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A ripple of amusement ran through the audience, catching on.
“Yes, and handsome, too,” I said, pasting on a big smile.
In the front row I saw Sierra, who waved. Beside her was Georgia and Mac, who had Andy in his lap. Then there was Mallory, Bridget, Lindy and baby Jillian, Eve, and the four James brothers. Plus, Nathan, the lawyer who’d been with Theo, on the very end. I didn’t see the FBI guy, but I knew he was out there.
This reminded me of being on stage for a ballet performance. The audience expected something from me, and I had to deliver. But I wasn’t in a tutu, and I had three men vying for me.
I wouldn’t have expected this, not in a million years. Why had I agreed to do this? Right, Georgia was desperate, Mallory was an insane friend, and they were paying me a lot of money.
“You’re in for a treat then,” Jax added. “I’ve seen the bachelors, and all three are a catch.”
He didn’t ask a question, so I wasn’t sure what to say. So I said nothing.
“But first, let’s tell the viewers about you.” He pulled a little card from the inside pocket of his jacket. “Aspen is thirty, a single mom, a yoga instructor, and… well, this is impressive.” He glanced at me. “It says here you were a ballet prodigy. The youngest dancer to be promoted to soloist at the…” He glanced back at the card and named the Spanish company. “Ever.”
How did he know that? I peeked at Georgia, who put her finger under her chin and pretended to lift it up, then gave me a huge pageant smile.
Right. SMILE.
I did.
Then I glanced at Mallory, who had to have been the one to spill the beans about my background and Georgia to add it to the host’s card. They were proud of me for what I’d accomplished. They wanted it out there for everyone to hear about, not keeping it a secret that I did it in hiding in my studio.
“Yes, that’s right,” I said.
“In fact, here’s a clip of one of her performances.” He looked to me and whispered, “Very impressive. We have fifteen seconds. Take a deep breath. Good, one more. Smile and have fun with the guys. You don’t have to marry any of them.”
I met his gaze, and I nodded.
He must’ve gotten some kind of signal because his smile was back, and he looked at one of the cameras again. “Incredible, right? This beautiful small town has amazing talent.”
The audience clapped and Sierra let out a super loud “whoop, whoop!” and a “that’s my mom!” which had me laughing, and relaxing.
“Here’s how this game works, everyone. Aspen, our lovely bachelorette, has a series of questions she will pose to each bachelor to get to know them. Then she will make her choice, hopefully, a cowboy who might be The One.”
He looked over his shoulder at me. “Ready to hear about the bachelor cowboys?”
“Sure am!” I said, with so much more enthusiasm than I felt.
The bachelors must’ve come out because the audience’s gaze was on the other side of the stage and they were clapping. Then they clapped even louder and were whispering to each other.
“Sounds like the audience likes the bachelors,” Jax said, cutting across the very front of the stage and disappearing around the hay bales so I couldn’t see him any longer.
“Well, yes, folks. I see now why everyone’s so excited. I can’t say more because our lovely bachelorette needs to pick her favorite cowboy blind.”
I looked to Mallory for any kind of guidance. She looked a little freaked, but she was smiling and holding Theo’s hand, who was frowning, but he always frowned. Georgia was smiling, too. It wasn’t as if the FBI guy was one of the contestants waiting to arrest me.
Right?
“Bachelor number one, please introduce yourself to Aspen,” Jax said.
“Hey, Aspen, I’m Brayden. I run a ranch out by Billings and I’ve got some beef to show you, and I don’t mean my herd of cattle.”
The audience clapped and laughed. I blushed at how inappropriate that was but caught on to what Jax meant by have fun with it.
“Bachelor number two, please introduce yourself to Aspen,” Jax repeated.
“Aspen, hello. I’m Clay and I’m a champion bronc rider. I hope you like it when a guy breaks a filly in.”
