Caleb hadn’t seen this one coming. Not at all. He and Sophia?
Hattie must have seen his confusion. “Sophia will be working on the ad campaign we discussed.” She turned her gaze to Sophia. “What I didn’t mention is that Caleb will be the star of the new campaign. He’ll be featured in the print ads and some commercials. I know it’s going to be difficult, but it’ll be your job to make him look like the most desirable man on the planet.” Hattie’s tone was full of mirth. Her lips were twitching. She was cracking herself up with her own jokes.
Sophia looked over at Caleb. “I’ll try to make you look decent, Hollywood,” she teased.
“I would appreciate that,” he quipped. He turned his head. “This is my good side.”
“Who are you trying to fool?” Hattie asked, rolling her eyes. “You have no bad side. Am I right, Sophia?”
“Yeah, your grandson is pretty easy on the eyes,” Sophia acknowledged.
“And you’re a bona fide bombshell,” Hattie said to Sophia. She turned toward Caleb. “Isn’t she stunning?”
“Flawless,” Caleb said. And he meant it. Sophia was the most surprising thing yet about Moose Falls. Her ex was beyond foolish to allow a woman like her to slip through his fingers.
He wasn’t sure if he was imagining things, but his grandmother seemed to be trying to establish something between him and Sophia. She was coaxing compliments from both of them at an alarming rate.
Hattie wiggled her eyebrows. “By the way, I have no rules about employees dating.”
Sophia’s cheeks flushed and she said, “I-I’m good, Hattie. I have my hands full raising my daughter. I’m not looking for any romantic entanglements.”
I’m good?He tried to shake off her comment, but he felt insulted. Was he beneath her high standards that she wouldn’t consider the possibility of dating him? It wasn’t as if having a child excluded a person from romantic entanglements, as she’d called them. Hmm. In his mind he was replaying the events at the tavern. She’d given him her number, hadn’t she? Now he was confused, but unwilling to look like an idiot. If she wasn’t interested, then neither was he.
“I’m good too,” he answered in a clipped tone. “I’m on a relationship-free diet.”
Sophia’s lips twitched until she couldn’t hold her laughter in any longer. There was no doubt in his mind that she was laughing athim.
It didn’t sit well with him that she considered him a punch line. He’d believed that coming to Alaska would allow him to get away from all the ridicule and fallout fromLove Him or Leave Him. “Seriously? You find that funny?”
Sophia cracked up. “Sorry, it’s just the way you said it.”
Caleb sat back in his chair and folded his arms around his chest. “I’m still traumatized by being on reality television, in case you were wondering.”
“What is all this business about the reality show? Tell me exactly what happened,” Hattie requested. “It’s never made a bit of sense to me. All I know is that you were on this show and the star picked you out of all the other men to be her forever. Is that right?”
“Pretty much,” Caleb muttered. He’d gone this far without Hattie hearing the nitty-gritty details. Thank goodness she didn’t watch television or comb the internet. It was humiliating to have to spill the beans with Sophia listening.
“Then something went disastrously wrong, as life sometimes does.” Hattie made a tutting sound. “From what I heard they did a number on you.”
“You’ve got the major points, Grandmother,” Caleb said. He just wanted this conversation to end. Although he knew the experience had made him a stronger man, Caleb wasn’t particularly proud of his time on the show. He cringed at the thought of his grandmother thinking poorly of him based on an editor’s cut.
“Well, you’re skipping the best part,” Sophia said, correcting him. “Just as Gillian picked Caleb as the man of her dreams, it came out that Caleb was having sexy times with her twin sister, Abby, who was supposed to be there providing support for her sister.” She paused to take a breath. “Then Caleb confesses his love to Abby and tells Gillian he doesn’t love her. Pandemonium ensues. Gillian is devastated. Twin sisters are torn apart by a man.” Sophia made a face. “Your grandson.”
Hattie appeared to be horror-stricken. Her mouth hung open, and her eyes went wide. She raised a hand to her chest. “Did you do all of that?” Hattie let out a distressed sound. “Oh, my goodness. Good thing I wasn’t tuning in.”
Caleb let out a groan. He glared at Sophia. “I thought you said you were only casually watching. Sounds like you were the show’s number one fan.”
Sophia shrugged. “What can I say? It was highly entertaining. I was hooked.”
He arched an eyebrow in Sophia’s direction and clenched his teeth and glared at her. Was she seriously saying all this in front of Hattie? At his expense? “I’m glad I could entertain you, even though you really don’t know what went down.” He couldn’t hide the note of anger in his voice. It had been almost two years of this crap, with everyone painting him asthe bad guy. A mixture of fury and hurt caused his eyes to moisten. He was seeing things through a red haze.
“Okay, you two. Back to business,” Hattie said with a clap of her hands. “We’re going to have meetings all this week with the marketing and PR departments. I would like to hit the ground running on this campaign so we can have everything lined up for the launch of the new ciders in the fall.”
“I’m all in, Hattie,” Sophia said. “I’m really excited about working for Yukon Cider. I think Caleb is going to make a great lead for the campaign.”
The words coming from Sophia’s mouth surprised him. Was she actually giving him a genuine compliment? So far he hadn’t exactly been feeling the love from her, especially when she gave Hattie the recap of his time onLove Him or Leave Him. Although he had kept his mouth shut, he’d really wanted to set her straight. Sophia didn’t have a clue as to what had actually gone down behind the scenes. And based on her armchair analysis, he was the bad boy of reality television. A two-timer.
That wasn’t him at all. Never had been. Never would be.
