Page 75 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

Shelly’s eyes widened at the personal revelation from the ice queen herself.

That confession explained why Joanne had gone missing for the last few days of filming. That she’d missed the parachuting, the obstacle course challenge and the finale had been a mystery until now.

She must have been spending every moment she could with her SEAL beau before he left. Shelly couldn’t help feeling envious of that time she hadn’t gotten with Stefan.

Even so, she could appreciate how the other woman felt. “I’m sorry,” she said, in commiseration.

Joanne visibly straightened. “Comes with the territory. Do you have the website numbers forUnder Pressure?”

Back to business. Crisis averted.

Now all she had to do was avoid falling into the Stefan-sized hole that appeared in her life when he’d left.

That and make this show a success, otherwise she would lose her job for pitching Joanne a flop. Then she’d have no career and no man.

Sure. Easy. One hit show, coming up.

“Here you go,” she said while handing the papers Jonas had just delivered to Joanne.

“How are they?” she asked.

That Shelly hadn’t even gotten a chance to look at them yet didn’t matter to Joanne. The woman wanted answers, not excuses.

Going on faith and the fact that when she’d texted Lucy asking about the website she’d gotten a thumbs up emoji back, Shelly smiled and said, “Numbers are good.”

Joanne nodded, still looking down at the pages in her hand, which Shelly hoped supported her assessment. Wishing her boss would go, Shelly sat quietly and waited, until Joanne raised her gaze.

“I want you to start thinking about more show ideas.”

Shelly’s eyes widened. “Oh. Okay. I will. Thank—”

Joanne had already turned and was headed toward her own office before Shelly could finish.

More show ideas. And ifUnder Pressureended up being a hit, that would be the standard to which any new ideas would be compared. Anything she came up with had to be great.

She blew out a big breath and sagged against her desk chair as she could almost hear Stefan quoting that SEAL motto.

ChapterThirty

The ratings were amazing. They had risen steadily since the premiere of the first episode. TheUnder Pressurewebsite almost crashed after the airing of the swim challenge because so many people were on Stefan’s page trying to leave comments.

He was a star. A hero. The show was a hit. Joanne was happy. The network was thrilled.

So why was Shelly so miserable?

Maybe because it had been a month—four fucking weeks—since she’d thrown that challenge and said goodbye to Stefan.

What did that mean? Was he still gone? Was he home and ghosting her?

Had it been a fling? A one-night stand that was never meant to last?

She thought back to the last time she’d seen him. He’d been in a rush to get back to base and to his team.

They’d been surrounded by cast and crew so she couldn’t even kiss him goodbye.

But before he drove away, he had promised to call. Was it just one of those things people said whether they meant it or not? She’d thought he’d meant it, but weeks had passed since then and she’d felt every damn day of it to her soul.

His adoring fans didn’t miss him. They didn’t even know he was gone.

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