Page 23 of The Love Dare
This can’t be happening.
But it is. Bile coats the back of her throat as she searches his smile for a crack, a falter, any hint that he’s somehow being held ransom by the Mafia and forced to go on this show, that somewhere off-screen there’s a metaphorical gun being aimed at his head—or a literal one.
She finds nothing.
Which means he did this by choice. He wants to be there. He wants to find a wife. And he’d rather go looking for one on a reality television show than hop on a plane to New York and knock on her door.
And now I have to watch it.
Okay. She doesn’thaveto watch it. But of course she will. How can she not? It’ll be slow torture, yes. There will be many, many pints of ice cream, ugly tears, and completely undeservedfuck yousinvolved, but still. She’s only human. And even if by some herculean force of will she’s able to keep herself from sneaking out of her room at four in the morning to secretly binge the episodes she knows Sam tapes on the DVR, the news will be unavoidable. His picture will be plastered on every rag across the country, and she passes five bodegas every morning on her way to work. The town crier might as well be holding a bullhorn to her ear!
And, oh, dear lord, her mother.
Yetta loves that boy with all of her heart. He’s like a second son. She’ll be watching—and commenting. Oh, the commenting. Every phone call for the three months Tyler is on the show will be a play-by-play of every date, every kiss, every moment. Postgame analysis with Alexandru Rusu has absolutely nothing on Yetta Rusu’s ability to gossip.
I’m doomed.
There’s no way around it. Tylerisgoing on this show. And Winniewilldevour every minute of it from the sidelines whether she wants to or not.
Something rattles loudly against the floor.
My phone.
Winnie follows the sound and lunges at the sight of the caller ID. “Sam?”
“You’re already panicking.” Her roommate sighs, never one to hide her true opinions. “I knew it.”
“I am not.”
“The very subtle shriek to your voice says differently.”
“I’m just excited for you. And your cowboy. You’re engaged! Yay!”
“I was engaged before I left for LA. You’ve seen the ring. You tried it on. Don’t change the subject.”
“What subject? There’s no subject.”
Sam snorts. “Oh, how the turntables.”
“Don’t haughtily quoteThe Officeat me, madam.”
“I’m sorry. Do you or do you not remember when I called you in my hour of need, freaking out about my illicit attraction to a completely off-limits cowboy, and your response was,Sleep with him.”
“I vaguely remember saying something along those lines…”
“Actually, I believe the exact quote was,Sleep with him right now or I will never forgive you.”
Winnie rolls her eyes. “You needed a kick in the ass.”
“And so do you.”
“These situations are not the same.Youwere falling for a totally available and freakishly hot cowboy, and it would have been stupid to let a little thing like you being a complete idiot get in the way of that.Iam head over heels in love with my brother’s best friend and he doesn’t even know I exist. Added bonus—he’s a multimillionaire professional hockey player who can get literally any girl in the world he wants despite the three broken noses. Or maybe because of them. Your happy ending was a matter of semantics. Mine is just…” Winnie groans. “Never going to happen.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Well, it’s a lot less freaking likely now that he’s about to date thirty ridiculously attractive women on a show that almost always ends in a proposal.”
“Exactly.”
