“Took me a long time.”

“Uh-huh,” he repeats, and then he turns to the next page, where Luna drew out a feather garland that was hard to understand, but once she got the supplies and showed me what to do, I understood it. Thad lifts an eyebrow. “This looks complicated.”

“It’s not. I practiced.”

“You practiced?”

“Yeah, went to the craft store, and Lu—” Oh shit. “Luu-oopy drunk.” I try to make the save, but Thad’s eyes narrow. “Just loopy drunk, I came up with the idea. Should try it. Craft stores and buzzed—you come up with great ideas.”

“Why are you being weird?”

“I’m not being weird. Am I being weird?” I ask Naomi.

“A little weird. Kind of jittery.”

“Yes.” Thad snaps his fingers. “Jittery. That’s the exact word I was looking for. You’re acting jittery.”

“Just, uh, nervous to hear what you think. I worked hard on this.”

Thad studies me a few beats longer, his eyes like laser beams trying to cut me in half. “What’s your game?”

“Maybe he’s just trying to be helpful,” Naomi says.

Thad holds up the papers. “This is helpful. And I appreciate it.” With two fingers, he points from his eyes to mine. “But I have my eyes on you, Alec.”

“Okay . . . ,” I say.

“Your eyes are shifty, and I don’t like shifty eyes.”

“Maybe because you’re being weird and making me feel uncomfortable.”

“I’m always like this. You should know that by now.”

Valid point.

“Are you staying for dinner?” Naomi asks, and I send her a silent Thank you for breaking up the weird staredown.

“Would love to,” I say, thinking of Luna, who’s having dinner at Cohen and Declan’s right now and prepping for tomorrow. I told her I was going to do the same, and she told me I was cute. I prefer sexy but settled for cute. She also gave me some encouraging words and reminded me that breaking Thad was probably going to be difficult, but not to give up.

She could not have been more right.

“Wonderful. I’ll order some pizza. Thad, why don’t you go wash your face? You have Dorito cheese dust caked all over your mouth.”

“And you let me intimidate my brother like this? Christ, Naomi.” Thad stomps off toward the bathroom.

I chuckle and pull out my phone as Naomi orders pizza.

There’s a text from Luna.

Luna: How’s it going over there?

Alec: Just as you’d expect.

Luna: Thad giving you the side eye?

Alec: Heavily. And he called me out for having shifty eyes and being jittery.

Luna: Are you acting weird?

Alec: A little.

Luna: Relax, Alec. Just be yourself.

Alec: It’s encouragement like that, that makes me . . . fall.

Luna: It’s admissions like that ^^^ that make me . . . fall.

Alec: Can’t wait for this to be over so I can kiss you in front of everyone—let them know how much you mean to me.

Luna: Can’t wait for this all to be over so I can knit a pair of handcuffs to gently bind your hands to your headboard.

Alec: LOL. Something to look forward to.

“Helen is ripe today,” Thad says from the corner of his mouth, his hand on my shoulder. “Look at her—I think I see fangs poking out of her mouth.”

“She’s not happy about the Twitter trolls,” Naomi says.

The first episode of the show came out on Wednesday. There is a much-needed delay between filming and airing; the show is constantly moving from state to state, providing viewers new contestants, but prefilming gives the crew and judges a break. Luna and I watched the first episode together on Wednesday, and I laughed so hard tears were rolling down my face. The editing they did of Helen sitting on Luna was the most priceless thing I had ever seen. Thank God I recorded it at my place too, because it has been endless entertainment. Not to mention the people at work keep sending me memes from the first episode, making my week that much better.

“What? They’re talking about us on Twitter already? In that Facebook group?” Thad asks. “What did they say?”

“It’s not important,” Naomi says, giving me a look.

Things Thad doesn’t need to know—how much America thinks the judges were high when they picked our theme to win the first week—which they unanimously claimed to be vastly original. To say viewers weren’t nice about it on social media is an understatement.

“It is important. Who’s in the lead? Who’s the front runner?”

Naomi glances at me, and I just shrug. She sighs and says, “Based on the comments . . . Team Rossi.”

“Bastards,” Thad whispers as he whips his head to look over at Luna, Cohen, and Declan, who are bent over their workbench, strategizing.

“Good news, though—America really despises Helen.”

“Join the club, America.” Thad places both hands on the workbench. “Our true competition is Team Rossi, and we need to make sure we’re on point today. Naomi, really play up the pregnancy to the cameras. America loves pregnant women.”

“Do they?” I ask.

“They would be heathens if they didn’t.” Thad points to Naomi’s substantial bump. “This woman is sharing her body with another living being. She’s letting it suck the life from her. See these dark circles?” Thad motions to Naomi’s eyes. “No concealer can cover them up, and they weren’t there before. And you should see her nipples. Never in my life have I seen—oof.” Thad bends forward, holding his stomach.

“Don’t talk about my nipples,” Naomi says as Thad, still bent over, draws a large circle with his finger and mouths, “Huge.”

“Mary, we’re ready!” Diane calls out as Mary walks on set.

Her heels clack across the concrete floor, and as she passes our workbench, she pauses and reaches over, caressing my arm. “It was great seeing you on Monday, Alec.” She winks. “Looking forward to what you create today.” With that, she takes off toward her spot. I quickly glance over at Luna, who looks ready to kill.

“What the hell was that?” Thad asks. “Did you go out with her?”

“What? No.” I shake my head. “She saw me with Lu—” Fuck. “Lucas,” I say to recover. “We were having dinner and ran into her. No idea why she’s touching me.”

“She probably thinks you’re cute. If you do her in her dressing room, think she could sway the votes for us to win?”

“I don’t think my penis is that powerful,” I deadpan.

“Mine is,” Thad says with pride. “Got this one pregnant, and you should see the armor she wears as underwear.”

“You realize I can murder you in your sleep, right?” Naomi asks.

“Quiet on set,” Diane says and then points to Mary.

Plastering on that fake smile, Mary goes into her spiel, reading off the intro they have on cue cards in front of the camera.

Today we have an hour to create the rest of our decorations, and then we’re going to have half an hour to utilize the rest of our budget on anything we want to upgrade. So we get to go through all the aspects of the wedding and decide if we want to add more to our food and beverage plans, change out the bouquets or the decorations, or tweak the attire. We will have time—not much, but we’ll make it work. We’ve already decided to use the extra $1,000 we’ve saved up for the bouquet and boutonnieres. Swapping out our horrendous creations was an easy choice to make.

“Are you ready, contestants?” Mary asks, clasping her hands together.

We all nod and get in position before a white curtain screening off the supplies we’ll use for our final decorations. Once something is taken, that’s it—there are no replacements, just like in Chopped when there’s only one ice cream machine. You have to be the fastest, or you’re screwed.

But I think we’re ready.

“On your mark, get set, create!” The curtain drops, and I have a moment of uncertainty as I take in all the different ribbons, strings, paper, florals, and mounds of tulle. Focus, Baxter. Helen, surprisingly, is the first to the table and starts grabbing every spare feather and spool of string she can get her hands on.

“She’s stealing all the feathers!” Thad shouts and then charges toward Helen, blocking her and trying to gather the remaining feathers.

“Get off me, you monster!” Helen shouts.

“Don’t hit him!” Luciana calls out.

“Ouch. Did you see that?” Thad screams. “She hit me.”

“It was a tap.”

“Luna, wood triangles?” Cohen asks, holding up a package.

“No,” she says, digging around. I know she’s mentally flipping through all the sketches and supply lists she’s made this week.

“Careful of my wife, careful!” Thad calls out.

Naomi holds her belly and shouts, “I’m so pregnant! I’m so pregnant!”

Christ.

“Stop staring and find the string!” Thad shouts at me.

“That’s what I’m looking for,” I say, scanning the table, even though Thad was right—I was staring.

I spot the burlap ribbon I know Luna was hoping would be there, and without even thinking about it, I pick it up and shout, “Hey, Luna—here.” I toss her the ribbon, and she catches it, a stunned look on her face. Icy realization washes over me, but I have no time to recover.

Oh shit.