One more week. Gina repeated the words to herself as…
The crew scattered. Watching their retreat, Gina noticed for the…
Somehow, she managed to get through the rest of the…
She was a zombie. Driving aimlessly around Interstate 285, circling…
Driving home, Gina tried to make her mind tackle practical…
The morning sun shone brightly off the burnished aluminum skin…
Her cell phone started to chirp at six o’clock. After…
Jerk,” Regina said quietly, as the door closed.
Scott was standing on the Fresh Start set, deep in…
Valerie Foster waited until the Fresh Start crew was preoccupied…
Tate felt himself relax as soon as he heard the…
That’s it, everybody,” Scott said, after they’d finally finished with…
Tate was demonstrating his grandmother’s method for seasoning a cast-iron…
BoBo looked up from the cell phone he’d been hunched…
Tate whirled around to face Regina, and Moonpie squirmed in…
When Gina got home, Lisa met her at the door.
You absolutely sure you wanna do this?” Tate asked, shaking…
Gina!” Lisa pounded on the bathroom door with both fists.
On Monday morning, Gina forced herself to look squarely in…
Perspiration trickled between Gina’s breasts. Her damp hair was matted…
Using long-handled tongs, Tate deftly transferred the cornmeal-coated fish fillets…
Gina raced into the dressing room, locked the door, and…
Javier Soto eyed the mesh bag of Vidalia onions on…
Scott?” Gina closed her eyes as D’John blotted powder on…
As soon as Scott was gone, Gina jumped up and…
Tate took the plastic hanger with the baby blue satin…
Gina looked at herself in the full-length mirror in the…
All right, people,” Just Joel said with an air of…
I think my jaw is dislocated,” Tate said, his fingers…
Good news, good news, good news,” Val sang out, her…
Valerie Foster was sitting in the Vagabond, going over production…
Lisa was sitting on the living room sofa, surrounded by…
Val Foster looked dubiously at the sixty-foot launch idling alongside…
As the dappled green waters of Eutaw Sound slid by,…
Lisa!”
Val watched Gina Foxton and her producer/boyfriend climb into…
Tate bolted from the dining room, but Val managed to…
Val Foster managed to make it through the communal dinner…
The air in her room was as hot and sticky…
Gina was sitting in the makeshift makeup room—in reality, a…
Valerie was watching Tate as the judges were introduced, and…
Each Food Fight kitchen was a stainless steel symphony. Side-by-side…
As promised, a lone golf cart was waiting right outside…
Tate gazed up at the pig hanging from the lowest…
The camera crew and her own entourage were waiting on…
Tate watched the judges’ faces carefully. Their dishes had been…
D’John was brushing powder over Gina’s face—a shame, Tate thought,…
Well, that’s it for round one of The Cooking Channel’s…
Tate looked down at the crude map he’d drawn earlier…
Safely back in her room at the lodge, Gina did…
As they’d planned the night before, Gina and Tate each…
Rattlesnake Key loomed before them, a forbidding-looking dark green spit…
Gina pointed at the stack of debris Tate had hauled…
He was admiring the fillets he’d cut from the redfish…
After making a mental note to give up all forms…
Lisa Foxton squinted through the salt-flecked window of the trawler’s…
It occurred to Tate that he was living every red-blooded…
They’re coming!” Lisa leaned so far over the bow of…
The cell phone clipped to Mick Coyle’s hip rang loudly…
Look,” Zeke said, grabbing Lisa’s elbow. He pointed to a…
Gina stood on the kitchen set, staring down at the…
Gina was halfway to the ballroom when Tate caught up…
People, please!” Zeke pleaded, pacing back and forth on the…
Tate!” Val saw him walking rapidly toward the front of…
Val rushed onto the set and looked down at the…
The sound of a police siren shattered the thick morning…
Gina needed to pack. She needed to pack, she needed…
Gina blew into the Vittles production office without bothering to…
Thanks to Lisa’s ruthless efficiency, most of the furniture in…
Gina kicked the Honda into a low gear and gritted…
She knew she should be nervous, but for the first…