“Wow, I feel loved.” I nodded. “Thanks for the warning.”
“Let me win,” he begged.
“Nope.” I shook my head. “Not gonna happen. Alyssa and I need some downtime too.”
“Hmm…” Alec squinted in Jaymeson’s direction. “Then let’s destroy them.”
“Good talk.” I hit him on the back.
“Today will be all about teamwork with your partner. People watching the show will vote for whatever team can keep from fighting over the course of the twenty-four hour period.”
“Got that in the bag.” I high-fived Alyssa next to me and nudged Alec. “Haven’t you and Nat been getting in a few… tiffs? The honeymoon’s nearly over, huh?”
“Bastard.”
I smiled gleefully and swept Alyssa off her feet, literally. “Winning!”
“I haven’t told you what your task is today.” Ruben cleared his throat.
Alyssa dropped back to her feet. I turned to Ruben and waited.
His smile was too wide and happy. He was going to torture us. I just knew it.
“Um?” Jaymeson raised his hand.
“What?” Ruben groaned. “What do you want?”
“Can I be on my own team?”
“Why?”
Jaymeson looked at Ruben as if to say, seriously you really don’t know why? “My partner keeps glaring at me.”
Angelica rolled her eyes.
“And…” Jaymeson continued. “I’m pretty sure, given the chance, she’s going to either throw me into oncoming traffic or poison my bottled water.”
“You’re an adult.” Ruben growled. “Deal with it. Thankfully, you’ve signed a release, so if you die… well… Rest in peace.”
“You can tell Ruben really cares,” I muttered. “Huge heart.”
“It’s just trapped like somewhere outside his body,” Alec added. “Where souls go to rot and people die.”
“Any more questions?” Ruben asked.
Alec and I both raised our hands.
“Anyone else?” Ruben ignored us and looked at Alyssa and Nat, who were both happily jumping up and down ready to take on the world.
“Right.” Ruben put on his sunglasses. “Each team will start with the canoes. Once you row to your destination on the map, you’ll need to start building your castle. Once the judges deem your castle tall enough, you’ll move on to the next task. Instructions will be at every point. This will last most of the morning before we give you your first break. May the best team win.”
My hand shot up again.
“What, Demetri? Make it fast.”
“Why are we doing this?”
Ruben sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Do I really need to explain why shirtless celebrities sell, Demetri? Or do you think you got that one nailed down?”
“You are shirtless a lot on the show…”Alec muttered next to me.
I smacked him on the back of the head and chose not to answer Ruben. Idiot.
“On your mark, get set, go!” Ruben jumped into the air.
None of us moved.
“Go!” he urged again.
“Come on guys.” Alec called. “Let’s go.”
We all jogged to the canoes. Of course, Jaymeson and Angelica were last. She claimed the impact of jogging made her shorter and she needed all the height she could get. I for one just thought she was lazy.
“Come on, Lyss.” I helped her into the canoe and we were off, taking turns rowing toward the first buoy.
“Tell me why we decided to do this again.” She grunted as she pulled the oars.
“Let’s blame Alec,” I muttered. “If he wouldn’t have screwed up all those years ago, then I wouldn’t have gotten addicted to drugs, or ended up here, or had to do a stupid show in order to promote our next album.”
Alyssa’s face fell.
I laughed out loud and kicked the bench she was sitting on. “Lyss, come on. You know I’m kidding. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Just think, a few more weeks and we get off this God-forsaken island and go on tour.”
“Seaside isn’t an island.”
“Yeah, I was quoting Survivor, trying to get into the mental game of the competition.”
“Quoting Survivor won’t make us win, Demetri.” Alyssa rolled her eyes. “You actually have to put effort into it. I swear it isn’t fair. You get a side ache when you walk, yet you still have the body of a—”
I smirked “The body of a what?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Nevermind.”
“No, really go on.” I winked. “Want me to take off my shirt again? I can go all Magic Mike on this love boat and—”
“Yeah, I’m going to stop you before you hurt yourself trying to think of more sexual innuendos.”
“Bummer, because I had this really good one about strippers and paddles and—”
“No, Demetri. Just. No. Let it go.” Alyssa patted my hand. “Oh, and do us a favor and row harder. I can’t do all the work.”
“Fine.” I put my back into it and soon we were passing Jaymeson and Angelica, but to be fair, it looked like she’d gotten a sliver and he was in the middle of trying to set her on fire. Either that or he didn’t know that the lighters in the first aid kit were for other purposes.
“Yes!” Alyssa pumped her fist into the air. “Faster!”
I groaned. “I’m trying but it’s not like this is easy. I’m sweating.”
“Poor baby.” She mocked and then grabbed a bottled water. “We only have a bit more to go. Besides, no way are we catching up with Alec and Nat. They would kill on The Amazing Race.”
“You’d think with all their competitiveness they’d want to kill each other,” I muttered. “But clearly they’re still blissed out.”
“Yeah.” Alyssa began playing with the paper on her water bottle.
“Uh-oh, what did you hear?” By now sweat was pouring down my face. Alyssa stretched her arms above her head giving me quite a pleasant view of her tight little body. Maybe rowing wasn’t so bad.
“Nothing.” She waved me off. “Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s something. I don’t know. You know Angelica.”
“Angelica?” This had to be good. “What does Angelica have to do with anything?”
My muscles burned as I kept the rowing motion up while my eyes were trained on Alyssa. She would tell me if I was going to hit something. Not that there was much to hit out on the open water, then again we were rowing to the next beach over.
Alyssa looked above my head. “We’re gaining on them.”
“Focus.” I snapped. “What did Angelica say?”
Alyssa shrugged. “This morning after breakfast she was just telling Nat how fickle guys can be and how Alec wasn’t always this tame.”
“Tame? Alec is anything but tame. He’s just… housetrained.”
“Like a dog?” Alyssa glowered.
“Like all men should be when they settle down with their woman,” I countered. Crap. I think I just pulled a muscle. Was it bad to cry in front of a girl? With Alyssa’s help we went around the bend to the next beach over.
“Anyways.” Alyssa took a swig of water. “Angelica was probably just trying to make Nat feel jealous or something. The conversation ended with Angelica blurting to Nat that if Alec was so happy why was he on anti-depressants.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s the flag!” Alyssa shouted. “Faster!”
“If you say that one more time…” I ground out. “Please tell me you didn’t let Nat know you knew about Alec’s pills.”
“I feigned indifference. I didn’t think it would be smart to tell her how worried you were. It would just make things worse.”
“Did they fight?” The shore was coming fast. Finally. I was ready to burn my own damn canoe.
“Nat didn’t want to ruin teambuilding day, and she didn’t want to do something on camera, you know?”
“Good call.” I put in a few more good pulls on the oars and then stopped when I hit the shore. I helped Alyssa out and took her hand. We ran toward the stupid flags where we were supposed to build our castles and stopped mid-stride just in time to see Nat punch Alec in the face.
With a low whistle, I nudged Alyssa. “Yeah, I think they’re having that important chat in front of God and everyone.”
Chapter Fourteen
Alec
“You lied to me!” Nat huffed. The sting of her punch was radiating all the way down my neck. Who the hell taught her how to throw a right hook like that? I put my hands out in front of me nearly tripping on the heavy sand.
“I didn’t lie.”
“You’re lying now!” She pushed against me causing both of us to fall to the ground.
“I omitted!” I defended myself and rolled so that I was on top of her straddling her body. “And before you hit me again, at least let me explain.”
“Fine.” Her teeth clenched together. “Do it fast.”
A camera was thrust into my face as a producer cleared his throat. “Get closer to Nat, maybe angle the camera from the sand looking into Alec’s face.”
I rolled my eyes and counted to three. If the cameraman didn’t back up I wouldn’t be the only one with a black eye.
“I’m waiting.” Nostrils’ flaring, Nat glared up at me.
Licking my lips, I nervously itched the back of my head. “It’s not like it’s anything new, Nat. Your mom prescribed them to me. It’s just been… really stressful. You know that. People get depressed. It isn’t a big deal and I didn’t want to burden you.”
“By not telling me you burden me, because then all I do is worry about what you're hiding.” A tear rolled down her cheek. I wanted to point out that Nat was one of the least emotional people I knew. She didn’t really cry often, and it took a lot for her to lose her cool, but lately, it seemed she was losing her mind right along with me.
The fact was. No matter how I answered, I was hurting her.
“I’m sorry, Nat.”
She exhaled and glared at the camera before looking up at me with giant brown eyes. “Was that what was bothering you the other day? You were afraid I’d find out and judge you or something?”
“Yes,” I lied. Shit, the lies were getting too easy. “I didn’t want you to know. I was afraid you’d be concerned, and well, you know how I’m used to dealing with all the baggage on my own.”
My hands moved to her face. I wiped a few stray tears and kissed her softly across the lips. “I love you.”
One of the make-up artists sighed to my left.
“I love you too.” Nat sniffled. “But no more hiding things from me.”
“Okay.” And there went lie number two. “Now can I get off of you or are you just going to punch me again?”
“I may still punch you.” Nat shrugged. “Guess you’ll have to trust me.”