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She burst out laughing, “It went awesome! Pierre and I are in the final. It’s going to be an East Coast win either way.”
He stood up and hugged her tight. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m proud of myself. Destiny got cocky. I think she had so much jealousy in her head and nastiness it clouded her judgment and ruined her mojo.”
“Her mojo?” he asked.
She let out a sigh and sat on his lap when he returned to his chair. She’d never done this before and wasn’t sure why she did it now, but it felt right to be held by this big strong man.
“Yeah,” she said. “She started the day out talking about what her husband overheard at the beach yesterday. About the way one of the women ended up here. Since it was just the two of us, it had to be her or me. I’m guessing it was talk about me.”
“I heard some talk too,” he said.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“No reason to distract you. I had no idea her husband was there or who he was. It’s not like I’ve seen anyone other than you and the other contestants from a distance.”
“True,” she said. “Fill me in on what you heard because then her husband went back to do a check on Pierre and me and she found out who my family is.”
He kissed her on the neck and squeezed her. “I don’t think it was meant to be a secret.”
“No,” she said. “I just hoped it wouldn’t come out until after the filming. I guess not having that last name helped me until this point.”
“It’s not hard to find out who your family is,” he said.
“No, but Bond is a common enough last name. Tell me what you heard.”
“Not much other than one of the workers was a little snotty about saying someone didn’t belong or that they only got invited for a certain reason. It’s not like she said the reason.”
“But you and I both know that reason was probably the proposal for a reality show on the island.”
“You’re guessing,” he said. “Maybe Bravo had an idea no one knows about and this is the lead-in. Could be the winner or any of the contestants could inspire them to do a spin-off show.”
Her head went back and forth. “You’ve got a point there too.”
“That’s right,” he said. “So don’t focus on it. You deserve to be here just as much as them.”
“I know, but then I got thinking maybe I’m being given a pass to get to the end. For TV or something if they are trying to get media attention for another show.”
“Don’t do that to yourself,” he said. “Where is that confident person I always knew you to be? It’s too late for you to be playing mind games with yourself on this. Whatever the reasons are that you’re here, they are. All you can do is go out and do your best. It’s not like it’s been easy sailing for you.”
“No,” she said. “I won one competition, was in the bottom for two. I almost went home on one and got lucky. The rest of them I was in the upper section of contestants, but still, not like a shining star.”
“You’re shining now,” he said. “You’ll always shine to me. I hope you aren’t thinking you’re getting a pass because of your name.”
It had started to cross her mind and she hated that happened too.
Destiny did get into her brain and she had to shove those thoughts out with a big rig and just focus on her menu for the competition.
“I’m trying not to do that again, but it happens more than I care for.”
“Then let me take your mind off of it. You’ve got the rest of the day and night. What do you want to do, or do you have to prep for tomorrow?”
“They told us what the competition is. We’ve got to prepare a three-course meal for fifty people. Two smaller dishes and a main.”
“Fifty plates?” he asked. “You’ve got to do it all by yourself?”
“I do,” she said. “So that takes planning. If I sit here and spend the whole time stressing it’s not going to help me. I want to shut it off for a few hours and things will come to me. I have an idea but want to let it float around some.” She picked the remote up to shut the TV off and saw some crime show playing, a helicopter flying in with a SWAT officer on the side getting ready to take aim. “Whoa, did you do those things?”
