Adventure to Love (11 page)

“Well, I don’t really think it’s possible to go fishing in the middle of LA, unless it’s in the fountain at the Mulholland Memorial. Which would probably be frowned upon. And my dad was always way too busy with his practice to take me anywhere, even on a day trip. Whenever we went on a family vacation, it was always me, my little brother, my mom, and our nanny.”

“Wow, that’s really sad. I mean, sad for you that you didn’t get to spend more time with your dad. If I didn’t have my dad in my life, I don’t know what I’d do. But, really, you have to try fishing! And don’t tell me that you’ve never been horseback riding before,” she teased, surprised at her newfound confidence.

“Well, I guess you could say that I’ve been horseback riding before. When I was in 101, we did some charity work for the Make a Wish Foundation. So we all went on a guided horseback tour with a few kids that were sick in the hospital. I guess that was their wish.” Ky shrugged.

Was this guy for real?

“That’s so, so sweet. So, at least you’ve ridden a horse before. Horseback riding is one of my favorite things. There’s really nothing better than getting up while it’s still dark and going on a long ride to get back home when the sun’s rising. I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but that’s the stuff I like to do.”

She looked down at her hands. She just hoped that Ky didn’t think she was some kind of backwards, inbred, sheltered Midwesterner.

Ky tightened his grip around her shoulders. “You know what? That sounds really refreshing. It’s definitely something that I’ve never done before. I normally see the sunrise from the other side.” Ky laughed. “But how about you show me your horses sometime? Maybe we can go on a real ride together.”

She was stunned. She didn’t know what to say, so she just nodded like a bobble-head doll, enthusiasm spilling from her every pore. She couldn’t imagine that Ky had said anything like that to any of the other women. He was talking to her like he really knew her and, even more importantly, he was dropping hints about their future together. She could hardly breathe.

“So tell me more about your dad’s practice. What does he do?” she squeaked back. Her voice sounded unnaturally high, even to her own ears.

Ky opened his mouth to answer, but the only sound she heard was a shrill squeal that came from behind them. Before she could identify the source of the interruption, one perfectly manicured hand with long, red acrylic nails was on her shoulder. The hand grabbed at Ky’s arm around her shoulders to get his attention.

Harper squealed, “There you are! We’ve been so worried about you guys! I didn’t want to freak out the staff, but we were about to ask some of the butlers to go looking for you.”

She couldn’t believe it. That was obviously Harper’s attempt to break up their private conversation because there was no way that they’d been gone more than ten minutes. She turned around to glare at Harper and was surprised to see her nearly naked body standing behind them.

Harper was wearing a completely see-through cover up over an extremely high cut one-piece bathing suit with a neckline that plunged below her belly button. Meaning, the bathing suit was cut so high that Harper had to have been waxed and plucked within an inch of her life in order to wear it. That, or she would have to have been born naturally hairless.

Just looking at the X-rated swimsuit made her flush with embarrassment. It also made her a little too conscious of how frumpy her beach shorts and tank top looked in comparison.

“So, Ky,” Harper cooed. “It looks like they already brought your luggage down to the lobby, so I was wondering if you wanted to come and sit by the pool with me until it was time to leave. We’ve got some time to kill, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get to know each other a little better . . .” Harper trailed off but kept her eyes locked on Ky’s face, waiting for his response.

Ky gave a friendly shrug and said, “Why not? I‘m sure Brinkley wouldn’t mind, right?”

Why not?
Why not?
Well, because it was just one more excuse for Ky to see Harper’s practically naked body, that’s why.
But before she could protest, Harper had grabbed Ky by the hand and was leading him back to the Great Pool for a little more “fun in the sun” before the group had to leave.

Brinkley had no choice but to head back to her room and bring her luggage down herself. The helpful butlers that were always within earshot were nowhere to be found. After dragging her heavy suitcases to the elevator and out to the front lobby near the reception desk, she was dripping in sweat. She could only bet that it hardly looked like a radiant, healthy glow, the way she imagined Harper looked whenever she perspired.

The rest of the women were gathered around their luggage in the lobby, waiting for the limos and sipping on glasses of rum punch. She was game. She downed a glass of rum punch sitting on a silver tray in a few gulps and was onto her second.

What did she have to do besides sit there and think about how she’d gotten totally one-upped by her biggest competition? She didn’t even want to consider what Ky and Harper were doing by the pool right about now, even though it was going to be aired on national TV in just a few months.

As if reading her mind, Morgan slid down next to her on the wicker bench, her own glass of rum punch in hand. “What’s going on, girl? You look stressed.”

“Um . . .” She didn’t know what to say. Or how much she should say. She’d gotten slightly more used to the cameramen lurking around every corner, but she was still hyperaware of the fact that everything she said was being recorded. Did she dare complain about another girl in the competition on TV? Or would that make her look like a backstabber?

“I’m just frustrated about Harper, that’s all.”
Darn.
The rum punch had loosened her lips. Oh well, there was nothing she could do about it. The words were out there for the world to hear when the show aired in a few months.

Was it her imagination, or did the three cameramen in the back of the room take a few steps closer?

Morgan nodded with understanding. “Yeah, that girl has a few screws loose, if you ask me. I saw her run by with Ky about twenty minutes ago. It looked like they were on the way to the pool out back. But it was pretty hard to tell where they were going because I was too distracted by Harper’s ass cheeks.” Morgan laughed.

“Well, I’ll tell you where they were coming from. Harper was coming from breaking up the only one-on-one conversation that I’ve been able to have with Ky the entire time we’ve been here. I was finally getting to talk to him on a real level. I was really getting to know him, and then Harper came and got him before I could say anything about it.”

Morgan raised an eyebrow. “So you were getting to know him better, huh? What do you think so far?”

Brinkley felt her cheeks heat. Now she was definitely moving into forbidden territory. She didn’t want to say too much about the feelings that she had already developed for Ky, but she couldn’t lie, could she? “I don’t know what it is, but I really have feelings for him.” She shivered, even though it was at least ninety degrees outside. “It’s just that-”

She stopped herself. Should she really be telling another contestant in the competition that Ky had talked about going home with her and riding her horses? Maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe she was just being silly. “I felt like we were really bonding. Ky even said he’d love to visit my hometown sometime and see my horses.”

Morgan raised her eyebrow even farther. “Really? He said that?”

Before Brinkley had a chance to confirm or deny, she was interrupted by the loud sound of a horn honking. Or rather, multiple horns honking as a long line of Hummer limos crept into the driveway. The once-absent butlers appeared out of nowhere and effortlessly loaded their luggage into the backs of the limos.

The women dispersed into the awaiting limos, but Brinkley held back.
Where were Harper and Ky?
Should she tell them that the limos were here? Surely there was no way they would leave without the star of the show . . . but still.

She hesitated. She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was one of the butlers, the younger one who spoke pretty good English. “Miss?” He gestured to the open limo door in front of her. “You go ahead. We are just waiting a few more minutes on Mr. Andrews, and then we leave.”

Over his shoulder, she saw Harper and Ky slowly making their way back from the pool. Ky had his arm wrapped tightly around Harper’s waist and pulled her in close for a quick kiss. Brinkley’s stomach turned. She couldn’t figure it out. Did she really want to go after the type of guy that would be interested in kissing someone like Harper?

She drained her glass and sat down in the back of the last limo. She couldn’t wait to get out of this paradise and finally move on to their next destination.

She must have fallen asleep, Brinkley decided. Her mouth felt dry, and her eyes were sticky. She wiped her hand across her chin to remove any traces of drool before she spoke. “How long have I been asleep?” she asked no one in particular.

Morgan was the only other girl awake in the limo. “I think about forty-five minutes, but I’m not sure. It doesn’t matter anyway because we’re here.”

She peered through the tinted glass.
Where on earth were they?
She had expected something bigger, better, and more beautiful than the last resort. But it looked like they had pulled up to an old jungle campsite.

A fire pit sat in the center of the campsite with rocks surrounding it. Embers from a recent fire continued to smoke. A bucket of water and fish guts had been tossed over the fire to put it out, who knows how long ago.

She spotted a horse barn at the back of the property and immediately perked up. Maybe she and Ky would be able to go on their horse riding date after all!

Upon closer inspection, she saw an old mule being slowly led out of the barn with sacks of grain tied to its back. One of the employees at the camp must have been using the mule to bring the food for the day to the main hotel.

If you could call it that.
The main portion of the “hotel” was a small shack with five picnic table benches in front of it shaded by a sagging awning. Surrounding the main part of the hotel were four tiny cabins. The cabins were constructed from bamboo, although the majority of them seemed to be rotting and crumbling apart.

Two of the cabins doors were literally hanging off their hinges. Each cabin had large mesh windows and a screened-in porch with two hammocks on it for sleeping. It reminded her of sleeping on the porch of her cabin at church camp years ago. Although that camp had had a restaurant, a mini-golf course, and tennis courts.

From what she could judge, the cabins weren’t equipped with any modern appliances, let alone air-conditioning. She assumed that she’d have to sleep on one of the tiny hammocks on the porch if she wanted to get any kind of breeze at night.

It was a far cry from the resort they’d just left. Her only consolation was imagining how Harper was going to react. She hoped she’d have some kind of epic meltdown that would finally make Ky see what she was really like, not just who she pretended to be.

Morgan stepped closer to her, sizing up the cabin in front of them. “So, what you say?”

“About what?” she mumbled, still stunned by the drastic change in scenery.

“Well,” Morgan spoke slowly as if talking to a small child. “It looks like there are two or three to a cabin, and then the fourth cabin is for Ky. So why don’t we beat everyone else to the punch and put our stuff in this cabin with two beds? At least we’ll know who we’re rooming with.”

Brinkley couldn’t have been more relieved. She had just assumed that she would be sharing a room with Harper for the entire length of the show. But, thank goodness, Morgan had decided to take matters into her own hands and chose her to be her roommate.

Even though their new living conditions were hardly desirable, she was relieved that she wouldn’t have to deal with Harper’s constant complaining every night before bed, not to mention the awful ambient sitar music she played all night long.

She and Morgan lugged their suitcases into the cabin. One other distinct difference between the resort and the campsite was that there were no helpful butlers to be found. Each woman was responsible for dragging her own suitcases into her cabin, unpacking, and making her bed with the sheets set out on it.

She wished her bed had already been made for her. Not because she was a total snob who didn’t know how to make her own bed, but because she could have done without seeing the soiled mattress underneath. As she continued to unpack, she looked around the cabin.
Something was off.

“Hey, Morgan, did you notice that there isn’t a bathroom in here?”

“What? That’s bullshit. They better not think we’re going to be squatting outside or anything like that. No way,” Morgan said.

She looked out the torn mesh screen on one of the windows. “It looks like there’s a communal bathroom back there next to the barn.” She pointed.

Morgan groaned. “Seriously? I’m not sure what’s going on here. I mean, why would we be sent somewhere else that’s obviously so much shittier than the resort we were at? I thought our digs were supposed to keep getting better and better and better until someone won the show, and we all got sent home. Isn’t that the perk of being on TV?”

“I guess we just have to look on the bright side.” She smiled.

Since there was nowhere to unpack—the cabin came completely unfurnished, not counting the two beds and one tiny cabinet filled with dirty rags—she decided to explore their surroundings. Their cabin was the closest one to the open-air dining area.

She peeked inside the main building. It held a small reception desk; a lobby area that consisted of two chairs, a coffee table, and an ancient coffee pot; and a galley kitchen that looked more like the kitchen at her school cafeteria than somewhere a five-star gourmet chef would work. She could only imagine what dinner was going to be like.

Behind the dining area was the ocean. Even though she couldn’t have pictured a worse campsite to spend the next few weeks at, the scene was still breathtaking. The campsite sat on top of a hill that overlooked the deep green tree cover of the jungle below. Just beyond the jungle was white sand, clear blue water, and countless palm trees.

Brinkley started to calm down. She didn’t know what it was about looking at a horizon that was perfect enough to put on a postcard, but it suddenly put everything in perspective.