“Some of you will be here this week to work with your singer or group, some of you will be flying out of here to meet elsewhere to do your remake, but we’ll all be back on Wednesday and then again on Friday for our first taping. Fill out your paperwork and turn it in for today and you are free to go until eight a.m. tomorrow morning.”
Ryan read over my shoulder as I went through the contract. There were several people who brought lawyers, but I didn’t think this was horribly complicated. I finished reading and reluctantly signed my name. If it wasn’t an excellent opportunity to sing my apology to Micah, I wouldn’t be here.
“Okay, let’s turn this in and go do a little sightseeing,” I said smiling up at Ryan as he offered me his hand.
Kitkat was standing impatiently as she waited to hand in her paperwork when she turned and looked at me and began to laugh. That was a little unsettling.
“You must be Annalisa Winslett,” she said quite loudly, “the Runaway Princess.”
“That would be me,” I replied as I held my head erect and stared back at her, “but don’t believe everything you hear.”
“Shit girl, I don’t but I’m guessing this is the piece of candy you ran off with the last time-I’d run off with a guy that looks that good, too.”
Ryan was trying hard not to blush, I could tell, but he was losing the battle.
Carrie came up behind us and began openly handling him as she grabbed his jean belt loops and gave his pants a light hoist to improve her view of his backside, “Yeah, I agree, he’s got a nice ass on him.” And then she goosed him.
His face was getting dark as he tried to step away.
“Please, don’t do that,” I asked calmly.
She was not a small woman. She was at least two inches taller than me and very muscular, but she didn’t frighten me. She may have liked wrestling, but I had sparred with some tough people in my martial arts training, and I was sure I could take her. And, with a title that included the word ‘princess’ in it, I knew she wouldn’t expect me to pack a punch.
“I do whatever I please, little girl, and you better be happy I’m touching him and not you. Now baby,” she said, addressing Ryan. “When you want a girlfriend that knows what a man like you is for then-”
“He has a girlfriend,” I stated, stepping between her and Ryan as we made our way closer to the table. The camera crew was focusing on the two of us, and I was beginning to grit my teeth. She liked having her ‘I’m so bad’ reputation and I’m certain she wanted to keep it up for this show, but she was picking the wrong person to mess with.
Kitkat laughed lightly as she stepped away from the table. I know she thought I was getting ready to get my butt kicked, but I was going to show Carrie that no matter what title they stuck on me, I wasn’t running away from her challenge.
Carrie appeared to be reassessing me. I stepped up and handed them my contract. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her getting ready to grab another pinch of Ryan when I startled her by turning swiftly and blocking her attempt with a sweep of my arm. As soon as we made contact, she was ready to start throwing punches. Ryan barely had time to turn around as I blocked two of her swings and the stage crew jumped in to pull us apart. She never even ruffled my hair, but I know she was dying to get at me.
“Try something like that again and I’m gonna rearrange that pretty face for you!” she spewed after me.
The stage crew still had a hold of her as I gave a light laugh and took Ryan’s arm and walked away.
“Yeah, you’d better run away,” she sneered.
I ignored the remark. I knew who I really was underneath the title, and I was sure she’d keep pushing my buttons and then she’d find out, too.
When we stepped outside, Ryan began the apology, big time. “I had no idea what this was going to be like, Leese. I’m so sorry I talked you into this.”
I waved down a taxi as he continued to tell me that he would fly me out of here right now. We slid into the back seat of the cab as I turned to him, “Rodeo Drive or Venice Beach?”
“You don’t want to stay and actually do this-you want to go home, right?”
“Venice Beach,” I decided for him, tapping on the cabbie’s glass panel. The car pulled out into traffic.
I laughed. “No, I’m fine. I overheard some of the guys saying that the bookies in Vegas have already started a pool over whether I’ll run away before the show airs. Somebody’s going to lose a lot of money, because I’m staying.”
He smiled and looked out the window as the buildings blurred past. “Thanks for the help in there,” he said sheepishly. “I have no clue what I’m supposed to do when a woman pulls something like that-I couldn’t hit her and I didn’t have any idea what to say.”
“I could tell. Unfortunately, so could she. I’m thinking she’s going to be a thorn in our side for the next several days.”
He groaned, but she was forgotten quickly on the streets of Venice Beach.
We were at the studio right on time the next morning as Don approached and said we had a plane to catch. “You’re going to Tennessee with a film crew to shoot your practice with Rascal Flatts at 2 p.m. today. You’ll be back by about 9 p.m. and then it’s back here tomorrow at noon for the dress rehearsal. Doors open for our first taping with an audience at 6 p.m.”
“I can fly her to-”
“Sorry, Romeo, the flight is already scheduled,” he said dismissively.
“His name is Ryan,” I sternly reminded Don, letting him know I didn’t like his remark.
He gave a half smile, “Sorry, Ryan-I’ll remember that next time. We have a plane and a crew ready. By the way, Annalisa, I need your song choice for next week. Have you given any thought about what you’d like to sing?”
I had actually been thinking about it ever since I agreed to do the show. If these people were going to give me an opportunity to send a message to Micah, I would make sure the message was clear, “’Everything I Do’ by Bryan Adams.”
“Oooh,” Don remarked in a very drawn out manner.
“Why? Is there something wrong with that song?”
“No, I think it’s a little old for someone your age, but Bryan Adams lives in London.”
Now I understood the ‘Oooh’ remark.
“Don’t worry about it, Annalisa. If that is your song choice, we’ll make it happen. He may not even be in London this time of the year. Go to Tennessee and have a good time and we’ll figure this out when you get back.”
It was a little different to not have Ryan at the helm, and it would have been nice to just sit together in the back of the plane and relax and talk except for the camera crew, Pete Claxton on camera and Jason Kelley on sound. I tried talking them into turning it off, but that was a lost cause.
The jet was roomy and comfortable and our seats were side by side so we just reclined, turning our backsides toward the camera. Ryan’s arm draped over the seats to rest across my waist. It had been a while since I’d felt the comfort of sleeping under his touch and it didn’t take long before I dozed. Just before I drifted off, I was thinking about Candace. If a clip of this made it on the show, even though we technically weren’t sleeping together, it would probably still qualify in her book as the same thing. Hopefully, she wouldn’t get mad.
We woke just as the wheels touched down on the Tennessee airstrip. Our meeting would be at a studio in Nashville.
“You nervous?” Ryan asked as we were about to enter the building.
I know he could tell, but I put on my braver-than-I-felt front and smiled, “Of course, not.”
He laughed-he knew I was terrified.
I’m not really sure what I expected, but it ended up being a blast. The guys from the group, Gary, Jay and Joe were down-to-earth, very personable and fun to be around. They made me immediately comfortable as they ran through the song once before I sang it with them.
“I’d like to change the lyrics just a little bit to fit my situation, if that’s okay?”
The guys looked at each other and shrugged, wanting to know what I wanted to change.
“When it comes to the chorus and says, ‘watching you walk away,’ I want to change it to say, ‘having to run away.’”
The guys laughed. Running away was supposed to be my modus operandi anyway, and Micah wasn’t the one
