Page 113 of Rule 2: Never Join a Christmas Dating Show

“Are you okay?” he asks his voice halting.

I press my lips together.

MyGreat Guyis sitting opposite me. Not for long, of course. But he’s here now.

“Everything is perfect,” I say, my voice steady, my nerves exploding, thinking about the truth of it.

I squeeze his hand, because maybe we’re eating together, but I can’t resist touching him.

Sebastian bites into the lobster part of the Lobster Benedict. His eyelashes flutter. “This is amazing.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I mean...It’s restaurant level.”

“Good restaurant, I hope.”

He stops eating, and some lobster topples from his fork. Hollandaise sauce is smeared on the corner of his lip, but his lashes flutter up, and he grins. “Magnificent.”

I grin back.

“I’ll pack you some things to take with you.”

He snorts. “Why didn’t you put you cook in your application essay?”

“You want me to have cooked for the other contestants?”

He frowns. “No.”

“Besides, I didn’t actually apply.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Sebastian

I blink at Luke. “Sorry. I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

“It’s not important.”

He takes a bite of his own amazing Lobster Benedict, but I don’t think I actually misheard him. I think what he said didn’t make sense.

“You didn’t apply for Mr. Right?”

He sighs. “No.”

“But—”

“Some of my friends decided to apply on my behalf.”

I frown. His words don’t make sense. “That should have been caught in the vetting process.”

“It wasn’t.”

Shit.

Ella had said she’d spoken to an enthusiastic, chuckling Luke for the interview portion on the phone.

Luke has been subjected to cameras and producers and he never wanted it? Not ever? His schedule has been stretched to unreasonable lengths, because face it, a hockey player’s schedule is already pretty unreasonable, and a reality TV show on top of that is...a lot. He never wanted to find true love? Or leverage his encounter into something more high profile, like better endorsements? Or the simple knowledge he is famous, the hockey star name that is first on everyone’s lips in this country?