“No,” I answer. “And I like to think there’s potential, but I just don’t know. He’s too selfish.”
“She’s too focused on work.”
“He thinks because he’s helping save the environment with his green roofs that my work isn’t important enough.”
“Because you could be writing about something other than putters.” He leans toward Ellison and whispers, “No offense.”
“We don’t see eye to eye, and I’m not sure we ever will.”
Ellison looks between the two of us and then says, “Say something nice about each other.”
I look at Wilder, my chest heaving as I try to catch my breath.
My mind draws a blank, and isn’t that incriminating?
Thankfully, Wilder steps in and says, “Even when she’s mad at me, she kisses me good night. Every night. I think it’s her way of saying that we might have a lot of animosity, but there’s still love there. She…she gives me hope, and that’s why I’m here.”
I wet my lips and look Wilder in the eyes. “He reminds me to not be so serious all the time, that there is more to life than just the day-to-day. That it’s okay to break routine. To let loose. To be the person that maybe I hold back from being.”
And isn’t that the most honest thing I’ve said through this entire obstacle course?
Smiling, Ellison moves to the side, and Wilder shouts, “Let’s go, Pips!”
We both leap into the water and swim to the shore. Wilder’s clearly faster than I am, to the point that he comes back and pulls me up by the waist, dragging me across the finish line, where we both sprawl across the grass, gasping for air.
“Impressive,” Sanders says as he stands over us. “Very impressive.”
“Thank…you,” I say, still trying to catch my breath.
“And for the amount of arguing I heard, incredibly impressive.”
“Fueled the fire,” Wilder says as he stands and offers me a hand. He helps me to my feet and then tugs me into his chest. He smacks me on the ass, surprising me. “Good job, Pips.”
When he pulls away, he undoes his wet suit, letting the sleeves and torso fall to his waist and allowing his chest to be on display once again.
Yum.
Okay, just…yum.
And I know I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t even be looking, but I’m sorry. Mika’s younger brother is hot. There, I said it. It’s out in the open. He’s hot.
Hard not to notice.And if we were married, Iwouldnotice, so this is okay, as far as I’m concerned.Just playing the part…
“Are we sure they answered all the questions correctly?” Chad asks as he walks up to us. “It seems like they were granted access to the next obstacle rather quickly.”
Wilder snaps around to look at Chad in his zipped-up wet suit, all the way to the top of his chin.
“Excuse me? Are you claiming we cheated?”
Chad takes a step back but then gestures toward the obstacle course. “Just seems convenient that you flew through that despite arguing the entire time. Seems like you got some help along the way.”
“Yeah, and it seems like you’re jealous. If anything, we might have been arguing, but we were truthful at every stop. Maybe you need to point that finger at yourself and ask why it took you so damn long. Maybe you were the one not being truthful.”
“We were being truthful,” Chad says, almost stomping his foot at the same time.
Sanders steps in and says, “I can assure you, our staff has been prepped very well to understand the differences between our couples’ truths and lies. I have no doubt that they all were accurately allowing couples through based on their answers. Now, we have one couple left. Let’s watch them before we start fighting.”
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Wilder says before draping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me off to the side to a log. We both take a seat, and he looks off toward Chad, who is now bitching to Finky. “Looks like we got under his skin,” he says. “How does it feel?”
