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She went on to explain the game. The object was to show the name of the person who most closely resembled whatever was asked. To get a point, they both had to show the same name.
“Okay, here we go. This person will kill all the spiders in your house.”
Sawyer had no idea how Piper felt about spiders, but he had lived with a sister who once duct-taped the bathroom door closed because she had seen one in there and no one else was home. He raised the paddle with his name showing. Leaning forward, he could see Piper had done the same.
“Oh, one point! Good job. Who is likely to steal all the covers at night?”
Sawyer lifted the side with Piper’s name on it for the laugh.
“He’s always complaining he’s hot, so it has to be me,” Piper said.
“He’s hot, all right,” Whitney added with a wink. “Two points. Who’s the better driver?”
Sawyer raised his name and felt the need to explain. “She never drives herself anywhere. I bet she doesn’t even have a license.”
Glancing at Piper’s sign, they matched again. Piper cringed. “I don’t. I never got it,” she admitted with a shrug.
“Seriously?” Whitney shook her head and flipped to the next question. “Oh, I love this game. This one could get ugly. Who…is the better singer?”
Sawyer held up the side with Piper’s name on it. He was nothing if not a gentleman.
“Did you all see how quick she was to raise her own name?” Whitney asked the audience with a laugh.
Sawyer nudged her with his elbow. “Thanks a lot, hon.”
Piper’s face flushed. “Honestly, I’m just trying to win, and I knew you would pick me.”
“Aw, so sweet. You two are proving that you know quite a bit about each other. Let’s see if you can get a perfect score. Last question. Get this right and you win. This one is almost too easy. I’ll forgive my writers since they had to throw these questions together last minute.” Sawyer relaxed, thankful for a simple one. “Who said ‘I love you’ first?”
Sawyer hesitated. If they were a real couple, this would have been the easiest question. Only, they had never said those words to one another. Sawyer had never said them to any woman. He held up his sign, hoping they had both picked the same sign.
Leaning forward, he saw Piper had chosen herself. He had picked himself. His stomach dropped.
“Okay, hold on a second. One of you forgot who said ‘I love you’ first?”
Piper pretended to hit him with the paddle. He held his hands up to protect himself. Trying to save face, he asked, “Wait, what was the question again? I thought you asked who fell in love first.”
“Who said ‘I love you’ first?” Whitney repeated.
“Oh,” Sawyer said, playing dumb. He turned his paddle around. “She said it first, but I was in love first.”
“I’ll give it to them. Perfect score. You have my blessing to get married,” Whitney said before thanking them for coming on and congratulating them once more on their engagement.
They cut to commercial break and announced they would be filming out of sequence so Piper could be done for the day. She would perform before Whitney’s next guest instead of at the end of the show.
“Good save,” Piper said to Sawyer as they waited for the crew to set up the stage. “I know you were worried, but I think we fumbled through that pretty well.”
“I was worried? You were worried. I could tell. You fidget with your jewelry when you’re nervous.”
Piper tilted her head. “I do?”
Sawyer nodded. “I’m very observant. I guess I know you better than we thought.”
A stagehand came over and handed Piper a microphone. Sawyer told her to break a leg and headed backstage, where he watched her perform on the monitors. She really was the better singer.
Piper was a lot of things—beautiful, talented, funny, generous. He hadn’t been lying when he said any guy would fall head over heels for her. Someone would fall for her and sweep her off her feet in the process. Some guy would tell her he loved her and marry her for real, without any hesitation. For some reason, that was as troublesome to him as the fact that this same man would also be another father to Sawyer’s child.
