The Billionaire Dating Game: A Romance Novel (20 page)

Stupid. I wasn’t here for him, anyway. I was here for the show, for the article I was writing. And I sure as hell wasn’t putting anything about Piers and me into the article. So why was I so irritated by his standoffish behavior? I needed to forget about him, I decided.

All through lunch, Emma and I eavesdropped on the other contestants and their families. Tanya’s parents were surprisingly friendly with everyone, both of them bubbling over with thick Russian accents. Julia tussled with her little brothers and took her sisters out on the swan ride alongside Rosalita, who also had two younger sisters. They both seemed to have limitless energy. I was surprised at how well Kate was doing with Arlen—she’d seemed too young to be able to handle kids, but they were having a blast together.

Mia stayed away from the other contestants. Her parents both looked way too attractive to be real, like two department store models from the high-end boutiques. Her dad was tall, dark, and handsome, wearing a camel-beige linen suit with a white pocket handkerchief. Her mother had an oversized floppy hat that matched her flowing summer dress, and her sunglasses covered half of her face.

Piers and Dylan got up in front of everyone after lunch.

“Thank you to everyone for coming,” Piers said.

“It’s been great getting to meet all of your families,” Dylan chimed in.

Kate looked away and I caught a strange expression on her face. Pity surged in my chest. Poor Kate. It couldn’t have been easy to see everybody else having a great time with family.

“And now we’re going to get to the main contest. I’m sure you’ve already told your families about the contests we’ve already done… the cooking competition. The cocktail party. The fighter jet laser dogfight. But this contest will top them all.”

My eyebrows raised. The cameramen moved closer to Piers, who reached mysteriously into his pocket.

“Today, we are going to do… an EGG TOSS!”

He pulled out an egg from his pocket and tossed it over to Dylan. Dylan fumbled it once, twice, bouncing it off of his elbow. It fell down, but before it could hit the ground, Dylan kicked it up like a hackysack. The egg cracked into two pieces on his foot, but Dylan managed to grab both of them in the air.

“Got it!” he called out triumphantly, holding the two halves of the hardboiled egg aloft.

“Now that,” Piers said, cracking a smile despite himself, “would be cause for disqualification. So try not to kick your eggs. However, we will be judging not only on distance, but also on style and presentation.”

“Who are our partners?” I called out.

“You can pick any family member to be your partner,” Piers said. He didn’t look at me when he answered. “So let’s line up!”

“Hey, Dylan!” I ran over to him, and he beamed at me.

“Kate doesn’t have any family here today,” I said. “So I was thinking maybe you could be her partner.”

“Oh,” he said, his smile fading. “I can’t. I mean—yeah, no. I can’t. Maybe she can pair up with one of Julie’s brothers. She’s got enough of them!”

He laughed a little and then turned away. I frowned. I’d thought that my plan to push them together would go great. I saw Piers looking over at me, but he quickly ducked his head away when I met his gaze.

“What is wrong with everybody today?” I muttered, heading back towards Emma and Arlen. Whatever. I had an egg toss contest to win.

The egg toss was a disaster. Half of the contestants missed the first toss, even from only five feet away. Rosalita had never done an egg toss, and her little brother was winging the eggs her way like a little leaguer. Julie’s brother tried to show off by doing a headstand and catching the egg with his feet. When he smacked his feet together too hard, the explosion of egg rained down on Tanya and Heidi, who squealed and dropped their own eggs, then complained about the unfairness of it all.

Weirdly enough, the best egg toss competitors turned out to be me, Kate, and Mia. Mia’s dad had offered to partner up with Kate, while Mia paired with her mom. Emma and I tossed the egg back and forth in smooth arcs while Arlen watched from Dylan’s arms.

I almost felt bad for Mia. Her mom criticized her the whole time. “Don’t throw it so high!” “Make sure you catch it softly. Softly!” “Pay attention! This is important!” I rolled my eyes with every insult she threw at Mia. If that was how she had grown up, I kind of understood how she had turned out so bitchy.

By the time Emma finally missed a catch, we had run out of backup eggs. I threw up my hands.

“Oh well!” I cried.

Just then, Mia’s dad threw his egg to Kate. His throw was intentionally low and much harder than his other tosses had been. Kate dove for the egg, but it cracked on the ground, spraying bits of hardboiled egg everywhere.

“Yes! Yes!” Mia’s mom shrieked, running over to Mia and holding their egg aloft. “We did it! We won!”

I eyed Dylan, who was handing Arlen back over to Emma. Was he really going to let Mia win this thing? That last throw was basically sabotage!

But he didn’t protest at all, and Piers announced Mia as the winner. Her mother beamed happily as he told them that Mia had immunity for the next challenge. It made me sick to watch them celebrate while Kate was left all by herself in the middle of the field.

When Piers walked away from the group, I followed him.

“Hey. Hey!” I cried. Piers turned around.

“Oh, Lisa.” He glanced over my shoulder. “I didn’t see you.”

“Like hell you didn’t.”

His eyebrows raised. God, he looked handsome. The sun and exercise had given him a ruddy flush on his cheeks and forehead, and he looked so damn beautiful it made me want to throttle him.

“What can I help you with?” he asked in a clipped tone. He had his phone out in one hand and he looked down at it with fake indifference.

“Stop acting like that, for one thing.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You know exactly what I mean, Piers. You’ve been ignoring me all day.”

“Have I?”

“Yes, you have.” I ripped the phone away from his hand.

“Hey! I was looking at that!”

“Right. Were you looking at your damn phone when Mia stole that contest, too?”

Piers pressed his lips together and glanced over my shoulder.

“Give me my phone back.”

“Once you tell me what’s going on with you, I’ll give it back.”

“Look, I get it. Okay?” He raised his hands in mock surrender.

“What exactly is it that you get?”

“You and Dylan.”

My face went slack and my tongue flipped into a knot.

“What—what’s that supposed to mean?”

“He told me all about your car ride.”

“And?” I blushed furiously. “What about it?”

I didn’t know why I felt so defensive. We’d held hands, and that was it! Well, sure, Dylan had given me a peck on the cheek and a big hug when he dropped me back off at the penthouse, but that was all.

“He told me he really liked you. He thinks you’re smart.” Piers tilted his head, a hard look on his face. “Congratulations on impressing the billionaire.”

My blush deepened.

“It doesn’t take much to impress him,” I said.

“Oh, stop it already. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” he asked impatiently.

“Why?”

“To date a billionaire.”

I stared at him, not sure what he was expecting from me.

“I’m here because you tricked me into being here,” I said.

“Oh, come off it.”

“Remember that day of the auditions? When you tricked me into auditioning?”

“I remember,” Piers snapped. “I remember it all.”

He grabbed his phone back from me.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to approve these cuts for the first episode.”

“Right now?”

“Yes. Right now.”

“Fine,” I said, stepping away. “Glad to see you’re being serious with your work. I guess I’ll just go and have some
fun
.”

“You do that.”

I walked away quickly, not trusting my voice to reply. My eyes stung with unshed tears.

Chapter Twenty-One

I headed back down to the swan boats. My heart was roiling in my chest. I stumbled all the way down to the boat dock before I realized that Dylan was sitting on the edge of the dock, his legs swinging out over the water.

“Oh! Sorry!” I said, my mind a jumble. “I didn’t know anyone was here.”

“It’s alright,” Dylan said. He picked up a twig and threw it as hard as he could. It plopped into the lake and bobbed there, ripples floating outward. He let out a sigh.

“What’s the matter?”

“I’m bummed!” he said.

“Why are you bummed?” I asked. “I mean, unless you don’t want to talk about it.”

He shook his head and patted the side of the dock next to him. I sat down.

“I had to tell Rosalita that she was kicked out. They made me tell her in front of her whole family, too. It just sucks.”

“Did you like her?” I asked.

“I mean, no, but I didn’t
not
like her, you know?” He threw another twig in the same direction as the first one. “I guess I just realized it’s only going to get harder from here.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Are you bummed, too?” Dylan asked. “You look kinda bummed.”

“I am kinda bummed,” I said.

“Here.” He handed me a piece of twig. I took it and threw it out as far as it would go, which wasn’t very far. But the very act of throwing something made me feel a tiny bit better. Or, as Dylan would say,
less bummed.

“Thanks,” I said. “That helps.”

“It always helps to throw a twig when you’re bummed,” Dylan said matter-of-factly. “So why are you bummed?”

I couldn’t tell him about Piers. There was no way. I sighed.

“Why did you let Mia win this last contest?” I asked instead.

“Oh,
God
.”

Dylan fell over onto his back with a groan, his hands over his eyes.

“Don’t even talk to me about it,” he said. “I’m such an asshole.”

“Um. Okay.” But before I had time to change the subject, he sat right back up and continued talking.

“I didn’t want her to win!” he said. “But Piers told me I had to, and even though I saw what her dad did with Kate’s egg, I couldn’t say anything—”

“Wait, wait.
Piers
told you Mia had to win?” I couldn’t believe it. It was Piers who had let this happen?

“Yeah! He said the producers wanted to mix things up and make it more interesting. I guess it’s good for TV, or something. I don’t know!”

He turned to me, his face contorted with guilt.

“I know it wasn’t fair. I didn’t want her to win either, trust me.”

“What a stupid way to stir up drama,” I said. In my head, I was running through the reasons why Piers might want Mia to win. To keep me from winning, maybe? To keep me away from Dylan? I couldn’t help but be distrustful of his motives.

“I’m sorry,” Dylan said. “If it had been up to me—”

“It’s alright,” I said. “It’s not your fault.”

“It kind of is,” Dylan mumbled.

“No, it’s not,” I said firmly. “It’s the stupid producers, and Piers rolling over for them so that they can get better ratings. It’s not your fault at all. Don’t beat yourself up over it, okay?”

“Okay.” He looked out at the floating twigs. “So you don’t think I’m an asshole?”

“You couldn’t be an asshole if you tried, Dylan. You’re way too nice for that.”

He turned to me, and before I could react, he had leaned over and planted a soft kiss on my lips.

I froze. My heart leapt up into my throat. His hand cupped my cheek lightly, like a football player cradling an egg. He only lingered for a second before pulling back.

“Thanks, Lisa,” he said. “I don’t feel bummed anymore.”

“I—I’m—” I sputtered. I didn’t know what to say. “I’m glad I could help.”

Dylan grinned at me and leapt to his feet. He held out a hand to me.

“There’s gonna be cake soon,” he said. “Come on!”

I stumbled back to the picnic behind Dylan, my mind reeling. Had that really just happened?

I replayed the scene in my head in disbelief. Dylan’s lips, achingly soft and tender, pressing a tentative kiss against my mouth. His hand cradling my chin. And his smile afterward, as though one kiss had solved every problem in his world.

And Piers—he had fixed the contest and let Mia win by cheating! I was furious with him. Not for me, but for Kate. It had been her win, and it had been stolen from her. I couldn’t let it go without confronting him.

He was nowhere to be found, though, and while Dylan cut the cake for everyone at the picnic, I slipped away to try and find him.

The swan boats were all empty, and the horse carriage rides were almost over—Arlen and Emma had gotten on the last ride around the block. I went to the field where the boys had been playing touch football before.

Piers wasn’t there, but I found his jacket on top of a pile of camera equipment. I looked around. He was nowhere to be seen. And then I saw his phone peeking out from his jacket pocket.

The video for the first episode was in there. Curiosity got the better of me. I pulled his phone out of his jacket and turned it on.

Already open on the front screen was a folder full of video clips. It wasn’t for the first episode, though—this folder was labeled
Auditions
. I was about to look elsewhere when one of the clips caught my eye. It was labeled
Lisa_Post_Audition_Discussion
. I opened it up.

The video was a clip of three people. I recognized them as the judges I’d seen in the audition room. Two men and a woman, all in business wear.

“What did you think of our last contestant?”

It was Piers’ voice—the accent was unmistakable—but he didn’t appear onscreen.

“She’s old,” one of the men said. “Too old for this show.”

My skin itched. I wasn’t old! I was in my early thirties! I mean, compared to some of these girls, maybe I was old, but…

“Fat, old,” the woman said, tossing her clipboard down on the table. “Why are we even discussing her?”

Fat?
I wasn’t fat either! I mean, I wasn’t a size two, but I wasn’t Mrs. Claus or anything!

“She’s funny,” the man on the end said. “Look how desperate she is.”