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  I was sitting in a chair by the fire when Taylor came through the front door and made a beeline towards me. She plopped down in the chair next to me with a huge grin on her face. She had literally just gotten back from her date with Travis, and she looked ready to spill everything.

  “So…” I started, giving her a chance to settle into the chair and kick off her shoes.

  “Oh my goodness Riley, he is so amazing!” she gushed, turning to face me.

  I tried to keep a smile plastered on my face, but seeing her blushed cheeks and her obvious excitement caused my grin to fall a little.

  “Care to spill the details?” I leaned into her, pretending like I really wanted to know, when really my heart felt like it might explode at any moment.

  “It was just a simple date, a stroll around downtown and dinner afterward. But I loved it. We were able to talk, and I got to know Travis so much better. The same with him, I felt like he didn’t even know I existed, and now…” She trailed off with stars in her eyes.

  “Well I’m glad you two know each other now.” I offered, trying to keep the small smile in place.

  She leaned closer to me. “He held my hand,” she whispered.

  Held her hand? What are we twelve?

  “That’s awesome.” I tried to say it with feeling, but I’m pretty sure it came out flat.

  “It was romantic. He held my hand as we walked around and throughout dinner he would reach over and touch my hand.” Taylor had a dreamy look in her eyes, and I kind of wanted to roll mine.

  I know I should be happy for her. And I would be—if she were talking about any other guy than Travis. But the fact that it was indeed with Travis, made me want to throw up. All I could do was give a slight smile and nod.

  “The best part though…” Taylor sighed, “When we got back here, he walked me to the door.” She lightly touched her lips and I wanted to jump out of my seat and claw her eyes out.

  Don’t say it, don’t say it!

  “He gave me the sweetest goodnight kiss,” she whispered to me with a dazzling smile on her face.

  I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. I held the smile on my face though.

  “That’s…great.” I managed to get out.

  “Oh shoot. I’m sorry Riley, I shouldn’t have said all of that. I forgot for a moment we are both here for Travis,” Taylor apologized quickly.

  “No, no, that’s okay. You’re excited. I’d be dying to tell someone too.” I tried to play it off like it was cool. Taylor nodded and smiled at me before diving into more details about their date.

  I didn’t hear a word she said after that. I was trying to calm the jealousy I could feel coursing throughout my body. I knew if I didn’t keep that in check, I would have to punch the poor girl. She didn’t deserve it; after all she doesn’t know who I am, or how Travis and I feel about each other.

  Or maybe it’s how I feel about Travis. Because one would think if he felt the same way, he wouldn’t be kissing other girls, even if it was just a quick peck.

  Taylor had paused in her conversation, so I took that opportunity to yawn loudly.

  “Oh, sorry.” I covered my mouth with my hand. “I guess I’m more tired than I thought. I think I’m going to head up to bed.” I stood up and grabbed the book I was reading before Taylor came home.

  She smiled up at me, “Have a good night.”

  “Night,” I whispered. I quickly made my way to the staircase and ran up to my room.

  Once inside the safety of my room, I fell down on the bed, grabbing my phone out of the side table.

  Me: Why?

  I tossed the phone on the bed next to me while I leaned back into the pillows. I was about to grab my book to start reading again, when my phone buzzed.

  Trav: Riles, it’s not what you think.

  Me: I think Taylor explained it pretty well.

  Trav: Then you would know it was just a dinner date. Nothing more.

  Me: Ha. Just dinner? What about holding hands?

  Trav: What are we 12?!

  I laughed that his comment was exactly what I had thought.

  Trav: I still have to pretend I like these girls.

  Me: DO you like these girls?

  I didn’t really want to know the answer to that, but I had to ask. It felt like forever before my phone buzzed again.

  Trav: Not like I like you…

  Me: What does that mean?!?

  Trav: I don’t know Riles.

  Me: You kissed her Trav.

  No response. I threw the phone on the bed as I got up and grabbed my pajamas and headed to the bathroom. After I was changed into my plaid pajama shorts and a baggy charcoal t-shirt and my face was washed, I headed back into the room. I switched the light off as I walked past and crawled into bed. Turning on the lamp on my bedside table, I pulled the blankets over myself. Just as I got comfortable and opened the book I was reading, my phone buzzed.

  Trav: It wasn’t anything.

  Me: Great. I’ll go find Milo and start making out with him.

  Trav: That is completely different!

  Me: I don’t see how.

  I knew I was getting on his nerves by bring Milo up. He never really cared for the guy I casually saw whenever we were in the state. I never understood why though, since Travis always had a different girl all the time. I at least stuck with one guy.

  Trav: Yeah, because you actually have feelings for him.

  Me: Had feelings, Trav. And you can’t say you don’t have any for Taylor.

  Trav: Fine! I may have feelings for the girls here. But it doesn’t mean anything!

  Me: You kissed her.

  Trav: Riles! It was just a goodnight kiss!

  Me: There is really no such thing.

  Trav: Stop being so jealous.

  Me: I’ll stop being jealous when you stop kissing other girls!

  Trav: I HAVE TO DO IT FOR THE SHOW!!

  Me: Fine! Whatever. You can kiss the other girls whenever you want.

  Trav: …but??

  Me: Kiss the other girls, forget about kissing me.

  I tossed the phone on the pillow next to me, not caring for a response from him. I probably was being overly jealous, but I honestly couldn’t help it. When Taylor said they had kissed, all I saw was red. By no means did I think we were dating, but I would have hoped our fifteen years of friendship would have solidified something between us. Maybe I really was the only one feeling something between us. My phone buzzed next to me and I hesitated to even check it. I waited for a few moments before reaching over and grabbing the phone.

  Trav: But I like kissing you.

  I cracked a tiny smile but didn’t respond back. Instead I put the phone back in the drawer, settled back into my pillows, and opened my book, hoping to take my mind off of this stupid show.

  Trav: Where are you??

  I laughed and jogged up the path to the guest house from the beach. I walked in the back door without knocking and found Travis pacing the kitchen staring at his phone, oblivious to the fact that I was standing behind him.

  “I’m here.”

  Travis jumped, dropped his phone and spun around. “Damn woman, you’re sneaky.”

  I laughed and scooped up his phone from the floor. “I suppose we should get going, don’t want to be late getting the boot off for good.”

  “Yes! Finally!” Travis exclaimed, grabbing his keys and pulling me out the side door into the garage.

  We settled into the car and Travis took off down the driveway.

  Since his individual date with Taylor, I had kept a slight distance from Travis. I wanted him to decide for himself what he really wanted. He did hear me when I said I wasn’t going to kiss him if he was kissing the other girls. In the past week, no other girls had flaunted that he’d kissed them. Still I’d kept our kisses to small pecks when I would arrive and leave his place at night.

  As I was leaving last night he mentioned he had a doctor’s appointment the next day to remove his boot once and for all an
d he wanted me to go with. Of course I couldn’t turn that down, especially since I usually accompanied him to his doctor appointments anyway as his personal assistant. And I got to spend some time alone with Travis, undocumented. The tricky part was trying to get out of the house this morning without the girls wondering where I was for two plus hours. Luckily, I had taken up those morning runs and no one questioned me as I left the house this morning.

  “Um, aren’t we going in the wrong direction?” I asked once I noticed we were heading in the opposite direction from the city.

  “I wanted some alone time with you.” He smiled over at me before turning his attention back to the road.

  “But what about your boot?” I knew he had been anxious to get it off, I couldn’t see him just making the whole doctor’s appointment up.

  “Promise you won’t be mad?”

  “Why would I be mad? I get to spend time with you completely uninterrupted.” In fact now I was getting more excited that it was just going to be Travis and me for the next few hours.

  “I got it off yesterday. I told Jim I had a meeting with my agent and I actually went to the doctor. Jim knew I didn’t want cameras following me around to my personal appointments, so I may have lied a little as to what day the doctor’s appointment was on. And I had to tell you what I told Jim, so if you and he ever talked about it, the stories would align,” Travis explained as if he had been plotting it for days.

  “So you planned all of this just to hang out with me?”

  Travis laughed. “Yes, to hang out with you and talk to you about everything that is going on with this show. I feel like I should be completely honest with you, and I really don’t want to discuss these things on camera.”

  Be completely honest with me? This cannot be good.

  “Are you going to make me cry?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  “What?” Travis whipped his head to look at me, swerving the car slightly. He quickly focused back on the road adjusting the car, but kept sneaking quick glances at me. “Why would you ask that?”

  “You said you were going to be completely honest. That makes me think the worst.” I shrugged. Was I the only one listening to this conversation?

  “What about the boot?” I asked pointing to what was currently covering his foot.

  “Decoy. I’m taking it off, once and for all, when we get to our destination.” Travis grinned.

  He turned down a dirt road and we continued the ride in bumpy silence. I glanced out the window staring mindlessly at the trees passing by, thinking over every bad scenario I could possibly come up with. I turned my head, about to question Travis, but stopped when I saw the cottage in the distance.

  “We’re going to your parent’s cottage?” I had fond memories of spending summer weekends up here with Travis when we were teens, but hadn’t been back in a few years.

  “It’s the most completely private place I could think of. No one but my family knows about it.” Travis pulled into the driveway, parking the car in front of the garage.

  I jumped out of the car, breathing in the fresh country air. Closing my eyes, I tilted my head back and let the sun soak in. I love it here.

  A shadow passed in front of me, blocking the glorious sun. I peeked out under my eyelashes to see Travis standing in front of me with a beaming smile.

  “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “I just haven’t seen you this relaxed in months.” He stepped close to me, pinning me against the car.

  I tilted my face up to his, “Well, that’s probably because I’ve been trapped in the nut house with a bunch of crazy girls.”

  He laughed and inched closer to me. “I really want to kiss you right now.”

  “Are you kissing the other girls?”

  Travis shook his head. “Only you,” he whispered, leaning in closer.

  I stood up on my tip toes ready to close the distance, when the front door slammed open and a voice called out, “Are you two just going to stand there and stare at each other, or are you going to come in?”

  I whipped around recognizing the voice. “Shut up!” I squealed, pushing Travis back lightly and ducking under his arm. I ran up the steps into the waiting arms of Travis’ mom.

  “Kathy, what are you doing here?” I asked hugging her tightly. Honestly I didn’t care why she was here, I was just incredibly happy to see her.

  “Travis called me, said it might help you relax a little if you were able to talk to someone from the outside world,” she said while patting my back. She held me out in her arms, looking me up and down. “You still look the same, but what are you wearing? Athletic clothes?”

  I laughed and looked down at myself. I was wearing my typical running clothes as of late—capri running pants, tank top and running shoes.

  “Um, yeah. I may have taken up running just to get away from the girls for a while,” I said, following her into the house.

  “Liar,” Travis said from behind me. “You took up running because you had to come up with some reason for leaving my house early in the morning.”

  “As I recall, you were the one who came up with the brilliant plan. I had no other choice.” I took a seat at the kitchen table as Kathy poured us each a mug of coffee. “I could have just stayed at the main house at night.” I glared over at Travis, since he was the one who asked me to come over every night.

  “You don’t have to agree!” He laughed. He sat at the table and started taking off his boot.

  “Yeah right. If I don’t agree to come over, you’ll pout for hours and then start bombarding my phone with texts.” I reminded him of the one night I just wanted to crawl under my covers and go to sleep, but Travis sent me over 50 texts begging me to come over—and that was before anything happened between us.

  “Well, I can see the show hasn’t changed you two at all.” Kathy smiled at us as she took a seat at the table.

  We quietly sipped our coffee, taking in the silence you can only experience in the middle of nowhere.

  “So Riley, how do you like the girls that are left?” Kathy asked.

  “Well… I like Taylor, she’s a sweet girl. I misjudged Kara when the show first started; she’s actually really fun to hang out with, though I really don’t want to get on her bad side,” I explained, glancing over at Travis wondering what he thought of those two. He kept his eyes on the table in front of him, ignoring my gaze.

  “Anyway,” I continued, “Nicki is the one person I cannot stand. She’s obnoxious, self-centered and honestly, I’m pretty sure she’s a pampered little princess where she lives. For the life of me, I can’t understand why she is still here—aside from the fact that she is Travis’ usual type.”

  Both Kathy and I turned to glare at Travis when I finished, only to find him glaring back at me.

  “I don’t have a type!” Travis exclaimed, setting down his mug hard enough for coffee to slosh over the edge.

  “Sure you don’t. We’ve only witnessed the trail of girls you’ve dated. They are all the same; tall, blond, heavily made up, obnoxious, self-centered, greedy, rude, only after you for the fame and money, dull, slu…” I trailed off as Travis stood to interrupt me.

  “God, you make it sound like I am such a horrible person for seeing those girls. If you had an issue with it, why didn’t you bring it up before, Riley?” He stormed out the door, slamming it behind him. I saw him cross in front of the window and take a trail into the woods.

  “Hmmm, what did I say?” I asked his mom.

  “The truth. Travis just never noticed the girls were like that. And he never knew you actually cared about it. I think hearing you describe the women he’s dated made him view it from your eyes, and it hurt him. I can’t imagine how you put up with it for all those years,” she said, reaching out to grasp my hand.

  “We were just friends, I had no reason to care who he dated.”

  “I think, deep down, Travis has always harbored feelings for you. He hated it when you wo
uld see that Milo guy. He was always so jealous when you would leave for a date…of course, he wouldn’t say he was jealous, but a mother knows.” Kathy smiled, squeezing my hand. “This show has opened your eyes to each other, which I am so grateful for, but I think it also scares Travis. He is probably thinking he isn’t good enough for you.”

  “What the heck? I’ve known him forever! I’ve known everything that goes on behind those closed doors. I don’t care! It’s in the past,” I said, standing up and pacing the kitchen.

  “I know that sweetie. Travis is just scared. Go. Talk to him.” Kathy stood too, pushing me towards the door.

  “But I just got here, I want to talk to you,” I mumbled as Kathy turned me in her arms to give me a hug.

  “I know, but we’ll have time to talk another day. Besides, I have to get going.” Kathy grabbed her purse and followed me out the front door. She waved as she headed to the garage. I waved back and turned towards the woods.

  “Hope he didn’t get lost,” I grumbled as I headed towards the trail I saw Travis take.

  I walked for a few minutes when I came to the small stream that flowed through the woods, signaling the end of the Grayson’s property. Now I had a choice, I could take the trail left or right.

  Great. Where did Travis go?

  I turned left and saw Travis sitting at the base of a huge oak tree, staring out at the creek.

  “Hey,” I said, approaching him slowly, unsure of his mood.

  “Hey,” he replied without glancing up at me.

  Well, at least he’s talking to me.

  I slid down the tree, settling myself next to him, not knowing what to say to him, so I just stared at the creek too. We both stayed quiet for a few minutes, listening to the creek trickle by and the sounds of woodland life.

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me what you thought of the girls I dated?” Travis quietly asked.

  “Trav, I’m pretty sure I have mentioned it to you. You just never listened,” I stated the truth, even though I was sure it would cause another argument.

  “You’ve mentioned that you didn’t like a few of them. But you mostly just kept your thoughts to yourself.”