The Reluctant Bachelor

by Syndi Powell

  Jeffy showed up to clear the plates and bumped Mona’s elbow, sloshing coffee on her lap. “Hey, watch it. These jeans cost more than your life.”

  Rick’s head snapped up, and he frowned at her. “It was an accident.”

  “Then he should be more careful. If he can’t do his job right, then he shouldn’t do it at all.” Mona mopped at the dark stain with napkins. “I’d fire him.”

  Jeffy looked at Rick, then ran outside. Rick dropped the volume of his voice. “He is careful. He’s also sweet and kind and wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s a good employee. And my friend.”

  Mona suddenly turned sweet under Rick’s glare. “It’s okay, sugar. I know he didn’t mean to.”

  Rick glanced at Elizabeth, who turned to Eddie. “Let’s take five.” She ushered the crew out to the dining room. She returned to discover Rick had left to find Jeffy. She glanced at Mona and Melissa. “Everything okay?”

  “Everything was fine until he ruined my outfit.” Mona still dabbed at the brown stain on her jeans. “Do you know how much these cost?”

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “And what about the cost of your tirade to that sweet boy?”

  Mona gave a big sigh. “I apologized.”

  Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “When? I certainly didn’t hear it.” She turned to the other woman. “Did you, Melissa?”

  She shook her head slightly but didn’t say a word. Rick returned to the kitchen and slapped the towel on the counter. He glowered at Mona. “I wouldn’t get too comfortable here.”

  She stood up and straightened her sweater. “Don’t worry. This town isn’t my type, and neither are you. Whatever happened to defending the woman you love?”

  “The woman I love wouldn’t come down so hard on a kid. She’d be compassionate. Understanding.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Not cold like you.”

  Mona turned to Elizabeth. “I want to go back to the house.” She glanced at Melissa. “He’s all yours.”

  Melissa smiled brightly. “Gladly.” She got up from her chair and walked beside Rick, linking her arm in his. “The man I love would defend those who can’t do it themselves.” She looked up at Rick. “You’re amazing.”

  He grinned down at her, and Elizabeth fought the feeling that rose up from her stomach. Anger? Jealousy? She shook her head. This was crazy. He was her friend. Nothing more.

  Mona stormed out of the kitchen and into the dining room. Elizabeth groaned. “You two couldn’t have waited until cameras were on for that display? We could re-create it.”

  Rick shook his head. “The moment’s over, Lizzie. Besides...” He hugged the woman next to him. “It wouldn’t be real. I think you’re amazing, too, Missy.”

  Elizabeth turned on her heel and walked out to the dining room, leaving the two lovebirds. That was what she wanted, right? She wanted Rick to find a wife, and if the moment in the kitchen was any indication, he had. The perfect partner.

  Eddie squeezed up next to her. “I’ll set up the handheld for the sleigh ride.” He pulled his coat on and walked out of the diner.

  She surveyed the crew left in the dining room and found the SUV driver finishing his breakfast. “Lou, Mona’s going back to the house and we’ll be done here around noon.”

  He wiped his mouth with a napkin, then slid out of the booth. “Noon it is.” He left the diner without a word to Mona. Obviously, her little fit in the kitchen hadn’t gone unnoticed.

  Rick and Melissa walked out of the kitchen holding hands. Elizabeth should be cheering, but instead alarm bells started ringing in her head. She watched the couple for a moment, then sighed. “Ready for that ride?”

  * * *

  WHAT SHOULD HAVE been a quiet sleigh ride through the countryside had turned into a slippery, wet mess in a blizzard. Eddie kept wiping the camera lens. Rick felt cold and miserable. If he didn’t have the warm woman snuggled against his side, it would be a disaster.

  He put his arms around Melissa and squeezed. “Not exactly the sleigh ride you expected, huh?”

  “Does it always snow like this?” Her teeth chattering almost drowned out her words.

  “Pretty much, from November through April. Do you think a Southern belle like you could adjust?”

  She looked up at him and tried to smile. “For someone I love, I’d turn my world upside down.”

  Rick held her closer. She said all the right things. She was beautiful and warm and funny. She was perfect.

  Wasn’t she? Or was she playing for the cameras like Brandy had? How could he tell what was real?

  They took a turn at the end of the road, and the frozen lake the town was named after came into view. The ice-fishing shacks still dotted the icy surface. Long tracks beside the road meant cross-country skiers had recently been along this trek. Despite the cold, wet snow, Rick loved it.

  He leaned forward past Eddie, who seemed determined to film everything, and shouted to the driver, “Take a left up here. I want to show Melissa something.”

  Lizzie glanced around them and shook her head. She held up her clipboard. “That’s not on the schedule.”

  “You can’t do everything by the book, Lizzie.” He leaned back and pulled the quilts higher. “Let’s shake it up a little.”

  When they reached the family home, Eddie was the first to hop out of the sleigh. Rick held out a hand to Melissa and helped her down, then turned to give Lizzie the same courtesy. As soon as their hands clasped, electricity sparked and he brought his eyes up to meet her own startled expression.

  Not good.

  His mom met them at the front door, holding it open and sending shards of light onto the covered porch. She looked as if she’d been busy with a book; her reading glasses rested on top of her head. “Come in and get warm.”

  He reached over and kissed her cheek. “Sorry to barge in like this. I thought I’d show Melissa around. If you don’t mind.”

  She turned to Melissa. “Not at all. I’ll make us some coffee while you do that. Warm you all up from the inside out.”

  Rick helped Melissa out of her coat and hung it on the rack near the front door. He took Melissa’s hand and led her into the spacious living room. “This is where I grew up.”

  “I remember from the tea party your mom hosted.” She released his hand and walked over to the fireplace, looking up at the framed pictures that graced the mantel. “You certainly were a handsome young man.”

  “Still am.” He winked at her and took down the picture of his parents on their wedding day. “This was my dad. I wish he was still around to meet you. He’d have loved you.”

  Melissa looked up at him, her cheeks pink, obviously pleased by his words. “I remember him from the first time you were on the show.”

  “It was his idea for me to go on.” He replaced the picture. Touched the frame. “He said it was for the company, but I think he knew I needed a wife.”

  “And now?”

  Rick glanced at the camera behind him. “Still do. But I’m willing to take the time to make sure I do it right.”

  She nodded and turned back to the fireplace. She picked up the recent picture of his family, without his dad. “Do you miss him?”

  Every day.

  Rick cleared his throat and took her elbow. “I’ll give you the tour that you didn’t get before.”

  He took her upstairs to the bedroom where he’d grown up. Trophies and posters still decorated the room. The quilt his mom had made him still covered the twin bed. The books on the shelves above the bed were mostly biographies of sports heroes.

  He showed her the bathroom he’d shared with Dan. The corner of the tub where he’d hit his head and needed stitches after he’d been horsing around with his brother. Even after his dad had warned them.

  Dan’s room and the tiny cubbyhole underneath the floorboards that his brother h
ad thought no one else knew about. The journal he’d kept in high school still waited there. He told Melissa how he’d read it aloud one night over dinner. How Dan had paid him back by running a pair of his boxers up the flagpole at school. Typical brother stuff.

  He took her up to the third level that entirely contained his parents’ bedroom suite. They’d shared almost thirty years of marriage before his dad had died. Clothes still hung in his dad’s walk-in closet.

  Melissa looked around the spacious bedroom with the large bathroom and his mom’s sewing room jutting off of it. “This house is huge. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

  Rick nodded. “My dad designed it. If granddad hadn’t died and left him the pickle company, I think he might have become an architect. But we all have to give up dreams sometimes to do the right thing.”

  Melissa put her hand on his arm. “What about your dreams? What have you given up?”

  Rick rubbed his left leg and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. We get the life we deserve.”

  “Or we can take our circumstances and find new dreams.”

  Where had Lizzie found this woman? Rick reached out and touched her cheek. Noticed the cameraman recording them and cleared his throat. “If you like the house, you’ll love the kitchen. It’s really the heart of this place.”

  The tour ended in the kitchen, where he found his mom and Lizzie sipping coffee. His mom sprang to action and poured mugs for both him and Melissa. “It’s not fine china, but it’s what’s inside the cup that counts.” She gave him a pointed look.

  Rick put cream and sugar in Melissa’s mug, then handed it to her. “Just the way you like it.”

  Melissa took a sip and nodded. “Perfection,” she said, looking at him rather than her cup.

  Lizzie shook her head and walked out of the kitchen, mumbling about needing to revise their schedule.

  * * *

  THE CONTESTANTS EACH paired up with a preschooler; Rick had his own rambunctious four-year-old to deal with. He tried to get comfortable in the tiny seat, but his knees came up almost to his shoulders sitting that way. He adjusted and moved until little Wesley turned and frowned at him. “Miss Tompkins don’t like it when we wiggle.”

  Rick leaned in and dropped his voice. “How do you get comfy in these chairs, then?”

  Wesley scrunched up his face and put a finger to his mouth. Then he leaned in so close that Rick could smell the shampoo from his bath. “We wiggle when she’s not looking.”

  Miss Tompkins must have seen them. “Wesley, do you have a question?”

  Rick raised his head. “No, Miss Tompkins. Just waiting for your directions.” He turned to Wesley, and they shared a grin.

  Lizzie stood in the corner of the room, checking the releases each parent had signed to get their little one on the show. Rick noticed some parents were determined to get their child more airtime, too. Luckily, Lizzie shepherded them out to the other room with the crew. Rick gave a sigh of relief.

  Miss Tompkins passed out old shirts and had the adults help their child partners into theirs after putting on their own. She then passed out large pieces of newsprint paper and paper plates with large splotches of paints in bright primary colors. Some of the women paled as they saw the paint and the eager expressions on their partners. Rick chuckled and nudged Wesley. “What are we gonna paint?”

  “Miss Tompkins ain’t said yet.” Wesley looked at the colors. “Probably another rainbow. Or butterflies. She really likes those.”

  “And you don’t?”

  “I like cars.”

  Miss Tompkins returned to the front of the classroom. “Boys and girls. Ladies and gentleman. I want you to paint what love looks like. Whatever you imagine love is, paint that.”

  A little girl near the front raised her hand. “Like hearts?”

  Miss Tompkins nodded. “If love looks like hearts to you, Ashley, then yes. Paint hearts.”

  Rick’s tiny partner groaned and crossed his arms. Rick ruffled his hair. “Wesley, what do you love?”

  “Cars.” He shrugged. “And my mom.”

  “So maybe love looks like your mom driving a new car?” Rick looked up to find Melissa watching him. He winked, then turned back to his painting partner. “I think love is more than just flowers and hearts, too. Sometimes it’s the people we care about.”

  “Like girls?” Wesley wrinkled his nose.

  Rick laughed. “Sometimes. But wait until you’re older.”

  Satisfied with his answer, Wesley set about painting a large red car with big blue wheels. Rick peered at his own blank sheet. What did love look like? He closed his eyes and could see his family. His friends. Even the diner.

  Funny how none of the women vying for his heart had made it into the picture.

  * * *

  BRANDY’S FIRST ONE-ON-ONE date with Rick took place in his apartment. He’d made dinner for the two of them and created a romantic atmosphere down to flickering red candles and Ernesto’s apple pie.

  Charlie set up lights and cameras as both Rick and Brandy got their microphones checked and pinned to them. Elizabeth glanced at the clipboard as if the answers would be there. Answers to questions she didn’t want to ask.

  What was she doing?

  Was she falling for someone she was being paid to marry off to someone else?

  What if he found a wife at the end of this? Wasn’t that what she wanted? Or was she just fooling herself? Had she engineered this whole thing so she could spend more time with Rick?

  She shook her head at the last question. Fought the panic that bubbled in her belly. She was here for a job, not a man. That was her life. That was what she planned.

  Not some crazy idea that maybe her friendship with Rick could lead somewhere.

  “We’re ready.”

  Her head snapped up at Charlie’s words. Leave it to her camera operator to keep her on task. He’d done it before and promised to do it again. “Great.” She approached the couple, who nervously adjusted their clothes and hair. “Relax. You two have both been here before. This should be old hat.”

  She consulted her clipboard. “Dinner here. Then a moonlit walk down Main Street. Romantic. Intimate.”

  Rick shivered. “Freezing.”

  She crooked one eyebrow at Rick. “The forecaster said we might hit twenty tonight.”

  “And the weatherman’s always right.” Rick grinned at Brandy. “But then we midwesterners know how to handle cold, right?”

  Brandy chuckled.

  “We’re all set up, E.” Charlie took a spot behind the camera. “Ready when you are.”

  She clapped her hands once, then gestured at the table that was set for two. “What do you say we start this date?” She held up the clapboard for the camera as they got settled into their chairs.

  Rick pulled out the chair for his date, then brought their salads to the table. “I left off the green peppers on yours.”

  Brandy froze, the fork halfway to her mouth. Her face broke into a grin. “You remembered.”

  Rick winked at her. “Hard to forget someone like you.”

  Brandy swallowed and wiped her mouth delicately. “We haven’t talked much about what you’ve been doing the past five years. Do you like running the diner?”

  Rick took his seat and placed the napkin on his lap. “After I lost my contract with the major league, it was my lifeline. The reason I got up in the morning. It saved my life a thousand times. I know I don’t have to be there from open to close, but I love it. It’s my life.” He grabbed his fork. “But that’s a talk for another time. Let’s eat.”

  They ate quietly for a moment while Elizabeth took a seat on Rick’s sofa and pretended to pay attention to the scene in front of her. There was way too much déjà vu for her. She stood and crossed the room to gaze out the front windows that
overlooked the downtown strip. What if she were the one sitting across from Rick? What would her life here be like? She gazed back at the couple enjoying dinner. Would she die of boredom? Or would the charm of this town bring new experiences? A new life?

  After the salads, Rick brought out the pot roast with fixings. Elizabeth’s stomach grumbled, which made him smirk. He prepared two plates, brought them to her and Charlie, turned back and made two more. Elizabeth accepted hers with a nod of thanks and began to eat while she watched the date continue.

  Brandy gracefully sliced her meat and put a bit of gravy on it. She took a bite, and her eyes closed as she chewed. “Oh, wow. Is that rosemary?”

  “And garlic, yes.” Rick took a bite of his own meal. “Plus a little coffee added to the gravy to make it hearty.”

  Brandy licked her fork. “Fabulous.”

  Elizabeth agreed. Who wouldn’t want a husband who could cook like this?

  Rick laid his fork next to his plate and glanced at Brandy. “Do you mind if I ask you something?” She sighed but waited for the question. He paused a second, then asked, “Why choose Wade?”

  Elizabeth held her breath. It was the question the audience would be asking themselves. Why hadn’t she chosen the nice guy? Why choose the bad boy who broke her heart instead?

  Brandy dabbed her mouth, then laid the napkin in her lap. “I’ve been expecting that question.”

  “Do you mind answering it?”

  “The heart wants what it wants.” She reached out and touched Rick’s hand. “I loved you, too, but it was different.”

  Rick scooted his chair back from the table. “So what’s changed now?” He paused, then tipped his head to the side; one lock of hair fell across his forehead at a rakish angle. “Do you think there’s a chance for us this time?”

  Brandy shrugged. “Before I didn’t know what I wanted.”