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A totally different rumble from the one when he was with his family emitted from him. Something was definitely off.
I’d hoped to impress him with a completely different set of skills tonight, but something told me that I’d have to lay it all on the line to make it back to that stage.
“You’d talked about bringing your pack here if you could find a place up in the mountains. Before you did all the research, I thought it might be fun for your pack to try things on for size.” There was a gnawing feeling in the pit of my belly. Even though Bjorn had been thrilled to see his family, I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d done something wrong. Chances were pretty good that this night would end in a way the cameras couldn’t film, and then I could ask him everything. But until I had that chance, I would take all my fairy dragmother’s suggestions. She’d never steer me wrong. “Bibi looked at your file, and you listed your sister as your emergency contact. So I called…wait, is that why you’re mad at me?”
So much for staying cool until we were done filming.
“Why would I be mad at you for that?” Didn’t matter what the bear asked. He was definitely mad about something.
“Because I looked at your personal information… I should have asked your permission first, but we’re gonna be mates, and I wanted to surprise you, and I thought this was a good thing.”
It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission, my mother would always say. I’d always considered it sound advice, but ever since I’d gone in front of the cameras, it had come back to bite me in the ass.
It wouldn’t be enough to commit to Bjorn. I had to commit to being better for him. And that scared me the most.
“It’s a great thing.” He put his arm around me and pulled me against his warm body. “Tell me more.”
“Okay.” I drew a shaky breath, still not convinced things were business as usual. But when were they in reality TV? “At first, they didn’t quite understand what I was asking. They thought I wanted to do a show about them.”
“I’m sure we could find something there,” Bibi interjected. “You must have some packmates who need mates. Maybe we could help them out.”
Bjorn’s lips parted, but then he smiled. “Maybe. I can think of a few of the guys who would love to be in front of the camera.”
“Delightful. You’ll have to give me their names, and after this episode, we could contact them and gauge interest,” Bibi said.
“We can’t put Hannah on hold again. She’ll lose her mind. I’m not convinced she’s not writing some of that dirty fan fiction herself.” I laughed.
“That tracks,” Bjorn said.
“Hannah will be our top priority, especially after Lars saved her life in the mountains. But now I have two top-notch producers on staff, and I’d like to keep you both out of trouble.” Bibi brought her fingers to her mouth like she’d said something she shouldn’t have.
Something was definitely up. Or I was just completely paranoid. I didn’t know how to deal with things when they went well. My default setting was to expect someone to pull the rug out from under my happy feet.
This was on-the-job training, literally, and I had to roll with it because Stephanie had a camera trained on me. “Once I convinced your family to come, I had them stay in Denver until we were ready to film because I didn’t want the two of you to run into each other in town or word to get out they were here.”
“We made sure they stayed at a luxury resort, and production paid for everything,” Bibi added.
“I only booked one-way tickets. I know they probably can’t stay forever, but things can be so hectic when we’re filming, I wanted to make sure you had a chance to spend time with them. And I wanted to give them a chance to fall in love with Sunset Springs.”
Bjorn nodded, and it grew dark in the van as we drove away from town.
“I was thinking about our mate moon.” My nerves were tap dancing at the mere mention of it, but we had to start thinking of the future. So much of reality TV wasright now. “I wouldn’t mind doing something with your family. It might not seem like the sexiest thing, but I want to get to know them. I want to know what a real family looks like for when we start our own.”
Bjorn kissed my temple. The sensation sent shivers down my spine. “That would be fun. We’ve been on the go for so long that it might be nice to stay still.”
Maybe he was just having a lot of feelings tonight too. I certainly was. His family was nothing like mine. His mom doted on everyone, his dad was a little grumpy but sweet once he warmed up, and I could see myself hanging out with his sister Barbara.
I nudged him. “Speaking of fun things, where are you taking me?”
“It’s a surprise,” he said. His body was doing the good rumbly thing again. Thank the moon.
“You can give me one hint.”
His gaze raked over me. “I got inspiration from one of your favorite shows.”
We’d watched a lot of TV while I was recovering from hypothermia. I thought I’d fallen in love with Bjorn when he saved my life, but it was spending a week cuddled with him in bed, ordering so much takeout from the mercantile, and watching every ridiculous movie we could think of that really sealed the deal. I worried we’d get sick of each other, run out of things to talk about, or not have that much in common withoutThe Mating Game,but I’d told Bibi in my interview before the date that I was a little sorry when Jenny came and cleared me from bedrest with my bear.
“Care to narrow it down?” I asked.
