Accept This Dandelion

by Brooke Williams

  “Don’t you want to swim?” Ben asked, letting his eyes rake down Renee’s body. Was she ever going to come out of the cover-up?

  Renee shrugged. “I will if you will,” she said. And with a swift motion and a lot of power, Ben found himself falling backward into the water. He sputtered and kicked and made his way back to the top, his fruity drink littering the clean water with red. He grabbed the small umbrella floating nearby and swam to the edge of the pool.

  Renee had taken her cover-up off, but what she had underneath was nothing like what the studio provided. Instead of a bikini or even a one piece, she wore old cut-off shorts and a ratty t-shirt. Before he could scold her for pushing him in, she took a flying leap over his head and did a cannonball right behind him in the center of the pool.

  Ben swam over to where Renee landed as if he was being pulled to her like a current. The other women watched them from the edge of the water. Before Renee surfaced, Ben caught her around the waist and pulled her against him.

  “You know you’re going to have to pay for that,” Ben said quietly.

  “Just trying to cool you off.” She wiped her hands over her hair, slicking it back into her ponytail.

  “After the fire the other night?” he teased.

  “After the fire today.” Renee looked at the nearby waiting women.

  Ben followed her gaze and laughed. They certainly were a hot bunch, he had to agree.

  “What are you wearing anyway?” Ben knew their time was running out.

  “A bikini just like them.”

  Ben frowned and grasped the corner of her ratty shirt in his hand.

  “No one said we couldn’t wear anything else.” Renee pushed her feet against his legs and freed herself from his grasp.

  Ben shivered despite the warm water surrounding him. So she was wearing a bathing suit underneath her clothing. She was teasing him…for sure. She must be the type of woman who wanted to draw a man in only to push him away. He would have to be careful with her. The other women were slowly lowering themselves into the pool, taking precautions to keep their hair dry. They weren’t leaving anything to the imagination. Ben would be much better off with one of them.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The beginning of the date went better than Renee expected. She didn’t plan on pushing Ben into the pool, but he was asking for it. The way he stood so close to the edge with his little drink, trying to ogle her through her cover-up to see what she had to offer underneath it. He deserved what he got…and more.

  Renee enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. A pool volleyball game broke out and Renee found herself on the opposite side of the net as Ben. It was her against Ben because the other women moved slowly to avoid getting their hair and makeup wet. Renee also wondered if they restricted their motions so nothing would pop out of their tiny tops.

  Renee was glad on more than one occasion that she covered up the bikini she wore with her regular clothing. She was comfortable in the water, out of the pool and everywhere in between. After the volleyball game, Ben took the women to the side one by one. Instead of lying by the pool and sunning herself like the others, Renee played.

  She swam a few laps, but once she got tired, she did handstands to see how long she could hold her feet in the air. When she no longer thought she could outdo her time, she did flips in the water. It reminded her of swimming as a child and though she was alone in the pool, she was having a blast. Renee had goals for the experience, but life was short, and she decided to have as much fun as possible.

  As the date neared its end, and the sun began to dip below the horizon, Renee wondered if she would get another chance to speak with Ben. She didn’t really care other than the fact that wherever Ben went, the cameras followed. If she wanted more screen time to make an impression on the audience, she would have to spend time with him.

  Renee finally got out of the water, and a chill ran down her spine. She wrapped a big white towel around her shoulders. She was going to have to ride back to the studio and then drive home in the clothes she was wearing, and she wanted to dry off.

  “Renee.” A voice called her from the other side of the pool. She glanced up. Ben beckoned her. So that’s how he got his women. He made a little hand gesture and expected them to follow orders. Renee wiped her face dry as she scoffed. She’d go to him because this was a TV show, but if he had any illusions of having her in his life, he would have to work harder.

  Renee walked around the pool, holding the towel tightly. Ben stood when she approached and gestured toward the chair across from him. As soon as Renee sat down, she noticed cameras staring at her.

  “You seemed to have a fun day.” Ben gestured toward the water. Renee wondered if he caught glimpses of her antics while he spoke with the other women.

  “You too.” Renee directed her gaze across the pool at the bikini clad women who finally started to put their cover-ups back on.

  “You cold?” Ben scooted his chair closer to hers.

  Renee shivered. “No.” She would have bet big money he used that particular line several other times during the date to get his hands on half-naked women. It wouldn’t work on her.

  “Of course not. Okay, Renee. I’m going to ask. Why are you wearing that?”

  Renee looked down at the towel. Her cut-off shorts peaked out beneath it.

  “Have you ever gone on a first date in a Speedo?” Renee asked in a matter-of-fact voice.

  “A Speedo? Why in the world…”

  “Exactly,” Renee said. “Why would you do that? And yet you expected us to do virtually the same thing while you sat here in your comfy shorts and tank top. The producer said the date was casual. Sitting around in something that looked like underwear didn’t seem casual to me. So I wore what did.”

  Ben held up his hands in surrender. “Okay. You win.”

  Renee nodded her head and shivered again. The temperature was dropping along with the sun. It took all of her strength to keep her teeth from chattering. Renee enjoyed letting Ben know what she thought about his pool party. She hoped the women in the city agreed. Surely most of them felt objectified at some point in their lives, and the fact that she wasn’t going to stand for it put them on her side.

  “You’re really something.” Ben looked across the space separating them.

  Renee warmed instantly as she caught his gaze. He looked into her eyes and time stopped. Without any explanation at all, a current ran through her body, much like the one she experienced the other night when his touch sent a real static shock up her arm. This time, they weren’t even touching.

  Renee involuntarily shivered a third time for a whole different reason.

  “You’re definitely cold.” Ben stood and grabbed Renee by the shoulders to lift her from her chair. “Here.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her face against his chest. “This is probably the last thing you want, but I’m not going to let you freeze to death before my eyes.”

  Renee grasped the towel in her hands, squeezing it so tightly she thought her knuckles might burst. She wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t hug him back because her arms were trapped in front of her. She also wasn’t able push him again. Her face was turned the opposite direction from the other women so she couldn’t even see their reactions to the embrace.

  “Remember what I said,” Ben whispered against her ear. “I’m not putting the fire out this time.”

  Renee knew there wasn’t a real fire around all the water. As she shivered a final time, she knew it wasn’t from the cold…but rather the heat between them. She looked up at Ben, finding her nose near his chin. As he gazed down at her, she had the sudden urge to raise herself to her toes and kiss him.

  Renee turned to the side slightly. Before she gave in to that crazy notion, she had to get out of there. Sure, Ben smelled great despite the chlorine tinge and looked even better, but he was a womanizer, and he would never change. He was working his magic on her. He probably saw her as a challenge. Men liked the chase.

  “All bet
ter,” Renee said as she twisted from his grip, anxious to get away from his burning brown eyes and his hot flesh. If Ben wanted a chase, she’d give it to him. But instead of letting him catch her, she planned to keep running…as fast as she could.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Renee didn’t like the way her mind kept wandering to Ben, and the fact that she still felt his tan arms around her. She wasn’t sure what bothered her more, the idea that Ben might actually be interested in her or the thought that he had an effect on her. Renee sat down in front of her home computer. She needed to forget Ben’s second group date, scheduled to happen later. Why should she care? He was a womanizing jerk. But Eva would be on the date, and she didn’t want the sweet girl to be swept up by the excitement.

  Renee curled her fingers over the keyboard. She didn’t go back to work until after the elimination ceremony the following night, so in the meantime she’d write a few scripts from home. She told her boss she would do as much as possible to help out in her absence, and the sales people took her up on the offer by sending her plenty of commercials to write.

  The first script was for a heating and cooling company. They wanted to advertise special deals to listeners who regularly got their HVAC equipment checked out. An incentive for loyal customers. Renee thought for a minute. Heating…cooling. She began to type.

  House on ice in the winter and on fire in the summer? Renee paused. As soon as she typed the word ‘fire’ her mind immediately flew back to Ben’s burning eyes boring a hole right through her own. From there, she began to think about his warm skin next to hers and then she moved on to the night they first met when she actually set herself on fire.

  Renee pushed back from her computer abruptly. She needed to stay away from anything related to fire…even the simple word. She cranked her air conditioning down a few degrees and decided she would put her writing off until she could think straight. Maybe once the eliminations were over her head would work better. Ben would probably cut her out, and she could resume her everyday normal life. If by some miracle he kept her, seeing him again would send any romantic thoughts fleeing quickly.

  Renee admitted she found him attractive. And what was wrong with that? His handsome features included eyes that could drill through wood, much less into a woman’s heart. His hair appeared light and soft. Any woman had to find it nearly impossible not to run her fingers through it. But exterior attraction was one thing. Renee needed a whole lot more in a man. She wanted inner beauty as well. Something Ben certainly lacked.

  Renee smiled, she was putting her thoughts of Ben behind her for the moment. He was gorgeous, but his appeal began and ended there. The women he was taking out that evening could have him. Renee wouldn’t give him another thought until he stood before her with dandelions in his hands.

  * * *

  Ben ran his hand through his hair. His second group date promised to be as intense as the first. The producer wanted to be fair. Every woman would have a chance to flaunt herself in a bikini. How shallow did the TV staff think he was? They must believe he needed to see nearly every inch of a woman before deciding whether or not she was right for him.

  The second date would take place on the beach. Not by the ocean since they weren’t anywhere near one, but rather, beside a local lake. Ben arrived well before the women. They had to report to the studio and get dressed first. He wondered if they would be offered the same skimpy bikinis from the day before.

  Ben gazed out over the lake and watched children play on a playground nearby. He thought about Renee. She was the only woman who hadn’t taken advantage of the chance to show off her body. They’d been close a few times. He knew she had a nice figure. But even though she was in shape and could have stood up next to any of the other women on the date, she stayed fully covered.

  He smiled as he thought about her in her shirt and shorts, a sore thumb among the beauties swarming around him. But Ben knew what it was like to have a sore thumb. Such an injury caused him to baby that digit…favor it, even. He had to wonder if that was why he seemed to favor Renee. Was he sorry for her? Was she the underdog he couldn’t help but root for? He wasn’t sure, but she had something different.

  The nearby children continued to play as Ben made a decision no one would believe. It was obvious he was being treated a certain way because of how people perceived him. This show might help him find love, but it was also a great way to get in front of the public eye. This was his chance to show the city his true character.

  * * *

  Renee’s nerves coursed through her body. Her dress that evening fit in better with the other contestants. For once, she didn’t want to stand out. She wanted to blend in, hear Ben’s decision, and head home. Then she could spend the rest of the evening trying to think up witty things to say on the radio the next morning in regards to her dismissal.

  When Renee first found out she got cast on the show, she went through the back of her closet. She had a few items she thought she could wear, and the dress chosen for that night was one of them. She wore it to homecoming the year she and her friend Jay attended together. Jay, the type of friend all the girls loved, went to so many school dances he actually bought a tux in order to stop renting them. He was the stand-in date for any girl without a boyfriend. And he was the best date every girl had. That year, Renee wore a long red dress she found on the rack at a teen store in the mall. Why she still had it, she didn’t know, but the fact it still fit made her proud, even though it was tight in a few places. If Renee was careful about how she moved and breathed, she should be fine.

  As the participants gathered for the second round of eliminations, Renee watched the room carefully. She wanted to try and predict what would happen based on how the women acted. She already figured herself in for one elimination, but could she choose the other woman Ben might dump on TV? Renee looked from one woman to another. They all appeared about the same. Their short dresses glittered under the studio lights, and their excited faces told Renee they certainly didn’t think they would go home.

  “Renee.” Eva called from behind her. Renee turned and lightly embraced her. They hadn’t spent much time together, but they were both on the crazy show. They might even become friends after. Eva was the only one who seemed to understand Renee on a different level.

  “How was your date?” Renee asked. She hadn’t heard anything about the other date. She wanted news. She would have to discuss as much as possible on the morning show, and she wanted to get behind the scenes scoop that wouldn’t air.

  “Crazy.” Eva shook her shimmering dark hair.

  Renee stared for a moment, mesmerized by her beauty. “How so?” she finally asked. “What did you do?”

  “Well…” Eva pulled Renee over to the stiff couch in the center of the set. “We were supposed to have an old fashioned beach party down by the lake. You know, cocktails, sunscreen, beach volleyball, the whole bit.”

  “Let me guess, bikinis were involved.”

  Eva held a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. “Oh, yes. A whole rack of them right over there.” She pointed across the room to the area Renee remembered seeing the bathing suits. “And we all put them on, along with a cover-up, but you’ll never guess what happened when we got to the beach.”

  “What?”

  “Ben waited for us and once we lined up in front of him, he took off his sunglasses and asked us to leave the cover-ups on.”

  Renee squinted at Eva. Her eyes glittered under the studio light, and Renee wasn’t sure she heard her right. “He what?”

  Eva nodded. “He wanted to play Frisbee instead of volleyball, and he said everyone would be more comfortable throwing themselves into the game. He indicated he didn’t think we would be able to enjoy playing in bathing suits so he encouraged us to keep our outer wear on.”

  Renee blinked. Ben hadn’t wanted the second group of women to reveal their bikinis? What, had he seen too much the day before?

  “It was actually sweet,” Eva said. “Like he was thinking of our
dignity and putting us before the show.”

  Renee tilted her head. Why hadn’t Ben said anything on her date? She might have avoided standing out as she had.

  “Not everyone listened, and some of the girls still took their cover-ups off. But Ben was right—those who did certainly didn’t play Frisbee to the best of their ability like the rest of us. I mean, who wants to go diving into the sand when you don’t know what might pop out of where.”

  Renee laughed and tried to picture them playing in their bathing suits, catching the Frisbee in one hand and holding their bikinis in place with the other one.

  “Tell me about your date. How did it go?”

  Renee raised an eyebrow. “Well, there were bikinis. And somehow I managed to push Ben into the pool.”

  “You didn’t.” Eva clasped Renee’s hands.

  “I did, and I don’t regret it for a second.”

  Eva giggled again, but both women quickly silenced as the producer clomped to the center of the room and called for their attention.

  “Ladies. We’re going to start taping shortly. Do your interview with the cameras on the sides of the set as before and line up in two rows. Ben will make an announcement followed by the elimination. You won’t talk to him before the ceremony. He says he’s made up his mind, and we have plenty of footage from the dates to cover the hour.”

  The producer stomped away, and Renee squeezed Eva’s hands. “Here goes nothing.” The women stood and got in line for their interviews.

  * * *

  Ben paced in the green room off to the side of the set. He heard the nervous chatter beyond the wall. The time to tell the contestants what he decided about eliminations was near. He practiced what he wanted to say and wondered about their reaction…as well as the reaction from the TV crew.