“Oh, yes, very funny,” Declan says humorlessly and his hand finds Karin’s on her thigh. “We figured it out now.”
“Only took you a stint on a national TV show,” Scarlett chuckles.
“And seventeen years,” Hank chimes in and they laugh like they’re the world’s greatest comedians. Karin isn’t sure yet how she feels about them knowing. Only that she doesn’t appreciate the smugness that all the Hanson and Shelton siblings in attendance as well as her mother share in when they arrive at Hank and Scarlett’s house. Everyone is there, save for Kimberly, who is travelling for work, and her brother Gray, who lives out of town and couldn’t make the trip out. They’re all waiting for them with a big celebratory dinner of which their new relationship status is predictably the buzz point. There is much ado made about their brothers having “known this was going to happen forever” and going “thank God you finally figured it out.”
The good natured, if borderline prying, questions continue until Declan finally snaps and tells them some more details than “It just happened, leave us alone.” It’s a good preparation for the Welcome Home Party his friends throw them the night after, except there, they’re not answering the questions honestly.
For now, the only people that will know their little secret are the immediate family. After more deliberation, they even decide to keep cousins out of the loop. Well, cousins like Bas at least. Karin is quite certain Declan will tell Letty and Samira, his aunt’s daughters, because they’re basically like sisters to him anyway. He doesn’t tell Oakley and everyone else though, and not Jonny either, his ballet friend that got them on the show in the first place. Karin meanwhile aches to tell Mia and Luna, standing by the guacamole at the buffet table at the fire station at the party, but can’t. It kills her a little bit.
Around them, everything is abuzz, the crowd made up of mostly the same people as it was at their first get-together weeks before, except there are even more people gathered around now. Even Kimberly made it out to Bronstown after work. She’s been busy chatting with Declan’s brother Joseph by the fire trucks for ten minutes, which is why Karin doesn’t feel too bad spending a little more time with her girlfriends.
“We missed you,” Mia says. “You need to tell us everything. But first: episode three! It looked amazing, that music video! Sensual stuff. The artist would have been proud.”
Her friend fans herself with her hand over-dramatically, and it’s strange for Karin that the dance challenge already feels ages ago when her friends have only just seen it. Now they have to wait until episode four has aired until they go back to Scanlon to do the live show.
“That dance was really fiery, too,” Luna agrees. “And to pick that song, that was a bold choice.”
“That’s what Sinea said,” Karin tells her, secretly happy to be able to name-drop like this.
“I know, they showed that in the scene,” Mia nods. “I did like the first song you had a little better, though. A little inappropriate. That was hot.”
“We thought it was a bit too out there, maybe,” Karin tells them, lying through her teeth.
“That was too ‘out there’ but the hot tub in episode one wasn’t?” Luna laughs.
“Honestly,” Mia agrees. “Got to applaud Declan for looking that hot and bothered. God knows, I’ve never been attracted to him and I wouldn’t want to touch him with a ten foot pole but, damn girl, that made even me weak in the knickers.”
“What do you mean you wouldn't want to touch him with a ten foot pole?” Karin asks, slightly offended on Declan’s behalf - and a little for herself, too, because she very much has touched that without a pole, and frequently.
“That’s your take-away, Rinny?” Luna chuckles. “I’m still stuck on the weak in the knickers bit ... Sexy Declan making Mira a grammatically incorrect Brit.”
“He was sexy in that hot tub,” Mia nods, shrugging apologetically at Karin and ignoring Luna. “And, don’t get me wrong, he is a handsome man but, you know, not for me.”
“Why?” Karin asks, taking a long sip from her straw, pulling a generous amount of mimosa down her throat, the grip on her solo cup a little wavering. Does her friend find her new boyfriend unsuitable?
“Because.” Mia says. “You’ve been in love with him for a long time and he’s obviously completely lost for you. No self-respecting woman or even halfway decent friend would get in there.”
“Shh,” Karin hisses and looks around her shoulder nervously. “People are not supposed to know that I was ... you know. They’ll think we’re together.”
“Oh, aren’t they supposed to think that?” Luna asks, her brow furrowed.
“Not around here,” Karin grumbles. “Everyone here knows that we’re not.”
“We all used to know that,” Luna says pointedly. “But I agree with Mira, he looks like he worships you. Can’t you do something about it? Don’t you think there might be something there, after all?”
“No,” Karin says, quickly. “That’s not going to work, it’s not happening.” She looks around, hoping not to look as nervous as she feels and frantically tries for a way out of the conversation. “I’m going to go say hi to my sister real quick, alright? She came all the way from Scanlon.”
The problem isn’t that she can’t lie, the problem is that her face is taut from trying not to grin very sheepishly and give herself away right then and there, so she really needs to get away from her girlfriends’ knowing eyes, and fast.
Stealthily, she ducks out of there with a ‘See you later,’ and makes a beeline for her sister. Kimberly, unlike Karin’s friends, had been told the big news on the ride over from Karin’s apartment in the backseat of Declan’s car, to a terribly anticlimactic and unsurprised reaction that went something like: ‘Honey, I knew from the things he said about you in your home story, and actually, I’ve known since you were fifteen and he took you to prom, so you can’t hide it ... ’ Somewhat stiltedly, they talk about everything but relationships for a while until Oakley finds them, Declan in tow, and pulls Karin to the beer keg with them, leaving Kimberly by herself to ponder which noodle salad to try next.
“Hey, it’s so good to see you both again,” Oakley says when Karin and Declan are both served with new red cups. “Rinny, you look great.”
“Thanks,” she smiles, fixing her hair under his scrutiny as Declan scoots closer to her. “Thank you for setting this up, too. It’s so good to see everybody again.”
“No, we’re just happy to have you home,” Oakley says easily. “So you can deal with the madness yourselves.”
“Is it bad? Mother already told me a little…” Declan shifts where he stands, even closer into Karin’s space, making her wonder if she should inch away from him a bit.
Maybe she’s being paranoid but she feels like people are watching them, analyzing their positions in relation to each other, trying to read their body language and she doesn’t like it. But then again, she has no intention of being away from Declan. Truthfully, she would very much like to piggyback him for the rest of the night and kiss his head every three to five seconds. (Or just send anybody away and get it on with him on a fire truck.) So she decides on staying where she is. Declan has always been tactile with her, they’ve always been close, so being near to him at this party should damn well be fine and not raise too much suspicion. Right? Right. She refuses to be strange about this, not in their own home.
“Oh god, it’s crazy,” Oakley answers Declan, hitting him hard on the bicep. “There are people trying to hack our community Facebook group to figure out if you’re the real deal or not. Someone tried to catfish Mike to get him to tell on you both.”
“Oh God,” Declan groans.
“I don’t know, people are getting intense over it,” Oakley shrugs.
“Letty told us this morning that there’s people coming into the shop occasionally that just ask about us,” Karin tells them, which is probably news only to her and Declan.
“The shop, the dance studio, the pub ... you name it,
” Oakley says. “But to be fair, you did put on quite a show.”
“I’m going to get a drink,” Declan says, with his defeated voice, and does just that.
“We were just doing our job,” Karin says helplessly, left to fend for herself. “Acting and everything.” She’s already tired of people asking and it’s barely been two days. She can’t wait for it all to blow over after the finale. This invasion of their privacy is exhausting.
“That hot tub thing was my favorite part of that ‘acting’ thing,” Oakley laughs, fully taking the piss. “I could have lived my life happily without knowing what Declan’s O-face looks like.”
“We didn’t - ” Karin nearly snaps but Oakley cuts in, still laughing heartily.
“Calm down, I’m just pulling your leg,” he winks at her. She’s deeply uneasy, feeling like all of their friends have seen too much during their public viewing parties, that they know them too well to be duped by their platonic party line. She’s just about to delve some more into her ‘it’s acting’ spiel, the one she is still refining, one person at a time, when Declan drops by to save her. Bless his soul.
“Come on, Joseph wants to say hi,” he says, snatching her by the elbow and dragging her to his brother Dustin and his very pregnant wife Karin - Karin Hanson had been there first, mind you - and their daughter Charlotte. Being around them is a little easier because they know - Charlotte doesn’t but she’s barely four, so she still believes this Karin is her uncle Declan’s wife anyway. With them, Karin doesn’t feel like she has to be on her guard about what she says so much. Everyone else seems to be on the look-out for signs.
Three days later, it turns out that this is the worst thing about being back home. The constant ducking away from attention. It takes half a week back in their apartment building in Tennessee to accept that the constant intrusions into their daily life will not stop until the show is over. After two shifts back at the Bag Lady, Karin’s boss agrees to give her another two weeks off because people crowd her during her shifts like nobody’s business and Scarlett and her sister Carol complain about their girls at synchro completely losing it around Declan, even if he’s been helping coach them for years. It’s like he’s a new person to them since he’s been on television. “Their dancing is actually worse when Declan’s at the studio!” Scarlett tells Karin on the phone when she suggests that they leave the area for the time being, because it’s all getting a bit too intense.
In the end, they decide to hide out at Karin’s uncle’s vacation home by a picturesque lake. Since he is currently travelling with his family in Thailand, the cottage is just sitting there and it’s remote enough for them to have a little freedom and peace, to move about without getting cornered by ‘fans.’ On Thursday morning, Karin sneaks out of his apartment to hers to over-pack a suitcase and before the sun has fully risen, they’re on their way to Bayfield, leaving the prying eyes and grocery store selfie-requests behind them.
Once there, they spend most of their time making up for lost time in the king sized bed, but also watch a lot of television shows and take walks down the lake, trying not to get spotted, and Karin goes through a very intense couple of days researching social media. She figures that if she can’t work at the cafe for the time being, she can at least try and use what popularity she has apparently acquired to maybe open up some future career opportunities. Marietta called the other day asking her to share something about the show, and when Karin told her she didn’t have a twitter, Marietta almost hung up on her. On day three at the cottage, with Declan napping on the couch with his head on her lap, Karin sets up a Twitter and an Instagram, for both of them. That’s when she discovers that people are discussing both her and Declan extensively online.
They have diehard fans. It’s a new concept for Karin, one she can hardly fathom. She is also somewhat surprised that they seem to be the favorites to win the show. Not that she is actually surprised, because they went in hard, but people online have no doubt that they are a couple and that they’re the ones who should win. There are countless posts of people just going wild imagining them on the world trip they will never go on. There are others posting gifs of them, little scenes from their time on the show, mostly Declan looking at her, kissing her, Karin holding him, being supportive, and they use a lot of exclamation marks. It’s a frenzy. When Declan stirs on her lap, he finds her completely engrossed in their fans’ musings. By the end of the day, she has made their first joint social media posts and people go veritably insane over it. She can watch it all unfold in real time, exploding on her smart phone.
“This is so strange,” Declan says, watching his own phone screen light up again and again with notifications after she’s talked him through responding to a tweet or two. “These are strangers and they’re very invested in us.”
“There’s also a couple of college girls who are very invested in us being the fake couple, though,” Karin tells him, working her hand up to his neck, tousling her fingers into the outgrowing ends of his hair.
“Why?” he asks, tilting his head at her.
“Baby,” she grins. “It’s because they want to take my place.” He really has no idea what an effect he has on women. He always acts all cocky but he doesn’t believe he actually has game, when in reality, he’s the real fucking deal and everyone can see it.
“Pft,” Declan scoffs and smacks a hard kiss on her lips. “Nobody will ever take your place. Ever.”
“I’m counting on it,” Karin grins and kisses him back in that way that lets him know he gets to carry her off to the bedroom soon. The last box of Trojans she bought is long since empty ... and as of four days before, she’s got her three month shot, so she didn’t buy any more beyond that.
After what turns out to be one of their more adventurous sessions, they lie in bed and Karin takes the time to really admire the view and feel of the cottage while Declan keeps practicing braiding her hair - it’s his personal boredom cure, learning how to French braid her hair with an admittedly very slow learning curve. The house and the master bedroom in particular are a beautiful space, all shabby chic and gorgeously heartfelt decor-wise.
Her uncle’s wife has put everything together to have it feel like a Norwegian lake house, with a rose blush and navy theme, stuffed with tasteful vintage furniture all over. The large windows of the bedroom open up into the greenery surrounding the place. From where they lie, they can even see an edge of the water, the sky darkening by the minute, but still drenched in soft orange from the sun that went down while they were making love. The scent of that still lingers in the sheets they’re tangled in and Karin thinks that it might be her favorite thing in the world. How his body smells like hers and her mouth tastes like his at the end of it, when they clutch each other spent and sated. It’s all over the crisp bedding, settling over them before they eventually have to chase each other into the shower naked. It’s bliss.
And the best thing is that nobody knows where they are. That much she knows from her research. Nobody knows where they’re cooped up and it’s making people crazy. But Karin has no interest in enlightening them at all. She’s peachy just the way she is. She and Declan haven’t talked much about keeping away from the public, the necessity of it had become increasingly clear while they were home. Evidently, since they are now an hour away from Tennessee at a lake house in hiding. Except they’re not really hiding, they’re just in another place where there are less people to see them. She’s fine with that, she can think of few nicer things than riding out the honeymoon-phase in a cute lakeside cottage - not that it feels like there is an end to the honeymooning in sight, she is so damn happy every day, she’s not quite sure how her body handles it, the grinning alone is making her jaw hurt at night. Declan has some misgivings but gladly, they have nothing to do with her.
“I just miss my family, you know,” he tells her a little later. They’re sitting on the deck, her feet propped up on his lap as he puts a generous amount of tomato salad onto her terribly stylish bamboo plate. “I basic
ally haven’t been home in one and a half months. Karin is going to have the baby any day now and I can’t be around for it. Besides, I can’t do anything about Letty and Samira getting badgered at the store. I just feel like I should be there, you know?”
“It’s not for much longer,” she comforts him, dropping her hand to his knee to squeeze it. “After the finale it’ll all be over, and you’ll absolutely drive up to see the baby, that’s not even a question.”
“Yes, I think I will, maybe we can just sneak you in, too? But anyway, you know, I’m not sure that this situation will be much different after,” he sounds concerned. “Oakley was right, people are ... intense about us.”
“Not when we come out as the non-couple,” Karin shrugs, entirely unbothered and certain of her prediction. “People will move on.”
“What if they don’t believe us?” he asks.
“Why wouldn’t they? When we tell them we’re not, why would they think we’re lying?”
“I don’t know,” Declan says, making a face, “maybe because we are?”
“Don’t worry,” she insists. “Nobody will know.”
“It’s just ... they better not, you know,” he muses, putting the spoons back into the salad bowl. “I looked into our contract. We need to be very careful. Especially if we win - ”
“Which we will,” she interjects.
“Which we will,” he repeats dutifully before he continues. “They could sue us for fraud if we win and we actually are a couple. Even if we’re just sleeping together. That’s actually what it says in the fine print. It says if we’re arguably in a ‘romantic relationship or physically intimate,’ they got us by the balls. They’re not kidding around.”
“How would they know if we’re intimate or not?” Karin challenges mildly. “We could be having sex all day and they would never know.”
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