Chapter 7
7
MACY
I didn’t win.
I came in third, actually, but here was the funny thing. Just twenty-four hours ago, this loss would have been a total punch in the gut. It would have felt like the end of the world. I’d pinned all my hopes on winning this competition, and now what?
But the answer to that was pretty easy. Now I had Beau. He was seated in the chairs at the front of the tent, along with some of the finalists and a couple of men who seemed to know him. The men were with my fellow contestants.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who’d found myself a mountain man up here.
“It was rigged,” Beau said as we exited the tent, following the line of people back to the lodge. “You were the best baker in the place. So now you go to dinner with everyone?”
“No!”
I said that with far more conviction than was necessary. I saw another couple straying from the line and heading straight to the parking lot. One of the women wasn’t a finalist. Her name was Bronte, and we’d become friends in the early part of the competition. I had her business card, and I planned to contact her.
Maybe she’d want to join forces. She and I had talked about starting a bakery together. There might be something to that.
“I say we grab some burgers and you show me around town,” I said. “I need to scout out a place to live, after all.”
He looked over at me, eyebrows arched. I was holding my breath, hoping he wasn’t bothered by my plans to move to his town.
It wasn’t just about him, though. Okay, a large part of it was, but I’d been thinking for a while that it might be fun to rent a place somewhere in this town or the next over where I could live with two or three of the other finalists. We could split the rent and start our own business here. I didn’t know what was involved in that, but I was eager to find out.
“Burgers from the diner?” he asked.
“No, the burger stand from yesterday,” I said. “Or maybe you can show me another takeout place that’s even better.”
“Do you like tacos?” he asked.
“Do I?”
We hopped in his truck and he took me to a taco stand in Adairsville. I got the feeling he liked places like this because of the reputation he’d mentioned last night. It was absurd. If Seduction Summit couldn’t get over something a thirteen-year-old had done twenty-two years ago, they all needed a reality check.
“I’m still going to open my bakery,” I said. “Not winning doesn’t change that.”
“You were second runner-up,” he said.
I looked at it that I’d come in third, but when he said it like that, it sounded a little better. Still, the more I thought about it, the less it made sense that winning would have given me anything more than fifty-thousand dollars and some expert advice. I surely could figure out a way to do that on my own.
“Maybe you could talk the woman who won into putting her winnings into the business and get a loan for the rest,” he said.
I thought about it. The woman who won hadn’t really been hanging out with us that first day, but I wasn’t with everyone last night. That meant I was way out of the loop.
“It’s worth a try,” I said. “I’m definitely going to see if I can get some roomies out of the deal.”
“Roomies?” he asked.
I took a long sip from my soda as I thought through how to explain it to him. Finally, I returned my drink to the cup holder, took a deep breath, and blurted it out.
“I’m moving here. I’ve already decided. I figured some of the girls and I could get a rental. I know there’s not much up in the mountains, and we couldn’t afford it even if there was, but maybe an apartment in Adairsville.”
He nodded. “There’s plenty of those. That would be great. Of course, you could move in with me, but I’m sure you want to date me first.”
I laughed. “I want to date you, definitely, and I’d move in with you in a heartbeat, but maybe it’s best we at least get to know each other first. You know, date for a week or two.”
“Or a day or two,” he said.
It would be slightly longer, just for formality’s sake, but I didn’t need to date him to know he was the one for me. I just knew it, deep in my heart.
“I’ll finish those tacos and show you where all the good stuff is,” he said.
“The good stuff’s right here.” I gestured toward the driver’s seat. “I can’t believe you took the polar plunge with me.”
“I’d take any plunge you want,” he said. “But next time, could we maybe wait until the weather gets a little warmer to go skinny dipping?”
“You’ve got a deal. No more polar plunges for me. If I want to jumpstart my system, I’ll just take a cold shower.”
“Or maybe have a cup of coffee,” he said. “That does it for me.”
Yeah, a warm cup of coffee beat an ice-cold body of water any day, and I definitely wasn’t into cold showers. But this guy got me, and that was what made this a forever deal.
As I crumpled up the wrapper on my final taco, Beau started the car. But before he shifted it into gear, he leaned over and gave me a sweet kiss—one that promised many more to come.
I already knew moving to Seduction Summit would be the best decision I’d ever make.