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Sheridan smiles at me, pushing away the sadness with a wiggle of her brows. “Well, at least you know he’s a good kisser.”
At that, Reese’s head snaps our way. “How do you know he’s a good kisser?”
“Didn’t your momma tell you? She made out with him a few nights ago,” Sheridan tells her, laughing.
“Mom! You made out with him?”
“Sher!” I warn, pinching her.
“Figured as much,” Liz says without looking up.
“No more wine for you,” I say to Sheridan, trying to snatch the cup from her hands.
“It’s not wine. It’s… Okay, it is. Here.” She hands it to me. “My mother always told me that when you get old wine becomes a necessity.”
Shaking my head, I say, “You’re not old, Sher.”
“Tell that to my ovaries,” Sheridan says sadly, then snatches the remote out of my hands and hits play. “This is exactly why I need to watch this.”
On the screen, I can see Dean walk up to me, looking amused as he looks down. The camera focuses on me as I stand up clumsily.
I cover my face with a throw pillow, wishing I could have covered the screen instead.
“All those people saw me. The entire town! The country!” I cry.
“It wasn’t that bad, Mom.” Reese says and goes back to her work.
“You don’t sound very convinced,” I tell her.
“It’s entertainment,” Liz says. “People eat that shit up. You’ll probably be famous fifteen minutes longer.”
“I’m so embarrassed. And all of this could have been avoided if he’d just told me who he was.”
“Well at least now you know,” Sher says encouragingly.
“You do know who he is, don’t you?” Liz asks, looking at me over her designer readers.
“He’s Dean Cooper, one of the contestants,” I answer.
“Yes, but I mean, you know where he comes from, right?” Liz asks again.
“Uh… Orlando?”
“His family owns Coreland Enterprise, one of the largest land developers in southwest and southeast Florida.”
“How do you know this?” I ask.
“I just googled him.” She raises her iPhone to me. Sure enough, I can see a little picture of the company’s name.
“So he’s some rich kid?” I ask, pursing my lips.
Liz’s brows raise high on her forehead. “You’re a rich kid.”
“Correction, I was a rich kid. I’ve had to fight tooth and nail for this opportunity, and he’s probably just had it handed to him. It makes sense,” I say, frowning, my brain working out the possibilities. “He’s only twenty-nine. What twenty-nine-year-old has their shit together enough to run a business?” Both Liz and Reese stare at me with equal looks of incredulity. “I bet his parents gave him the money, too.”
“And look, his birthday is the day after ours,” Liz adds.
“What about the other two contestants?” Sher asks Liz. “What do you have on them?”
Liz gives her whatever information she can find on Jose and Meg, but I’m not listening. Instead I’m thinking of Dean and his easy life.
Sheridan is so engrossed in her conversation with Liz that she doesn’t care when I pull the remote out of her hand and press pause. The broadcast stops just as Dean and I start to follow Julie down the hall that leads to her office. I’m looking back at Dean with annoyance on my face, and he’s smiling adoringly back at me.
I chew my lower lip as I study the scene. “It would never work.”
As much as he makes my insides twist and my knees go weak, even now just looking at him, we are from two very different worlds. I know opposites attract, but we aren’t even in the same decade. Literally. I will go into my forties a day before he goes into his thirties.
Taking a sip of Sher’s wine, I shake my head, feeling suddenly sad, and I don’t know why.
