The Husband Hunt - Kat's Season (The Bachelor Series) by Kiki Abbott, Kim Hornsby Page B

front runner.
                 Ben nodded. “There’s a woman. He lives with her. She’s an ad executive. They agreed he’d come on the show before some big art show this summer to promote his work.”
                 Her eyes widened. “You know a lot more than you said!”
                 “He talks too much.” Ben shook his head. “I don’t know what he was thinking, that we wouldn’t find it reprehensible to make fools of everyone by using this opportunity and by taking up a spot for someone who deserved to be here more.” He stopped himself. “I’m really sorry Kat. Tony and Sam wouldn’t tell you who, but I had to after Pierce came home today and started bragging.”
                 “What did he brag about?”
                 “How much you like him, and how he’s going to have to let you down easy soon.” His soft eyes looked apologetic. “He might present an entirely different side to you but around us, he’s pretty much an asshole.”
                 Kat wasn’t sure what she’d do. Eventually she’d have to pick her heart up off the floor but now she just wanted Ben to go. She stood. “Thanks. I’ll think about this.”
                “I just wanted you to know.” Ben shot a look to the producer Mary and left the beach.
                 Kat felt a betrayal, an emptiness so hurtful, she knew she had to talk to Pierce. “Can I talk to him?” She asked Mary.
                 “Sure.”
                 Kat thought about it. Soon, her friends Jacki and Elizabeth would arrive on Maui and tomorrow they’d grill the guys. Should she wait and let them ask the tough questions? Yes, she’d sleep on it before she accused Pierce of anything. There was the outside chance that he was simply bragging amongst the men, telling stories. But even if that were true, Kat didn’t think that made good husband material. That might’ve been why he wouldn’t kiss her on camera. Betrayal at a national level would be a hard thing for the girlfriend to get over.
                 When Kat’s friends arrived at 10:20pm, Kat had been waiting for three hours since Ben’s visit. She hugged each friend and beckoned them into her suite. “I’m so glad you’re here!” Tears came to her eyes.
                 “What’s wrong, honey?” Jackie searched her friend’s face.
                 “I have reason to think the guy I have the biggest crush on is only on the show for publicity and has a girlfriend.” She hadn’t intended to spill everything this fast but the words poured out of her mouth.
                 After telling them the story and making a date for breakfast, they left for their room and Kat headed to bed. They had a plan to get the truth from Pierce for the next day and it was all going down, come hell or high water.
     
    “Have you ever proposed to a woman before? Why did you come on the show? Have you ever been so in love with someone that you couldn’t imagine your life with anyone else? These are the questions,” Tony said to Kat as they lounged around the pool in their own section reserved for the show. “That’s what they asked me.”
                 Her friends Jacki and Grace sat at a table, across the pool with Blake, their latest victim in ‘the interrogation 2013’, as Tony called it.
                 “Just answer them honestly,” Kat warned the men who were listening, who hadn’t gone yet. Each man sat at the table for about half an hour and from what Kat could see, they’d loved Keith, joked with Tony, drooled over Ben, had a serious discussion with Grant and for some reason Sam had drawn them a map of something on a table napkin and they’d all laughed. Pierce was next, and knowing what she knew, he looked a little nervous. She’d been careful, to appear normal with him when they all met at the pool. He’d tried to hug her but she