Page 83 of All the Drama from New York

From out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a guy holding a handy cam. Where had he come from? The camera was pointed in Ryan and Kaylee’s direction. But why were they filming?

Derick let out a tired sigh and yelled, “Cut!”

He clapped his hands together and approached Ryan. “I know it’s been four years, but you can’t possibly have forgotten the golden rule. You don’t look at the camera. You should be looking at Kaylee. Making the folks at home get all gooey and emotional over you two star-crossed lovers.”

Kaylee moved forward once more, and attempted to drape her arms around Ryan’s neck. He took a step back and gave a firm. “No.”

She turned to Derick. “You have to make this work, or I’ll walk. I’m not being humiliated on national television because you can’t get the stiff to fall in love with me.”

Ryan blinked. The stiff? And who was meant to be falling in love? “What?”

Derick put an arm around Kaylee and dropped a kiss on the top of her immaculately coiffured hair. “Don’t worry sweetheart. We’ll get this all sorted by the time we start shooting properly. How about you take a break, and I’ll talk to Ryan.”

Kaylee shot Ryan a haughty glare then turned on her heel and disappeared back into the bedroom. Ryan was still staring at the now closed door, when Derick approached. “You’re going to have to work a lot harder on that love struck look. The viewers aren’t going to buy it otherwise.”

I’m missing something.

“Why is Kaylee here? I thought this was meant to be a show about me searching for love. I don’t understand.”

The bachelorette fromBachelors on the Beachwas here in New York and clearly under the impression that she and Ryan were going to be a thing.

They can’t be serious.

One look at the showrunner’s face told him they darn well were. Derick patted him firmly on the back, then spoke in a voice which dripped with barely restrained fury. “How about you be a good boy Ryan and call your agent in LA. He can walk you through what we have agreed. If you don’t want me setting the network lawyers on you, you’ll be back here later in the week, bright and fresh, and ready to shoot the reunion scene.”

Teeth gritted so tightly that his jaw ached, Ryan headed for the door. He was tempted to call his agent right away, but the past few weeks had taught him to wait until he was somewhere private before attempting to have that sort of conversation.

The second he got home, Ryan called his agent. He quickly regretted it. In a day of bad news, what Lee had to say only compounded things.

“I was wondering when you’d ring. I’ve just finished a call with Derick Stad. He’s not a happy man. Said you were being difficult this morning.”

“No, just sticking to the letter of the contract. Like everybody else.”

Ryan could just imagine Lee staring daggers at him down the phone all the way from LA. “Ok, that’s your career funeral. But Derick wants it made clear, they’ve decided to take the show in a new direction. They’re calling itRyan and Kaylee: A second chanceat Love. And when filming starts later this week, you’d better be on board.”

He’d just hung up the call when Camille appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.

His day wasn’t going all that great, but she looked totally beat. Exhaustion lined her face.

“Hey,” he said, drawing her into his arms. She rested her head against his chest and sighed. “I got the sample of the yellow cab dress for the show finalized—well most of it. I was going todo some more work on the jacket, but I can barely move. I think I might just go take a quick nap.”

It was eleven o’clock in the morning. Ryan put a hand to her forehead, but it was cool. Whatever she was coming down with didn’t cause a fever.

“How did your meeting with the show people go?” she asked.

Camille was sick, but he couldn’t lie to her. They had agreed to be honest with one another.

“Terrible. They’ve decided they want to make it a second chance romance series. They’ve cast Kaylee in the show, and now expect me to fall in love with her all over again. Sparks and love hearts in my eyes. All that crap,” he huffed.

“Love isn’t crap,” she whispered. At hearing her words, Ryan’s chest tightened. Soon. Soon he was going to have to tell her how he truly felt. How he had fallen deeply in love with her. How she was the only woman he wanted in his life.

He didn’t want to throw‘I love you’into the mix right now. Not when Camille had so much on her plate. She wasn’t well, and she was still trying to get the final pieces of her fashion show ready.

Telling her he loved her, heaping that sort of pressure on. It wasn’t fair.

And what if she didn’t feel the same way he did?

That could make the next few weeks impossible for both of us. Not to mention awkward as…

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