Page 20 of Cowboy Seeks Husband
Aw, shit. Bow Tie wasreallycute.
“All right, everyone inside before I die of heatstroke,” Andy yelled. Then to John, he said, “Fetch me a cooling spritz of some kind and remind me next season to go film in Alaska or something. This is ridiculous.”
John spoke into his headset and then rolled his eyes. “Spritz on the way. And this is why you should be inside with the monitors, letting the AD, Molly, and me handle this.”
“I hate that bastard,” Andy said, glaring at a guy in cut-off jeans and a Dead Kennedys T-shirt. “He thinks he knows what I want.” Andy sniffed. “It’s better when I do it myself.”
“You hired him.”
Andy shrugged and yelled, “Let’s try that other take.” Then stalked into the remodeled barn.
John caught Walker’s eye and walked toward him. “That’s Andy for you.”
“Not the best delegator, huh?”
“No. But he’s getting better at it.”
“What’s happening?” Walker asked as the suitors’ producers herded them all back toward the SUVs. The men groaned and some gestured toward the remodeled barn with expressions of some urgency on their faces. “Why are they getting back into the cars?”
“Andy’s new plan. He wants to try a different entrance. This could take some time to set up. Why don’t you come inside?”
A half hour later, while Walker was chilling on the sofa, someone he hadn’t been introduced to yet uncorked champagne bottles and filled twelve glasses. They left them standing on a silver platter in the middle of the giant coffee table and John pressed one of the glasses into Walker’s hand.
“What?” John asked when Walker made a face.
“I hate champagne.”
“Then just hold the glass without drinking it. Stand up. Try to look suave.”
Oh God, this was so not him.
He didn’t have time to think about it anymore, though, because someone yelled for action.
The front door burst open, and a dozen beautiful men tumbled in, talking loudly, most of them not noticing he was standing there. Bow Tie saw him, though, and so did T-shirt Guy. Now that he got a closer view, he recognized them both from the pictures he’d been sent the week before along with a little information about each of the contestants. Roan and Ben.
Andy clapped his hands, and the excitement dimmed a little. “Everyone, this is Walker Reed, your hot cowboy to woo. Walker, this is everyone.” Walker opened his mouth to say hi, but Andy barreled on. “We’re losing daylight and the bugs at night here are a menace so we need to get on with it. Here’s what’s going to happen. You can all grab a bottle of water—”
“But there’s champagne there,” someone piped up and everyone laughed. That had been Chad, Walker thought.
“That’s for show,” Andy said. “For now anyway. Grab some water, because you’re going to pile back in the SUVs—”
Groans exploded, but Andy didn’t care.
“Suck it up, darlings. Unless you want to wait outside? In the sun? And the heat? I didn’t think so. So, like with the intros earlier, you’re going to come out of the SUVs, one by one, and meet Walker for the first time in the shade by the porch.”
“Then why can’t we wait in the house?” some daring suitor called out.
“Because I said so,” Andy snapped. “Afterwards, we’ll come in here for a longer meet and greet, and Walker can pick and choose whoever he wants to talk to, but there will always be a camera present. After that, you’ll choose your rooms. That’s it. Kitchen’s that way; you have two minutes.”
No one seemed to be all that concerned with hurrying. They began to mutter amongst themselves again, some subtly and others not-so-subtly sizing Walker up. A small blond guy determinedly began to walk his way and Walker froze, but another producer intercepted him, spinning him adeptly around and sending him in the other direction. The look in the blond man’s eyes had given Walker an idea of what a hunted rabbit must feel like.
“You’re lucky,” John said. “You get to wait in the AC without getting bounced around on those roads like a tennis ball.”
“How long will this take?” Walker lowered his voice when a few suitors returning from the kitchen gave him a curious look. “I have things to do.”
“For the next six weeks, your time is ours.” John almost sounded apologetic but not quite. “You’ll have to get used to it. And try not to look like you’re about to murder someone. You’re scaring your new little friends.”
“They aren’t my friends.”
“You’re right,” John said soberly. “They’re your future husbands.”
Walker laughed against his will and watched the men file out of the renovated barn. He also wished he had put on stronger antiperspirant. His pits were hideously damp. And he was the one staying inside. He really felt for these guys.
“You’re right,” he said to John. “There’s nothing to worry about. Just some man-eating, money-hungry, gorgeous men with their eyes set on my nonexistent fortune.”
“Now, you’re getting it,” John said with a laugh. “Andy told me you were smart.”
Walker rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and wondered just how smart he could be to have agreed to a ridiculous con like this.
