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He shook his head in disbelief, and when he spoke, his voice was thickly laced with sarcasm. “Oh yeah, ‘cause that just soundshorrible.” Wade rolled his eyes, and his whole head followed. “What about this girl?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged one shoulder, rocking my head side to side. The picture on the screen was of a beautiful red-haired woman with bright blue eyes and freckles covering her cheeks. She was beautiful, and she didn’t look familiar, even if she was listed as from Hazy Cove.
Wade groaned. “Okay, what’s wrong with this one?” At first, he seemed like he was having fun filtering through the list of girlswho said they wanted to be my valentine, but he was quickly growing less interested with each rejected profile.
“She calls herselfadventurous,” I explained, backing out of the screen.
“What’s wrong with being adventurous?” Wade asked, digging through my fridge. When he found what he was looking for, he let the door slam shut behind him before he twisted the top off the bottle of beer he apparently needed to put up with my decisiveness.
I took the beer from his hand and took a long swig of it, earning a glare as Wade reached into the fridge for another. “What does it even mean?”
“I mean,” Wade started, his voice lifting in pitch, “I wouldn’t hate finding out, if you know what I mean.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and I punched him in the arm.
Taking another drink of beer, I closed her picture. “I guess it’s too bad you’re not the one that entered the contest, huh?” I laughed loudly when Wade flipped me off, gulping his beer.
“You’re a dick,” he said, scowling for a moment before his attention was drawn back to the phone in my hand. He was having way too much fun with this.
“I missed this one earlier.” I clicked on a picture of a woman with wavy dark hair and eyes so dark, they were almost black. They were eyes you could get lost in if you weren’t careful—eyes I would’ve been able to recognize anywhere. I didn’t know this woman. “Chelsea Campbell.”
Wade turned the phone towards him without taking it out of my hand. “Misty Point. She’s not from here.”
“I can see that.” I took another drink, not taking my eyes off her picture.
“She’s beautiful,” Wade continued.
I looked at him from the corner of my eye. He looked as transfixed by her photographed stare as I was. “I can see that too.”
“So what are you thinking?” He drank his beer when I scrolled past her picture to her answer.
Controlling.
I chuckled. “She’s a self-described control freak,” I said, holding my bottle out. Wade tapped his against it. “Bring it on.”
Chapter 3
Chelsea
“When this red light turns on, we’ll be live.” James said. “Are you good?”
I looked around the small studio and nodded, opening my notebook and clicking my pen so it was open andready. “Absolutely. Thank you both for being willing to meet with me!”
“No,” Delilah chimed in. “Thankyou.” Delilah and James were known for their morning show on KHZY. I had listened to their show before, and it wasn’t uncommon for them to interview people on air. I hadn’t ever heard ofthembeing interviewed on air, though, so I was flattered when they agreed to it. I swallowed my nerves.I could do this.
“And we’re live in three, two, one.” The producer pointed to James and Delilah, and the red light James had pointed out to me turned on.
“Good morning!” Delilah said in a sing-song voice. “I’m Delilah.”
“I’m James,” he chimed in. “And we’re here this morning with Chelsea, one of our lovely chosen bachelorettes. Let me tell you, folks, she is stunning. It’s no wonder she caught his eye!”
Alarm bells went off in my head, and my heart pounded against my chest. My blood roared against my eardrums, drowning out the sound around me.One of our chosen bachelorettes.
“What did you just say?” I asked, interrupting Delilah when she opened her mouth to speak.
Delilah giggled, sounding a lot less confused when she spoke than she looked when she stared at me. She lifted her brow. “One of our chosen bachelorettes! Tell us, Chelsea. How do you feel about being selected?”
“I’m sorry.” The small room felt smaller, and my vision blurred at the corners. “Selected for what?”
James and Delilah both cocked their heads to the side at the same time—a mirrored action that could only come from working closely for many years. “For the date,” James said, vaguely pointing to the poster behind him that originally announced the contest.
