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CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
Day Twenty-Thirty
Archer
“You’re all set,”the doctor told Lauren with a smile.
I put up a hand, objecting for the fourth time. “It’s only been forty-eight hours. She was in really bad shape when she came in here. I think it’s too soon for her to be released.”
The doctor gave me an indulgent look. “She’s continuing with antibiotics, and if she has any problems she should return to the emergency department. But she’s progressed a lot and she doesn’t need to be here.”
“Thank you for everything,” Lauren said.
The doctor put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re very welcome. You’re lucky to have a husband who cares so much for you. A nurse will be in soon with a wheelchair to walk you out.”
Lauren and I exchanged a look as the doctor left the room, adding tension to our already awkward situation. Just great.
“So we’re going to the resort?” Lauren asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“Yep. Nadia said a car is waiting outside to take us there.”
“So no money, but at least we can eat bread again,” she cracked. “I’ll be eating it by the loaf, not the slice.”
“You need to eat and rest up.”
She smiled. “Trust me, this place is made for eating and resting. I assume we’re going to the same resort we were at before the show started filming?”
“That’s the one. And you already know this, but we’re not allowed to say anything to anyone about when or how we left the competition. Not even to the other contestants at the resort.”
A nurse came into the room with a wheelchair, and I helped Lauren get situated. As promised, when we got downstairs there was a black SUV with a driver waiting to drive us to the resort.
“Do you feel okay?” I asked as the driver pulled out of the hospital parking lot.
She gave me a reassuring look. “I feel good. I promise to be honest about whether I’m sick for the rest of our time here.”
I nodded and looked out the window. She’d given me the silent treatment for a few hours after I told her about my almost-proposal almost eight years ago. And since then, she’d kept our conversations light and impersonal. We talked about the weather, the hospital food, and the lame TV shows we watched in her room.
What more was there to say about that fall day I’d planned to propose but changed my mind? If I’d known she would say yes, of course I would have done it. I’d already had regrets. Now they were magnified by her disappointment in me.
It was a fifteen-minute drive to the resort, and when we pulled in I realized the producers had shelled out for a much nicer resort for the women than where the men had stayed prior to the start of the show. This place had manicured tropical gardens, fountains, and a two-story lobby with a teak-planked ceiling.
“Lauren,” Nadia said, running over to hug her as soon as we stepped into the lobby. “I’m so glad to see you back on your feet again. You’ll spend the next two days here while we wrap up filming, but if you’re not up for traveling back home then, we’d be glad to extend your stay.”
Lauren thanked her while I glowered. Of course they were willing to pay for a few more nights here—they’d fucked up. Lauren and Linda never should have been left in that jungle alone. I hoped Linda would sue the shit out of her employer over what had happened to her. I’d gone with Lauren when her bed had been wheeled into Linda’s room so they could see each other and Linda had told us she’d have a long road to recovery ahead of her with her leg. Surgeries, rehab, and she might never be able to walk as well as she had before.
I was over Exiled and everyone affiliated with it. The show’s only premise was an exploitation of our past pain, and Lauren had gotten seriously ill and badly injured. We were obligated to do publicity for the show, but I planned to do as little as possible.
“I’ll show you to your rooms,” a resort hostess told Lauren and me.
Our rooms were on the resort’s second floor, right across the hall from each other. As soon as the hostess opened Lauren’s room and she walked inside, it hit me that we’d be spending tonight apart for the first time in twenty-eight days.
Four weeks of sleeping beside her every night, with the exception of the night she’d had to spend at Maks’s camp and the night she’d spent at the bottom of the ravine while I’d searched for her. And now it was over.
I went into my room, dropped my key card on a table and flopped onto the bed face first, hoping to get the first decent night’s sleep I’d had since before our final competition.
* * *
When I wokeup a few hours later, it was because someone was knocking on my door. I got up, walked over to the door and opened it.
Lauren was standing there, looking stunning in a white sleeveless dress that showed off her tan, her hair up and her makeup perfectly done.
“Were you asleep?” she asked me. “I didn’t mean to wake you up, but I wanted to see if you’re going to the luau.”
“Luau?”
The producers asked the resort to throw a luau for us tonight, to make up for the one we didn’t get after the competition.
“This isn’t Hawaii,” I said, still feeling surly about how everything went down.
“No, but I’m going anyway. Do you want to come with me?”
I sure as hell wasn’t letting her go alone looking like that. She’d have guys trying to persuade her to come back to their rooms all night long.
“Can I take a five-minute shower?” I asked.
“Sure. Nadia left this for you.” She picked up a bag from the floor outside the door. “Clean clothes.”
I let her into the room to wait for me, and while it was nice to get a shower and put on clean clothes, I wasn’t wearing anything I would have chosen for myself.
“A Hawaiian shirt?” Lauren laughed when she saw me.
“I considered putting my dirty clothes back on instead, but to be honest, they’re rank,” I said wryly.
“You look great,” she said. “Did you decide to keep the beard?”
I shook my head. “I just haven’t had any time to shave it, but I will.”
When we arrived at the oceanfront luau, many of the contestants who had already been eliminated from the show were already there. There were two different camps—those who were having friendly conversations with their exes, and those who were staying as far away from their exes as possible. There was a cluster of hockey players at the bar and a group of women sitting on chairs around a fire, everyone with a drink in hand.
“This is nice,” Lauren said, smiling.
It was nice to see her happy and feeling good, but tonight would be another evening we passed making small talk about things that didn’t really matter. I’d driven a wedge between us by telling her about my almost proposal.
“Lauren!”
Mariah, one of the women who had been eliminated from the show early on, was waving Lauren over to the women-only group.
“I’m just going to go say hi,” she said.
“Want me to get you a drink?”
She nodded. “Sure, thanks. A margarita or a piña colada if they have them.”
When I approached the bar, the group of players there greeted me.
“Archer Holt,” Tyler McGann said. “My money was on you to win, bro.”
“Life’s better here,” Carter Lynch said with a grin. “We spend our days at the pool or the beach, drinking and acting as the welcoming committee for all the single women at the resort.”
I put on my game face and made the rounds, shaking hands, shooting the shit, and doing a shot of whiskey with them. But when I ordered a Corona and a margarita, Carter rolled his eyes.
“She’s your ex for a reason, man. Focus on all the women here who don’t have baggage.”
I shot him a glare. It wasn’t worth arguing about, but he didn’t know shit about me or what I wanted.
“See you guys,” I said, grabbing the drinks and waving at them.
As I approached the group of women Lauren was with, Irina gave me a coy smile. Fucking viper, that one. I ignored her.
When I passed Lauren the drink, she said, “Oh, thank you,” and immediately took a sip.
“Guys, this is Archer,” she said, going around the circle of women and telling me all their names.
Everyone was quiet after that. It was obvious I’d broken the only rule this gathering had—chicks only.
“I’m gonna go grab some food,” I said, gesturing toward the massive table of appetizers set up under an outdoor gazebo.
“I’ll come with you,” Lauren said, standing up. “I’m starving.”
We loaded up little plates with shrimp skewers, grilled pineapple, cheese, meats, and tiny sandwiches. Once we were seated at a table, I cut through the superficial fog that had descended on us.
“We need to talk about what I told you the other day at the hospital.”
Lauren sighed softly. “What more is there to say?”
