, up the elevator, and into his apartment.
“Your dog’s back,” Sean called out down the hall.
He expected to hear moaning or some other sound of distress. When he didn’t, he set Buddy on the hardwood floor, then followed after his little walking hop.
What he didn’t expect was to see his mother fully dressed and her open suitcase on the bed. “What are you doing?”
His mother looked across her shoulder at him as she tossed her clothes in the suitcase. “I have to take Buddy home. He needs to get used to my house. I have to be careful of his front paw, and a sidewalk is no place for a dog to do his business. He needs a yard.”
“You’re leaving now?”
She nodded and zipped up her suitcase. “I called Jimmy, the fella with the flying frog.”
He couldn’t say that he was sorry to see her go. “I’ll take you to the dock,” he said, and picked up her one suitcase. He’d easily been replaced by a three-legged dog. Strangely, he couldn’t say how he felt about that.
Later that night at the Key Arena, he couldn’t say how he felt about seeing Lexie on the third tier. Or the next night, either. He had three back-to-back games in Seattle, and each time he glanced up, she was there. And each time “Crazy Train” boomed through the arena, the flash of her smile made him chuckle.
On the road, she sent him daily texts. Part memo, part schedule, and chatty comments about her day. He told her about his hat trick against New York and that his mother had called to report on Buddy’s progress, as if he was an actual member of their family. One of the things she always mentioned was her store and the planned grand opening. So the night he returned to Seattle, he plugged the store’s address into his GPS and drove to see for himself.
“What do you think?” she asked as she showed him white and gold tables and red velvet chairs. He hardly noticed anything but the way she looked in yoga pants and a maroon shirt with mesh cut-outs in the back.
“Beautiful,” he said, looking at her.
“Thanks. I’ve worked really hard.” She pulled a stretchy tie from her ponytail and combed her fingers through her loose hair. “The office is back here,” she continued, and he followed her into a stark white room, filled with a desk, several chairs, and a red velvet lounge chair wide enough for two. The business smelled of new wood and fresh paint. “We’ll move this to the front window once the painters have finished up there.” She talked about her fears with opening a physical store and the net profits between e-sales and retail. “A store on the Internet can get lonely. I want to be around pet lovers.”
Sean watched her gather her hair into a tig
ht ponytail and thought of the first time he’d seen her. Running down the dock, white dress flowing behind her, shoes flashing like disco balls. “You are full of surprises, Lexie Kowalsky. You’re different from the woman who dove into the Sea Hopper.”
With her chin on her chest, she looked at him out of the corners of her eyes. “I’m the same woman. You just met me at my worst.” Her hair secure, she turned to face him. “Your mother told me what you said about my attic.”
He moved to the center of the room, close enough to reach for her. He thought a moment, then began to laugh. “I had to throw her off track.” He grasped her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “There is nothing dusty about you.” Then he kissed her because he’d been waiting long enough. Waiting for her soft mouth and slick tongue. Waiting to pull her against him and feel the rise and fall of her breasts against his chest.
She’d been waiting, too. Her hands slid up his ribs and across his shoulders to his hair. The waiting was over.
He slid his hands to her backside and cupped her cheeks through her thin pants. He pressed his erection into her and she sucked in a breath. Sean’s testicles drew up tight against his body, and his rock-hard erection ached. He looked down into her gorgeous face and blue eyes, her lips wet from his kiss. “I’ve been thinking about this since I left Sandspit.” He curled his fingers into the bottom of her maroon shirt and pulled it up. Up past the waistband of her pants and navel, up her flat stomach to the bottom of a blue bra, holding the plump undersides of her breasts. Her ponytail swung across her bare back as he pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it aside. “I thought about this.” He brushed the tips of his fingers across her voluptuous breasts and the lacy edge of her bra. He wanted to take his time and do all the things he’d been thinking about for weeks now. All the places he wanted to kiss. He wanted to draw it all out until neither could stand one more touch or kiss or whispered breath against sensitive skin, but the moment he unhooked her bra and her soft breasts filled his hands, those moments were forgotten, and all that occupied his head were thoughts of getting completely naked in as little time as possible.
The Art of Running in Heels Page 20