Page 54 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

He opened his mouth to respond, but Libby appeared at his side, pushing his shoulder. “Slide down,” she said. “There are no seats in this place.”

“You should have gotten here early like the rest of us,” he said, but obediently slid his chair a few inches towards me so that she could squeeze in on his other side.

“When is this supposed to start?” Libby asked, leaning around Andrew.

I glanced down at my watch. “We’re at T-minus five.”

“Oh, God,” Jenny muttered on my other side. “I’m so nervous!”

“It’s going to be fine,” I told her, but inside my stomach was doing somersaults. Ithadto be fine.

Since I was leading the committee, I could barely walk down the street these days without someone stopping me to share the latest show-related gossip. And I didn’t mind it, really. It filled me up with pride that they were all so excited. But as the level of excitement grew, so did my nerves. What would they all think if this was it? If Chris was right, we wouldn’t be going very far in the competition. I hated to think about their reaction to that.

“Here we go!” said Libby, pointing at one of the TVs. “It’s starting!”

There was an outburst of squeals and whistles, followed by furious shushing.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” Jenny was whispering next to me.

This is it, I thought, eyes glued to the screen. The feeling that I might be sick doubled as the TV went black, and I realized that I hadn’t taken a breath since Libby’s squeal. Then someone was grabbing my hand under the table. Andrew. I squeezed back gratefully, concentrating on taking deep breaths as the intro music began.

“All around the country,” the announcer’s voice began, as pictures of various landscapes flashed across the screen, “men and women live and work and love and dream in small towns just like these.” And then Heather Dale’s face appeared, beautiful as ever. She was standing in a studio, the bright lights of New York City shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind her.

“Tonight we begin our journey across America,” she said. “In search of that special place that inspires us. Inspires us to travel, inspires us to make changes in our community. That special place that inspires us to dream.”

“Breathe, Riley,” Andrew whispered, and I sucked in a gulp of air. All around me in the pub, everyone was silent, their attention fixated on the screens.

Heather Dale grinned. “So let’s get started,” she said. “We begin on the rugged coast of the Pacific Northwest.”

The camera cut away to a shot of ocean waves crashing into gray rocks, and I took another breath. We weren’t up yet.

“You okay?” Andrew asked and I nodded.

“It’s pretty intense.”

He smiled, squeezing my hand again, and only then did I realize that I had never let go.

“I’ll say. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Posey shut up for this long.”

“I heard that,” she snapped from the other side of the table.

“Shh,” Libby said, and from the grunt Andrew gave I assumed she had elbowed him in the side. “I’m trying to watch.”

So we settled in to watch the other towns. The first episode was mostly an overview, just like Gina had said. In each city they visited we saw shots of the location, the people, the various things to do. There were interviews with government officials, tourists, and everyday locals off the street.

“This is kind of boring,” Andrew muttered in my ear.

“Andrew!” I whispered, releasing his hand at last so I could punch his thigh.

“What? It is! It’s just a bunch of people talking about their towns and where they like to go on vacation.”

“People like this stuff,” I whispered back fiercely. “Home and travel shows account for up to thirty percent of reality based television and—” I cut myself off at the sight of him smirking at me. “What?”

“I was just trying to get you to relax a little bit. You look like a statue sitting in that chair.”

I glared at him. “I hate you.”

His smirk didn’t falter. “But you feel better, don’t you.”