Page 28 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

Stefan had come up with the most boring list of challenges ever.

She turned from the list she’d just transcribed from the text he’d sent to her phone and turned back to her co-workers. From Lucy’s expression she could tell she wasn’t the only one realizing they were in trouble.

“A pull-up competition to see who can do the most chin-ups? A push-up competition. Running race. Timed swimming.” Lucy shook her head. “I’m not seeing anything that is going to grab ratings.”

“I know,” Shelly agreed.

“He even managed to make a parachuting episode sound boring. Whichever person floats and lands closest to the big X on the ground wins? That’s not exactly riveting competition,” Lucy pointed out.

“Yeah.” Jonas nodded. “Aside from the fact we could put all the girls in bikinis for the competitions on the beach, it is pretty lackluster as far as challenges go.”

Shelly scowled at him. “Hey. No bikinis on the girls since I’m going to be one of them.

He cringed. “Sorry. I forgot.”

She wished she could forget. It turned out, she couldn’t no matter how hard she tried. Now, her only hope was to make sure the show didn’t flop. The only thing more embarrassing than being in this show that was her idea would be if it was a failure.

“Bikinis or no bikinis, can we—"

“No bikinis,” Shelly reiterated, cutting Lucy off mid-sentence.

Lucy nodded, then continued, “Can we please at least start calling themwomeninstead of girls?”

“Women,” Jonas repeated. “I agree. Sorry.”

Shelly expelled a lungful of air. Being referred to as agirlwas the least of her problems right now. This show was going to be a complete and utter flop. Career ending unless they did something to make it work.

She decided her cohorts in this brainstorming session needed a reminder of that fact. “We won’t be calling the women anything if we present this list of challenges. We’ll be canceled before we even air.”

“So let’s change it up. Our job is to make it more exciting. Right?” Jonas glanced from one to the other.

Shelly turned to the newbie, so full of hope and enthusiasm. She gave him a year, two maximum, before this job beat him into the ground and robbed him of his dreams like it was so rapidly doing to her.

“I’m open to suggestions,” she told him.

“I do have one idea,” he said, suddenly shy.

“No idea is a bad idea at this point.” Lucy stood and moved to the third white board, pristine and waiting for their great ideas.

Jonas leaned forward with his forearms braced on his knees and said, “What if the girls—women, sorry—are the only ones who compete? The SEALs act as coaches and trainers, but they don’t actually do the challenges. Only their teammates do.”

Lucy nodded. “So the SEALs will still be competitive because, of course, they want their team to win, but there will be the added frustration factor because even as skilled and trained as the guys are, the only thing that counts is how good they can make their teammate. They’ll be forced to sit on the sidelines while their partners represent them. Ilikeit.” Lucy’s gaze shot to Shelly. “What do you think?”

She hated to admit it, but she would have liked the idea too,ifshe weren’t one of those who was going to have to compete.

All she could envision was Stefan, the fastest SEAL on the beach, yelling at her to be faster, do better, for all the episodes. At least, that was all she could think about until she did a mental review of some of the challenges they would plan. The challenges she would now have to perform alone.

Her heart pounding at even the thought of parachuting, she decided she’d better work on getting rid of the idea for that deadly episode immediately.

“Shell. What do you think?” Lucy asked when she remained silent.

Shelly sighed and finally admitted, “It’s a great idea.”

And it would be good for the show. Sometimes that was all that mattered.

Jonas broke into a wide grin as Lucy wrote the idea on the board and they were on their way.

“Now to liven up some of these competitions,” Lucy began. “What about all that stuff we’ve seen pictures of them doing during Hell Week? Carrying logs over their heads. Carrying boats over their head. There seems to be a lot of carrying.”

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