Make Me Over_ Getting Real - Leslie Kelly [68]
Ginny didn’t say anything for a while. Then she patted Tori’s hand again. “I just hope he someday understands that you’re worth it, too.”
“S O, P ROFESSOR, you happy with the last two prospects for Grand Poobah lady of them all?”
Drew paused as he stood behind the bar in the library, pouring himself a drink. He certainly needed one after the evening he’d just had. Voting Tori out of here had been so hard, so bloody hard.
But it was what she’d wanted. What she’d practically demanded.
“Frankly, Jacey,” he said, bringing his drink to his lips, “I don’t give a damn.”
The camerawoman closed the doors behind her and sauntered into the room. “Pour me one?”
Retrieving a glass, he made another gin-and-tonic and slid it across the bar to the woman who watched him in silence, her dark eyes assessing. Almost judgmental.
“What?”
She shrugged, sipping her drink.
“You have something to say?” he snapped.
Jacey lowered her glass to the bar and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Darn but she was a feisty little thing. Like Tori, only without the down-home sweetness.
“Why’d you let her go?”
Drew’s eyes narrowed.
“Why’d you vote off the one woman who actually deserves to win this thing? Who’s actually transformed herself in front of all our eyes into a damned amazing woman?”
Walking around the bar, Drew dropped into the nearest chair and stared at her. “It was her choice to go.”
“She said that?”
“God, Jacey, did you not see the way she was dressed? The way she acted?”
The woman plopped onto the sofa sitting across from him, and waved an airy hand, as if his words meant nothing. “An act.”
“Well, of course it was an act. She wanted to get out of here.”
Jacey just stared. “And why, do you suppose, did she want that?”
Leaning back in his chair, Drew extended his legs out in front of him and crossed his ankles. His whole body felt weary. Drained. As if he’d just run a long race only to come in a split second behind the winner.
Defeat. That’s what this felt like.
“I think she was afraid,” he finally admitted, knowing Jacey still awaited his answer. “She realized her entire life was going to have to change, and in the end she didn’t have the guts to go for it.”
Snorting, Jacey began to shake her head. “You’re whacked. That girl’s got more guts than any ten guys I know.”
“Well, what other explanation is there? What possible reason would she have for doing what she did?”
Jacey put her drink on the coffee table and leaned forward to drop her elbows onto her knees. Her expression troubled, she said, “Can I ask you a personal question?”
Warily, he replied, “Depends on the question.”
“Did you tell her you love her?” Then, looking up at the camera watching silently in the corner of the room, she threw her hand up, palm out. “Wait, don’t answer that.”
He hadn’t planned to.
“Do you care for her?”
“And this is your business because…?”
Jacey sighed deeply, running her hand over her brow, then rubbing at the corners of her eyes with two fingers. Finally, as if reaching some difficult decision, she looked up at the camera and said four words that made absolutely no sense to him.
“I’m sorry, old man.”
“What? Jacey, if you know something about Tori, I wish you’d just come out and say it.”
Returning her attention to him, she blurted out the last thing he expected to hear. “She did it for you. Because she loves you more than she loves the million bucks she could win if she stays long enough to get you to admit you love her on-camera.”
Drew’s jaw dropped. So did his heart. It took him a long moment to come to grips with what she’d said.
Jacey didn’t elaborate. She didn’t have to. Everything, the whole scenario, unfolded in his brain with perfect clarity. The women. The aggression. The dates. The romance.
Christ, he’d been completely set up. This was just another variation of the classic romance reality show, only, this time, he was the sucker who wasn’t in on the gag. The makeovers, the lessons, none of it mattered. The only agenda was to put