The Dating Game

He smiled. He couldn’t have latched on to a better story if he’d tried.

“Well, David?” Larissa prompted, clearly trying to get him to take sides. “Don’t you agree?”

Mattie scowled at him. David lobbed a grin her way, to show her that he had good intentions. She didn’t return the volley. “I agree,” David said to Larissa. “Dating is very much like a game sometimes. Sort of like doing crossword puzzles in ink.”

“A man who likes a challenge, huh?” Mattie said.

“Always.”

“With crosswords, you’re only competing against yourself. Are you afraid of losing?”

“Never.” David took a step closer to her. “Are you afraid of playing this game?”

Mattie’s direct green gaze met his. “Not at all.”

There was fire in her words—and a fire in his gut that hadn’t been there five minutes ago. David cocked a grin at Mattie. A challenge indeed.

The doors burst open and a chubby guy in a beige golf shirt and khaki pants, wired up to a walkie-talkie ear piece and cell phone, headed into the room. He held a large order of fries in his free hand. Twin globs of ketchup dotted the front of his shirt like crimson buttons. “What’s up, Larissa?” He halted, took a long look around the room, then blinked twice at Mattie. “Hey, who’s this? Where’s Miss Indiana?”

“This is Steve Blackburn, one of the producers for Average Jill,” Larissa explained. The she turned to Steve. “I don’t know where Miss Indiana is, but this,” she said, “is Mattie Grant.”

“Who? What? This is going to totally mess—”

“When I saw her, I realized Mattie is the perfect Average Jill,” Larissa went on, interrupting him. “A lot more perfect than a former beauty pageant winner.”

“Oh, no, I’m not,” Mattie said, backing away. “I told you, I’m supposed to be on Survival of the Fittest.”

Steve withdrew a fry from the bag. “What do you do for a living?”

“I chair the Lawford Girls’ Soccer League and coach two of the girls’ teams. But I do not date fifteen—”

“Nice PR potential with that. Philanthropy angle and all that,” Steve said, wagging the fry at her. Larissa murmured agreement. Then he turned to David. “So, you think she’s pretty?”

“Definitely.” Mattie had a natural beauty, unmarred by makeup or a frou-frou hairstyle. She had an unfettered, what-you-see-is-what-you-get-and-if-you-don’t-like-it-tough look about her.

That interested him. On a purely reportorial level, of course.

“Good. Get over there and stand next to her.” Steve gestured between them, using the fry as a baton. “Go on, she won’t bite. Will you?” He looked at Mattie.

“Of course not! What kind of person do you think I am?”

“I auditioned some of those girls trying out for Survival. They were a little, ah, hard core.”

David crossed to Mattie, as he’d been told. He figured it wasn’t a huge hardship to stand beside her and get a closer look at those bright green eyes. “Looks like we’re a twosome.”

“Not for long.” Mattie scowled.

The producer and Larissa stood together, conferring. “We get a dress on her, she won’t be so bad,” Steve said.

Mattie put up her hands. “I’m on the wrong show. Aren’t you people listening to me?”

The producer’s phone jingled and he answered it, juggling food and electronics and managing to munch as he multitasked. “Yeah. So she’s there now? How’s that going?” He laughed. “That’ll make good TV. Maybe serendipity had better plans than we did. Can you talk her into staying? Yeah we’re set here. Things are working out,” he eyed Mattie, “better than we expected.”

Mattie turned to David. “Ever get the feeling they’re seeing you as the goose who laid a ratings egg?”

“You going to stay?”

“Nope. This isn’t for me.” She swung her backpack over her shoulder.

She was going to bolt again. He needed to do some fast talking if he wanted her to stay, for the sake of his story.

“The prize money is the same, you know,” he began. “And you don’t have to eat bugs.”

“There’s prize money on this show?”

“Yep. Fifty thousand to the Average Jill just for suffering through all the dates and then a hundred-thousand-dollar purse for her to split if she falls in love and gets engaged at the end.”

“Another fifty thousand if she falls in love?” Mattie’s eyes grew wide. For a second David had to remember to breathe. It wasn’t fair that one woman should have eyes that captivating. “With who?”

“With me, of course.”

“You?”

He cleared his throat. Whoa. That hadn’t come out as he’d intended. In fact, he hadn’t even wanted it to come out. He wanted to last to the end of this game, to get the maximum bang out of his story, but he hadn’t planned on broadcasting his strategy to everyone, least of all Mattie.

Besides, he wasn’t here to fall in love. He wanted the story—not the girl. Work was what he’d always focused on, not relationships. Work was permanent, relationships were…not. “I meant with me or any of the other bachelors.”

“Do I have to date all of them?” She pressed a hand to her stomach as if she were going to be ill.

“Do you have something against dating?”

“It’s not something I do much of, as a rule.”

They had that in common at least, though he didn’t say it. “Why not?”

Mattie recovered her composure and parked a fist on her hip. “That’s none of your business.”

He grinned. “Well, it will be. Mine and, very soon, all of Lawford’s.” He gestured toward the doorway, where a cameraman stood, a camera over his arm. “Get ready for your moment in the sun, Miss Grant.”

This was not what she wanted. She’d expected to be in the woods somewhere, in a state forest or on an undeveloped lake, fending for herself with a group of other competitors, using the skills she’d honed over years of Girl Scouts, camping and cross-country bike rides.

She had lived this fancy life a long time ago, until she’d left home, and then her mother’s divorce had taken it all away for good. The mansion. The clothes. The silly focus on one’s self.

She would have preferred to be in the middle of a forest with nothing but a pack of matches and a working brain to rely on. But there was the money to consider. Not to mention the good she could do with it. She didn’t have to fall in love. She’d have fifty grand just for sticking it out.

It was survival, as Larissa had said. Just another kind. And besides, it appeared someone else had been sent to take her place on Survival of the Fittest, leaving her with one option.

Love and the Average Jill.