The curtain. “Am I going on stage?”
The kid brought a finger to his lips. “They’re going to turn your mic on any second. And yes, you are. Marsha’s hosting the pre-show. She’ll be interviewing you live. Good luck.”
Interviewing him? On live TV? Panic turned to elation as he realized what that meant. He would get to publicly defend Ivy. In a much bigger way than he’d imagined.
At once, he swung back the curtain, giving Easton his very first glimpse of a live studio audience. Hopefully it would also be his last.
“Go on,” whispered the assistant.
Easton stepped onto the stage and glanced to a set of designer lounge chairs surrounding a coffee table. He scanned the area, saw that Ivy wasn’t there, and felt his shoulders drop in disappointment.
“Come on over,” Marsha coaxed from a high back chair. She stood and motioned to the chair closest to her, each slightly angled toward the audience.
He took a seat as the crowd cheered, then cast a glance over the filled rows. Please say Ivy was there somewhere.
“In less than thirty minutes,” Marsha said, eyes set on the camera ahead, “we’ll meet the men who are entering the mansion to pursue our five lovely bachelorettes. We’ll also meet those bachelorettes and learn—without the guys around—just what they’re hoping to find in a man.
“But first, in this special episode, our pre-show to Looking For Love, I’ll be playing the part of your host while I interview one particular hopeful who caught my attention. One who,” she said, waving a hand in Easton’s direction, “caught more than mere attention when he stormed onto the scene. He caught a piece of my very own assistant’s heart.”
Easton felt like his eyes might pop out of his head at her statement. The audience oohed and ahhed.
“Go ahead, Easton,” she urged. “Tell America about how the two of you met.”
The contract he’d signed in the green room came to mind. The parts highlighted in yellow stated that he’d need only cooperate by answering a few simple questions. She must have not highlighted the part that said those questions would be asked in front of an audience on live TV.
Make it good, Easton. He needed to make it clear that Ivy was capable of winning the heart of any man she chose. He was just lucky enough that it was him.
“Well,” he said, recalling their first conversation. “She was coming out to Denver to interview me for the show. I’d, um, lost a bet with my baby sister and, uh…”
“A bet about coming onto the show,” Marsha filled in, looking amused instead of angry. Good thing.
The audience broke into laughter.
“Yes,” he agreed through a laugh of his own. “Knowing she’d land in Denver around the time of a predicted record-breaking blizzard, I warned her that, being close to the holiday as it was, she may end up getting snowed in for Christmas with me. I told her not to fear too much. If that happened, I’d find a way to keep her nice and warm.”
An insinuative whistle sounded from the audience, and the crowd broke into laughter once more.
“Who knew,” he continued, “that that prediction would come true?”
That one got the crowd really going wild. Easton took the moment to scan over the crowd once more.
Marsha took over. “Let me brag for a moment about what a devoted assistant I have,” she said, her gaze turned to the camera. “I’ll set the scene. A blizzard is coming. The cab driver tells her no, that he can’t drive her up the canyon to Easton’s location, which is the nature-focused rehab center he runs for young adults. There’s a number on your screen in case you’d like to donate to that organization, by the way,” Marsha added slyly. “So Ivy rents an SUV instead.” Marsha turned to Easton then. “You were spending the week at the center preparing the huts—”
“Yurts,” he said with a nod.
“Yurts, for the winter program. These things have a stable roof, a door, and quite high ceilings from what I hear.”
“That’s right,” he agreed. “Ours also have their own fireplace and venting system.”
Marsha grinned. “How cozy.”
The audience whooped once again.
“I tell you,” Marsha said, “if there’s one thing I enjoy, it’s a good love story. And though Easton was only keeping his word—he’d promised that he would interview for the Looking For Love show—this bachelor found love outside of the mansion first.”
Cat calls and cheers lifted over the crowd.
Easton shifted in his seat.
“We’ll hear more about their story after