The Bachelor by David Dower (read along books TXT) 📖

with relief.

“There you are!” Pauline announced behind them. “Hi, Zach,” she said, jumping her way through the waters.

“Hi,” he answered. Julianne took the advantage of his distraction to sneak away.

“Jules, where are you going?”

“Swimming,” she said with a laugh. “I love swimming!” she shouted and her head throbbed. Then she remembered she couldn’t swim with her contacts on. “Oh, shit!” she cried out.

“What’s wrong?” Zach asked, suddenly beside her.

“I can’t swim with my damn contacts on,” she answered with a sigh. “I think I’ll go back inside,” she announced.

“That’s better,” he said, “you’re drunk.”

She chuckled, letting him hold her by the hand, and guide her back on dry ground. “No, I’m not.”

“You are. You better get inside. I want to talk to you,” he said seriously.

Julianne did not answer and grabbed her hand back. “I’ll be fine on my own,” she muttered and grabbed her towel.

I need a drink, she said to herself, opening the door, walking into the warmth of the cabin.

 *****

Zach couldn’t get away from the other ladies as easily as he had hoped for, but he would constantly shoot his gaze at the cabin windows to see any sign of Julianne. Once he saw her through the kitchen window, holding a bottle of wine. And a lot of times, he saw her pacing the same room with a glass full of dark liquid. She had her glasses back on and her hair was tied up in a mess and she was still in her top bikini.

It was not a good sign at all and he wanted to jump out of the waters and shake some sense into her. She was acting like a brat and he thought he knew why. All along, he knew why she was like that, but he didn’t want to admit it to himself.

“Ladies,” he said over his lungs, “I’ll go in first! I think I’m gonna catch a cold!”

The ladies chorused a lot of concerned words at him. He said his thanks and prayed to God they would stay a little longer in the water. Some of them went in as soon as he had left and hopefully, they would retire for the night.

Inside his cabin, he watched through his window to see if Julianne was still in the kitchen. And she was. Good thing kitchen with a lot of food was not considered by the other ladies as a good place to hang around. Chloe and the others were still outside, and those who came in were already upstairs in their rooms. He knew because he saw their bedroom lights flicker on.

He couldn’t very well go out through the front door unless he wanted Chloe and the others to see him, so he went out the backdoor. It was directly at the edge of the woods and he had to carefully make his way through the dented ground. Once he reached the backdoor of the girls’ cabin, his shoulder dropped to find out it was locked. The other side of the kitchen, the one not facing the ocean, was completely shadowed and dark. He peeked through the window to see if Julianne was still there, and sure enough, she was sitting on the same stool, pouring another glass. Desperate, he tried the window. Disappointment came once again when it did not open and he sighed with frustration.

He badly wanted to talk to her and it seemed the only perfect time to do that. But the blasted windows and doors wouldn’t let him in. He paced outside the kitchen window, hands on hips, head bent, brows knitted together, and mind running around a maze. His head snapped up when he heard a screeching sound from inside. Julianne was standing up.

He cursed when he saw her walk out the kitchen, but then he smiled with relief when she turned to the left and opened the front doors, almost landing on her back when Chloe and the others burst in a pile, covered in their towels.

“Go to sleep, Julianne, you’re drunk!” Vivienne said with a condescending look. Julianne just nodded, adjusting her glasses.

Vivienne was definitely on top of his list of ladies not getting a rose now, he thought with ire. His sudden anger upon seeing Julianne being looked down that way surprised him. The urge to protect her just came out, and once again, it was new for him.

The girls went directly upstairs, chattering on about those who were not present—a behavior he really resented ever since he first heard his mother talked about her friends behind their backs. But that was the nature of most women. They just couldn’t stop themselves.

Once no one was around to witness his sneaking, he walked to the front doors and looked for Julianne. His heart started racing when the thought of her going back in the waters occurred to him, but it quickly ebbed down when he spotted her by the tree they stayed at a few nights ago.

He jogged his way towards her and like the last time, she was sitting on the branch, her face against the tree trunk, her eyes directed to the sky.

“Jules, we need to talk,” he whispered beside her.

At first he thought she did not hear him nor felt his presence, but she finally moved her head and looked at him through her glasses. Her eyes glinted as her lips broke into a smile. “Hi, Zach,” she said, followed by a deep chuckle.

“You’re drunk,” he thought.

“Of course, I’m not,” she said, playfully pushing him. “Why are you here? You want to kiss me again?” she asked with a tinge of bitterness, though her eyes travelled down his lips.

He leaned closer when her face went forward, but only to find out that she lost her balance. “You’re not yourself,” he pointed out, catching her by the arms.

Pushing away from him, she found her equilibrium. “You’re making me do it, you know,” she slurred.

“Me? What did I do?” he asked outrageously.

“Your silly notion about liking me is what’s keeping me here. I intend to prove you wrong.”

“By acting like a brat?”

“By acting like everyone else,” she nodded slowly, her eyes closing. “By acting like them.”

“To push me away?”

She nodded once again. “And to make you think I’m no different than everyone else,” she added once again, this time frowning. “My head’s killing me.”

“You’re acting like this because you don’t want me to notice you,” he said matter-of-factly, a confirmation of what he thought of in the first place. “You want me to ignore you and stay away from you.”

“Uh-huh,” she smiled and opened her eyes. “But I think I’m doing it wrong,” she frowned. “Because you’re still here in front of me…”

Zach closed his eyes and tried to control himself. He was not angry. He was frustrated.

And why couldn’t he just do what she wished him to do? Why couldn’t he just ignore her like he’d been ignoring some of the girls? Most of all, why couldn’t he just make her pack her bags and go home?

Because you know she’s different no matter how she tries not to be, a part of him whispered in his ears. And deep inside, you know that this might be the last time you’ll find someone like her.

Finally, after staring at her for a while, he sighed and said, “You’re drunk, Jules. You better go inside,” then he held her by the arms and urged her to get up.

“But—”

“Get inside,” he insisted. “Or I won’t hold on to my promise to let you go home after the top four”

“Yes, yes,” she answered immediately, and he wished she didn’t do it that fast.

He guided her to the front door of their cabin and when he couldn’t hold on any longer, he caught her hand, just before she turned and started walking to the doors, and pulled her back to him. Frustration, want, and need made him crush his lips down against hers. Of course he didn’t expect her to be able to push him away due to her drunk state, but he didn’t expect her to respond with such urgency either.

Hmm, a complete irony to what she confessed earlier.

When, finally, he came back to his senses, he cupped her face with his hands and gently leaned away. “You better go inside,” he murmured.

Julianne absently nodded and turned around to open the doors.

 *****

Back in his room, Zach was pacing back and forth, his mind full of wondering thoughts. She wouldn’t kiss him back if she wanted to really push him away. But why would she want to leave?

We already made a deal, he said.

She doesn’t want your attention, that part of his brain said. You know you get into her nerves.

Of course that was it. What else did he think? She said so herself. She agreed to stay until the top four, but she didn’t want him going after her.

But she still kissed me back.

Zach stopped in the middle of the room, a smile breaking his face.

Jules, you just made the biggest mistake by blurting out your plan, he thought with a grin. Chapter 11

Julianne woke up with the worst headache she ever experienced. Everything was a blur, and she was even surprised when she learned that she was still in the same white bikini top from last night. Hell, she couldn’t even remember last night.

“Hey,” Pauline beamed at her through the mirror. Her friend was already up, ironing her blond tresses. “Hangover?”

She just groaned and closed her eyes once again. “What happened?” she asked.

“You were drunk I guess,” her friend answered. “But I don’t really know what happened to you. You were gone for some time but thank God you came back before I really got worried. I don’t want to go into the woods looking for you if you went missing as well.”

“I can’t remember what I did last night,” she murmured with a moan.

“Well, you came in really drunk, but you were smiling like crazy. I tucked you in and you went to sleep,” Pauline explained what she could.

“Thanks,” she muttered, frowning. But what happened in between? The last thing she remembered was the cool water from the beach and Zach and Pauline. After that was a blur. “My head is killing me,” she groaned.

“Want me to get you something?” Pauline asked with concern.

“I’ll be fine,” she answered in a whisper and fell back to deep slumber, her consciousness ebbing away to dreamland.

Zach was in a good mood that morning. He woke up early and excitedly, thinking about his plan, rerunning it around his head, and then grinning once more when he was sure it would work. He showered casually and enjoyed his breakfast alone. He wanted to execute his plan well, so he didn’t dare come out to join the ladies. He would have to wait and be patient if he wanted to have the old Julianne back.

He was grinning from ear to ear as he walked out of this cabin door, jumping down the steps with excitement, and then he froze, his feet rooted on the hot morning sand. His boyish grin completely disappeared into a dark shadowed frown as he tried to focus his eyes beyond, outside the girls’ cabin. Zach clenched his jaw, slowly moving towards the sight that caused his mood to turn a full 360.