Bachelor Number Five (The Bachelor Series, Volume 1) (24 page)

“I suppose.”

“How about a Guinness?”

“What, no Lone Star?”  She gave him a smile.

“They don’t serve it here, unfortunately.”

“I guess I’ll have a Harp then.  I’m sure they have that.”

“You bet.  Barkeep!  A Harp down here!”  Grant waved to the bartender who stood leaning against a sink, craning his neck to watch a baseball game on an overhead TV.

The bartender reached for an empty glass.  “You ready for another, too?” he called back.

“Sure, why not?”  Grant picked up his own glass and quaffed his remaining beer.

“Is this one of your hangouts?” Amanda asked.

“They know me here.  It’s kind of a neighborhood pub.  Lots of regulars.”

“Do you live around here?”

“Not far.  How ‘bout you?”

“Pretty close.”

“It’s a long way from Houston, huh?”

“I guess.  I never actually lived in Houston.”

“I wondered about that…”

“I’ve never lived anywhere else but Iowa.”

A look of bemusement crossed Grant’s face.  The bartender placed two coasters on the bar in front of them and then a beer on each.  He picked up Grant’s empty glass and put it in a sink before sauntering back to his game.  Grant picked up his fresh beer.  “Well, ok then,” he said.

Ariel was right.  Grant didn’t much care.  Amanda smiled and lifted her own beer, taking a light sip.  “You’re not quite what I expected,” she said.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“What did you expect?”

“Well, I’ve watched the show.”

“Right, the show.  What do you think of it?  Pretty cool, huh?”

“Pretty cool?  Is that all you have to say about it?”

Grant appeared to be at a momentary loss for words.  “Why not?  I’m in a million peoples’ living rooms every week.  People recognize me all over.  I’m kind of famous, right?  I mean, that’s pretty cool.”

“What about Scarlett?  Are you going to marry her?”

Grant shrugged.  “I don’t know, maybe.  I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

“That bridge isn’t very far off.  Haven’t you even thought about it?!”

“Of course I’ve thought about it.  A million bucks would be pretty nice…”  Grant gave her another grin.  “Split between us of course.”

“So you are just in it for the money?”

Grant shrugged but didn’t answer.

Amanda cocked her head sideways as she looked at him with newfound curiosity.  “You do want to fall in love, right?  I mean, that’s the whole point of the show, isn’t it?”

“Sure, I want to fall in love, but…”  Grant considered his next words.  “I don’t think Scarlett is really the girl for me.”

“I’m glad to hear that at least.  I thought I had to warn you.  I saw her last week, making out with some random guy in a nightclub.”

“Really?”  Grant seemed only a little bit surprised.

“Does that bother you?”

“Not really.  She can do what she wants.”

“So how can you still chase after her like you do?  I saw you just last week, making out with her in the hot tub!”

“Hey, look, I’m a competitive guy.  I’m not going to just give up.  Anyway, I don’t think she likes any of
us
all that much either.  She’s a publicity whore, just like the rest of us.”

“Is
that
what it’s all about for you?  Publicity?”

“Why not?  I came to LA to be an actor.  You know what I was doing before I got this gig?”

“Waiting tables at The Hamburger Hut.”

“That’s right!”

“That doesn’t seem so bad to me.”

“I don’t mean no offense, but slinging burgers is not what I’m after in life.  Since I’ve been on that show I’ve landed an agent and two commercials, and if I play my cards right I might even get a half a million bucks!”

“If you marry her!”

Grant looked away, as though she couldn’t judge him if they weren’t making eye contact.  “That’s a lot of money.”

“So let me get this straight… you never had any intention of finding the love of your life on the show?”  Amanda was beginning to feel foolish for ever having believed in him.

“Six months ago I was standing on the pier down in Santa Monica and some girl comes up to me with a clipboard in her hands.  She says, ‘Hi, are you single?’  I thought she was trying to pick up on me at first but no, she was
casting
for some television show called
The Bride
.  What was I supposed to do, tell her, ‘No I don’t want to be on your television show’?  Of course I was going to go on it.”

“But Scarlett thinks you want to marry her!”

“I don’t know what she thinks.  I don’t really care.  She is kind of a bitch, to be honest.”

“The bitch you might just go and marry.”

Grant looked at Amanda again and then lifted his beer.  “Like I said, it’s a lot of money.  Even if we split it, after taxes that’s at least $350 grand apiece.  I could live a couple years on that, easy.  All we gotta do is stay married for a year.  After that, we split up and go our separate ways.  Even then the tabloids will have a field day.  More PR for both of us.”

“That’s really all you care about?!”

Grant took a drink.  “A man has to get by, you know?”

Amanda sipped her own beer and looked around the room.  The place was starting to fill up as local office workers wandered in at the end of the day.  Happy Hour.  “You really are not at all what I expected.”

“You keep saying that, but come on, all you knew me from was watching that show!  Maybe I’m not so bad if you give me a chance.  The real me.”

“Why should I give you a chance when you might be getting married to someone else in two weeks, just for the money?”

“I guess that doesn’t sound so good, does it.”

“No.  Not so good.”  Amanda smirked at him.  So it was all coming down to this.  Her fantasies were being shattered.  It was probably all for the best.  Maybe she could still find another small silver lining.  “Tell me something else…  Do you hang out with any of the other guys on the show?” she asked.

“Not so much.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Why, you have a crush on one of them, too?”

“Who said I had a crush on anyone?!”  Amanda laughed.

“Ok, fine, forget I said that.”

“Look, just tell me, are you friends at all with bachelor number nine?”

“So you like the bad boy type, huh?”  Grant teased her.

Amanda took a deep breath.  Piper had better appreciate this, she thought. “Do you know him?  I mean outside the show?”

“Why do you care so much?”

“It’s not for me.  My best friend back home in Iowa thinks he’s cute.”

“Oh.  Sure.  Your friend.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Look, if you want his number, all you’ve got to do is ask me for it!”

Amanda paused, wondering to herself how much of this she could take.  “Fine.  Can I have his number?”

“Whose?”

“Number nine.”

“What’s his name?”

Amanda thought about it for a moment.  “Damon?”

Grant shook his head.  “I’m not going to give out his number to a total stranger!  Why would I do that?”

“But you just said that you would!”

Grant was obviously enjoying this.  “All right, but he better not find out where you got it.”  He pulled out his phone, unlocked it and looked up the contact before placing the phone on the bar in front of her.

Amanda picked up the phone and looked at the screen.  Damon Bradley.  Below the name was a number.  “Mum’s the word, I promise,” she assured him.

“I got to use the john.  You mind waiting here for a minute?”

“No, go ahead.”

“If anyone calls, you can answer it.”

“I won’t, but ok.”

Grant rose from his stool and walked into the back of the bar.  Amanda quickly entered Damon Bradley’s number into her own contact list.  Piper would
really
never believe this…  She left Grant’s phone on the bar beside his beer and was putting her own back into her purse when she heard it chime.  Amanda took a quick look.  It was a text from Peter. 

Does this mean our date is off?

Amanda’s head jolted upwards.  She quickly scanned the room.  Was he here?  How did he know?  She saw no sign of him, or anyone else she knew.  Small groups gathered at various tables but nobody seemed to be paying Amanda any attention at all. 
What do you mean?
  She typed back.  When she’d sent the message, her phone chimed again just a few moments later.

Seems you prefer company of dream boy.

How could this be?  Had Ariel told him?  Maybe Peter stopped by the restaurant? 
Date NOT off
, she wrote.

Good
, he replied, just as Grant returned to his seat.

“Everything all right?” Grant asked.

“Yeah, fine,” she said, though the concern in her tone was impossible to hide.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure!” she picked up her beer and took a large swig before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“How ‘bout I show you the hills, like I promised?”

“Oh, I don’t know.  Maybe that’s not such a great idea.”

 “Why not?  I thought that was the whole idea!”

“Yeah, but…” Amanda was having some serious second thoughts.

“Come on, the view up there will blow you away, I promise.”

Amanda finished off the rest of her beer without saying another word as Grant paid the tab.  All she could think about was Peter, and how he’d found her out.  They were walking out of the place when Amanda got her answer.  A small group she hadn’t noticed before sat at a table near the front door.  There were two men and two women, all about her age.  One of the men raised a hand in the air and nodded slightly, a mischievous smile on his lips.  It was Blake.  Peter’s friend Blake.  Amanda’s mouth fell open.  She felt the blood drain from her face.  Instead of responding, she looked away and hurried out the door.

“Do you know that guy?” Grant asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“What, is he your ex-boyfriend or something?”

“No!  I hardly know him at all.”

“That’s not what it looked like.”

“Forget what it looked like.”

Grant smiled as though he’d just won some sort of prize.  “Fine, you don’t have to tell me nothin’.”  He led Amanda around the building to a small parking lot in the back.  His car was a red convertible Mustang, top down.  Grant opened the passenger door for her.  Amanda knew that she should put an end to this whole thing.  If she called Peter right now, maybe she could salvage whatever it was that they had.  Then again, why shouldn’t she be able to spend time with whoever she wanted?  It wasn’t like she and Peter were officially a couple or anything.  Amanda felt as though she were being spied on, and she didn’t much like it.  When her phone chimed, she took a quick look.

Heading home now?

Maybe it shouldn’t have bothered Amanda, but somehow it did.  Or was it just her own guilt that weighed on her?  Amanda wasn’t even sure.

“Your friend from the bar?” Grant asked.

“No, somebody else,” Amanda replied.  She stared at her phone, trying to decide upon the best response.  Ultimately she realized, there was no good response.  She couldn’t play these games right now.  Amanda turned off her phone and shoved it inside her purse.  Still, the guilt wouldn’t go away, nor the fear that she might be destroying everything she and Peter were trying to create.  Whatever the consequences, she would deal with them later.

A hint of orange still glowed in the western sky, though the temperature was already dropping.  Amanda pulled her sweater on over her head.  Grant walked around to the driver’s side and the two of them climbed in.  He pressed a button on the dash and Amanda heard an electric motor whir as the top began to unfold above their heads.

As Grant pulled the car out of the parking lot and turned right on Melrose Avenue, Amanda peered at him sideways.  That same handsome face and charming grin had drawn Amanda halfway across the country and into an entirely new life.  He wasn’t what she’d expected, but she wasn’t ready to give up on him yet either.  Amanda was torn, as though being yanked in two directions at once.  This was Bachelor Number Five!  If she didn’t see where things went between them she might never forgive herself.  Looking at him sitting beside her, Amanda’s obsession had far too strong a hold on her.  In the end, she was simply powerless to resist.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

They were parked in a turnout off Mulholland Drive, high up in the hills overlooking the city at night.  It was a view that did indeed take Amanda’s breath away.  Far below them was a patchwork quilt of twinkling lights, laid out in a grid that seemed to stretch into infinity.  She’d seen it before, but only in movies and on television.