Headlights lit up the driveway to Sean’s cabin and Bonnie blinked in the bright glow of the approaching Hummer. She should have known this moment wouldn’t last. Couldn’t. It was too perfect.
Alone with Sean, she remembered to well why she’d fallen in love with him. He had a way of pulling her out of whatever dream she’d been caught up in and taking her somewhere even better.
“They found us. I should have never given Lori my address.” Sean shaded his eyes against the lights.
Lori climbed out of the back and stomped to them. “Well, well, well. What have we here, kids?”
“I’m sorry, Ma,” Sean said.
“It’s my fault. I was upset, and Sean tried to calm me down.”
“Please don’t let the Twitter thing get you down,” Lori said, hands splayed. “People are idiots.”
“Wait. What about Twitter?” Bonnie glanced from him to Lori, and back again.
Sean winced. “Um…I was going to talk to you about that.”
“You didn’t tell her?” Lori bellowed. “I thought you were going to tell her!”
“There wasn’t time. We had other…stuff to discuss.”
“Tell me what?” Bonnie fisted his shirt bringing his attention back to her.
“It’s nothing to worry about. Don’t look at it now.” Sean brought his fingers around her wrist. “I guess you’re not going to be the fan favorite.”
“That doesn’t exactly surprise me, but something tells me it’s a lot worse than not being favored to win this competition.”
“Lucky for you two,” Lori interrupted and for once Sean was happy about it. “I shot some B footage of Jackson and his band while you two were off having your fun. We can head back to the bar now and get a little more footage of you two dancing. Some scenes at the candlelit table talking about life and what your plans and hopes and dreams are. Yada, yada, yada. I’ll splice it together and save the day. It’s what I do. Then we’ll call it a night. This is good stuff, guys, but I hate to reiterate and sound like a nag: I need all of this on film.”
“Right.” Sean scowled.
“Let’s do this,” Bonnie said, letting go of his hand and kicking back into professional gear.
To please Lori, Bonnie and Sean drove back to the bar where they danced again, this time with music piping through speakers. Apparently with the angles Elton would use, it didn’t matter the band was long gone from the stage.
So was their outside “audience.”
She was far more relaxed in Sean’s arms after their intimate talk. Lori didn’t have to pose them or tell them what to say or do. They followed rules and didn’t kiss for the camera, but their faces tipped to each other with only centimeters between them. She could feel his warm breath on her bare skin and see the one green speck in his amber eyes.
“Okay, let’s call it a night!” Lori announced after the slow torture.
Next, Bonnie would need to call her mother before all hell broke loose. She’d rather do it from the comfort of the Hummer, downtown, where she had cell reception. The memory of Mama’s shocked expression, along with Beulah’s far more censuring one, would follow into her dreams tonight.
Because her mother and Aunt Beulah had a recurring argument every year after Bonnie had made the lingerie commercial:
Mama: Beulah, you were wrong. Admit it!
Beulah: I was not wrong. Bonnie Lee made enough money in a few hours wearing lingerie than some make in a year. It got her acting career started. No harm done.
Mama: I thank the good lord daily my daughter didn’t wind up in pornos.
Beulah: Maybelle, have you lost your cotton-pickin’ mind?
And on and on it went.
Bonnie would never tell her mother, or Aunt Beulah, but in those first few years the commercial had, as much as possible with someone so young, typecast her.
“You’re the girl from Topanga’s first huge campaign! They took branding in a whole new direction. I assume you’re okay with nudity?”
“We’ve seen most of your body, so we don’t need to see any more for now. The part has just one small nude scene…”
It took years to be taken seriously, when she’d waitressed and auditioned, then gone to acting classes at night. Eventually, her acting teacher recommended her for a small part on a hugely popular long-running TV series.
She’d had one line: “Oh my gosh, is that really you?”
But she was wearing all her clothes when she said it.
When she’d come home with Sean after his mother’s illness, she’d almost given up on her dream. Then she’d been asked to audition for Kavanaugh’s Way. She hadn’t ever done a nude scene.
No nudity, until tonight.
Now, she had so much to deal with all at once. Something on Twitter she didn’t really want to know about, her mother and Aunt Beulah, and last but not least, Sean.
Her feelings for him were so deep they must have never gone away. His smile, his touch, his arms tight around her were everything. For so long, she’d accepted she couldn’t have him. He’d found someone new and she’d tried to move on. In many ways she had. She’d had boyfriends, all of whom never even slightly compared to Sean, and friends, who tended to come and go depending on how hot a commodity she was.
But she’d never come close to what she’d once had with Sean. Tonight was a reminder of the simplicity she’d missed. The same things which had once seemed corny and cheap as a younger woman now seemed sweet and nostalgic. They rang true and real.
Or maybe it was all Sean, who made everything dull a little brighter for her. He always had.
After parting with Sean, and before leaving downtown, Bonnie called her mother.
“I can explain.”
“Can’t wait to hear this.”
“It was a wardrobe malfunction. The designers put me in this small gown. I complained, and just as I knew it would happen…well…and so I was trying to fix it when…you know. Y’all really shouldn’t have been there anyway!”
“I wish I hadn’t been. But good Lord Bonnie, everyone saw you, until Sean blocked you. Thank goodness for that boy’s height.”
“Yes, and don’t worry, the nudity won’t make it on the show. This is a family show.”
“Will you now tell me what on earth is going on with you and Sean?”
“You know what’s happening. I’m in a contest. He…” she remembered the moment Sean told her he’d kept her on, not because the producers asked him to. “hasn’t decided what he’s going to do with me.”
“Oh, he hasn’t decided, has he?” Mama snorted. “You tell that boy if he doesn’t make an honest woman out of you I’ll ring his fool neck!”
“I will not, Mama. I signed up for this. As soon as this is all over, I’ll come home and stay with you a while. We’ll bake pies and drink iced tea.”
“But what if Sean picks you?”
She hadn’t allowed herself to consider it because she didn’t believe Sean would risk asking her to marry him in front of a huge audience. He’d want to do it privately, after already feeling assured she’d say yes, or he wouldn’t do it at all. They both had too much riding on this.
“I don’t want him to pick me. Maybe I want him to have everything he wants. Sean wants a family and I doubt I can give him that now.”
“And what do you want, Bonnie Lee?”
The question of the decade. “I’m figuring this out.”
“Just don’t get your heart broken again, sugar.”
“No, ma’am. I don’t intend to.”
A little more placating Mama and Bonnie promised to speak again soon.
And then, even though she knew better, Bonnie checked social media.
“She’s not good enough for Sean.”
“Bonnie had her chance and blew it.”
“Hello? Speaking of wrong reasons, anyone notice Bonnie is a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild?”
She, Bonnie, was the old hag who’d come to reclaim her career in the spotlight.
Seriously, she’d come to reclaim her career with a reality show?
No one seemed to remember Bonnie had a decent career before the Irish mafia show ended. She’d been perfectly cast. After that, redheads fell out of favor and so did Bonnie. It was time for someone new to come up the ranks. She’d sought solace in friends like Eric, who looked up to her because she’d had a successful run. Even if the big parts had dried up, she’d had her moment, which was far more than some could say.
But she just didn’t care anymore.
Well, maybe a little, because it stung to be called old. Thank goodness her mother was not on social media. She’d want to take a switch to all of these people. Why did it seem like kindness and compassion had no place left? It had been erased from every consciousness. Behind a screen, some forgot these were real people whose hearts beat, and whose blood rushed through their veins like everyone else.
“You’re looking at Twitter, aren’t you?” Lori said a few minutes into their drive back to the ranch.
“Sean asked you not to look, and you didn’t listen.”
“Well, no.” She threw her phone down. “Now I wish I had. No good ever comes of it.”
“Unfortunately, I have worse news.”
“What now?”
“I’ve been uploading the dailies to the cloud and well…” She sighed and held up air quotes. “Not enough drama according to the producers. You and Angela get along like besties, and Tabitha might be aggressive, but she’s not a bully or anything.”
“And that’s a problem why?”
“These types of shows thrive on that sort of conflict. Myself, I hate pitting women against each other.”
“You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that. Y’all said this was a family show.”
“We have to do something.” Lori waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry, I’ll figure this out.”
Once back at the mansion, Bonnie found Angela waiting for her in the living room, sitting on a couch, her laptop perched on her knees.
She glanced up. “Hey, how did it go?”
Bonnie plopped down next to her. “Wardrobe malfunction.”
As Bonnie told the story, Angela dissolved into laughter that verged on tears. “I bet Sean loved that.”
“He’s always been a breast man.” Bonnie chuckled. “Where’s Tabitha?”
“She went to bed after doing her interview.” Angela rolled her eyes. “Lots of tears that Sean didn’t choose her for the one-on-one and she can’t possibly get to know him if they don’t get some alone time. I don’t understand her. Is she for real or putting on an act?”
“For her sake, I hope she’s acting.”
And the thought of Tabitha and Sean getting “alone time” made Bonnie’s gut pitch. She’d never truly appreciated how difficult it had been for him to watch as other men continually tried to take her away from him. He’d been in more than one fist fight over the years, all due to staking his claim. But…he’d been young. Now, he understood there was a whole world out there filled with beautiful women who would see Sean for exactly who he was: a truly honorable, loyal man with integrity and strong character.
Who, of course, also looked pretty incredible in a pair of jeans.
“Let’s face it,” Angela said. “I’m on the chopping block. They’ll want to keep Tabitha.”
“You think so?” Bonnie reached for Angela’s hand and squeezed. “I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too, Skippy.” She chuckled. “How on earth did you get that nickname, or is too private?”
“No, it’s quite boring. I like peanut butter. A lot.”
“It’s a weakness for many of us.”
“I once ate an entire jar by myself.”
“Big deal.”
“In a few hours. My mother came home and wanted to know what happened to the peanut butter. She’d planned on making cookies for a bake sale. So, I did what any good daughter would do. I helped her look for the jar.”
“You never found it, did you?” Angela smirked.
“A mystery unsolved to this day. I went down to the store to get another one for her. Sean has never let me live it down.”
“Now that’s a guy after my own heart.”
“Every year for Valentine’s Day he gave me a jar of Skippy peanut butter, the largest jar he could get his hands on.”
“Better than chocolate.”
“Well, he gave me the chocolate and flowers, too.”
“Aw, man He’s pretty wonderful, isn’t he?” Angela’s gaze was filled with sympathy.
Later, Bonnie retired to her bedroom upstairs, where her thoughts ran to Sean. The moment he’d shown her the home he built something in her heart stretched and unfurled. It settled deep in her bones. She had no doubt.
He’d never forgotten her, and she’d never forgotten him. Sean had created the standard by which she judged all other men.
And despite all the memories she already had with him, tonight, they’d made some new ones.
The next day was another group date challenge which everyone had expected Jessica to win. Now, it was anyone’s guess.
In today’s event, Sean’s “women” would demonstrate how good they were with children by spending time with a group ranging in ages from two to ten.
“I love children,” Tabitha said as they waited outside for Sean to arrive. “That’s why I became a nurse.”
“Not a teacher?” Angela pressed.
“I could have done either.” Tabitha tipped her chin. “But nursing pays better.”
“I myself have visited schools with early childhood lessons I’ve prepared on the importance of financial stability early in life,” Angela said. “I wouldn’t exactly say I dumb it down, but I break it up into manageable chunks.”
“I’m pretty good with arts and crafts,” Bonnie tried.
“Bless your heart,” Tabitha said.
Sean pulled up in his truck, and the crew began to film.
Today he wore casual jeans, his ever-present boots and hat, and a tight T-shirt that emphasized his muscles. Gulp.
“Good morning, ladies. As y’all know, I’m looking to add some branches to the Henderson family tree. I want children. Lots of them. And so today, we’re going to see how you all do around a group of kids.”
“I love kids!” Tabitha squealed.
Was there anything Sean could say that she wouldn’t love? Bonnie worried she would another run at Sean and had a half a mind to block her this time.
“Of course, so do I.” Angela straightened and stuck out her chest. “Everyone should love children. This is America.”
“I believe the children are our future.” Bonnie pressed her lower lips together and fought a smile.
Sean winked at her, not missing the reference to her favorite Whitney Houston song. “We’re going to our local charter school so we can meet up with the teacher, Sadie Carver. I don’t know what she has planned for us, but I’m sure it will be fun.”
This time, Sean drove them all in his truck. One guess as to who made shotgun.
“Which school are we going to?” Tabitha asked from the front seat.
“We only have the one,” Sean said.
“You have one school in the entire town?” Angela gasped.
“For now,” Sean said.
“When I grew up here, we didn’t have a school at all,” Bonnie said.
“Oh, you poor thing, that explains so much,” Tabitha said. “Is that why you went into acting?”
“We were bussed to the next town for school,” Sean said a bit defensively. “Both Bonnie and I were in the same grade.”
“Oh. How sweet.”
Sean cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’m glad my nephews, niece, and my own children will be able to attend grade school right here.”
Tabitha remained quiet the rest of the ride.