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Keaton nodded. Seb had been a judge for several seasons on the hit tattoo competition show Tattoo Master. Keaton had been on set a few times when he’d visited his cousin. He’d noticed how much of the process was start and stop, hurry up and wait. It seemed to him that twelve-hour days usually only consisted of four hours of actual filming.
It had driven him crazy. Doing press had always been Keaton’s least favorite part of fighting. He loved the training. He loved the discipline. He loved the fights. He hated reporters and social media. He’d never understood why people were interested in him when he wasn’t in the cage.
Once they got all their B-roll, Keaton and Clancy stood in front of the wall with the Legacy logo behind them and began the interview.
“We are here with Keaton Savage, three-time MMA world champion at his gym Legacy. Keaton, since retirement, we haven’t really heard much from you. What have you been up to?” Clancy tilted the microphone toward him.
“I opened Legacy and have been focusing on teaching.”
“During your career, you were notorious for keeping your private life, private. Unlike many of your contemporaries, you shied away from the spotlight and any personal questions. What made you decide to sign up to go on a reality dating show where you will be filmed twenty-four hours a day and your private life would be up for public consumption?”
“To be completely honest with you, when the announcement came out, I was as surprised as everyone else.” Keaton smiled. “But the truth is, I haven’t found love the traditional route and family is the most important thing to me. Nothing else really matters.”
“So is it fair to say that you are looking for love?”
“I think deep down most people are looking for love,” he did his best to answer the question without actually answering the question.
“And you moved here after the first season of Fairytale Love was filmed. Did you settle down in Whisper Lake because of the show?”
“No, actually I was here right before the show was filmed. No, the show had nothing to do with me choosing Whisper Lake as my home base. I’ve been coming here all my life. My granddad took me and my cousins here every summer. Those fishing trips were some of my best childhood memories. We’d spend hours on the lake in his tiny boat and Granddad would tell us stories about his life. Some were hilarious, some were scary, some were heartwarming, but they all ended up teaching me a valuable lesson. He would talk about the fact that we were his legacy and what that meant, the responsibility it carried. This town holds a special place in my heart and memories. Which is why I’ve always known it was where I wanted to settle down, put down roots, and start a family.”
“You mentioned your granddad talked about legacy, is that where the name of your gym comes from?”
“It is.” Keaton nodded. “My granddad passed away when I was fifteen, a year before my first semi-professional fight. For so long, I wished he was alive to witness my accomplishments. He was the one who taught me my work ethic. He instilled in me the discipline to be not only a strong competitor but also a good man. When I opened the gym, that was what I wanted to instill in my students. That is the legacy I want to leave when I’m not here. It’s his legacy.”
“You’re not the only World Champion in the area,” Clancy continued. “Whisper Lake is also the hometown of MMA bad boy Kade McKnight. Does he ever pop in to check things out?”
“Kade is actually going to be taking over running things at Legacy while I’m working on the show.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Janelle give the hand signal to wrap it up.
“Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us this morning, I think I can speak for everyone at Good Morning Chicago when I say good luck. We’re going to be rooting for the hometown boy!”
The interview ended and Keaton lifted his arms so one of the cameramen could remove his mic. The relief that the interview was over was short-lived because he knew that he was facing up to two months of days filled with talking, hurrying up, and waiting.
He hoped that he’d be voted off in week two. He wasn’t sure he could last eight weeks. And, more importantly, he didn’t know how long Avery was going to be in town. He wanted to see her, to speak to her, not film a TV show. He’d tried to find her after he’d met with Maura and George but the castle was huge and he’d had to leave to go teach a class.
Maybe he’d see her during filming. Or, maybe she was already gone. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d just disappeared from his life.
6
Avery signedoff on the menu redesign and tried to keep her mind focused on the tasks at hand. That was difficult to do when all she could think about was the dimples in Keaton’s cheeks. The soft pads of his fingers brushing over her knuckles when he touched her ring. The woodsy musk of his aftershave that had wrapped around her like a heated, sherpa blanket in a snowstorm.
For so long she’d wondered what he would be like if she ever saw him again. Now, she knew. He was everything she remembered, and more. Over the past five years, he’d somehow become even more handsome. Which was a feat she would have deemed impossible. He looked even more…manly. Even more capable.
She closed her eyes and the memory of his strong hands on her when they made love, of the way he cradled her in his arms while he’d moved inside of her, flooded back to her sending a shock of bliss exploding between her legs.
No.She opened her eyes. That was how hard up she was for sex. She was about to come sitting at her desk from the distant memory of being touched.
She absolutely could not go down this path. Keaton was the worst kind of distraction because she could easily get lost not only in the memories they’d shared but also in one of the thousands of fantasies she’d had of him over the past five years. All of which seemed more real to her than any sex she’d had with Jude.
Trying to focus on work once more, she looked over the notes she’d taken from the two candidates she’d interviewed online earlier that morning who were possible replacements for Jovan. They would both be fine, amazing even, but she hadn’t got that feeling that they were the one. It was a feeling she relied on in all of her staffing decisions, and for the most part, it hadn’t let her down. Thankfully, she had three Zoom meetings lined up tomorrow with three equally qualified chefs. All she had to do now was cross her fingers, toes, and eyes that one of them would give her that feeling.
She clicked on an email from Maura with accommodation requirement updates. Housing, feeding, and generally supporting not only the cast but also the production staff and crew was not an easy task. It had a ton of moving parts but after spending the past two days holed up in her office Avery felt like she was finally getting a handle on everything that was going on.
The castle had multiple avenues of revenue. There was the hotel, the spa, restaurants, and, of course, the event spaces. Stone Castle was a go-to for corporate events, weddings, birthday parties, baby showers, and even divorce parties. The latter of which she definitely would have had to throw for herself if she had walked down the aisle with Jude.
Suzanna had done an amazing job of running the entire operation like a well-oiled machine and making it look easy. But now that Avery was digging into it, she saw just how complicated it actually was. Avery hadn’t realized just how out of touch she was until now. Two things occurred to her once she wrapped her head around the totality of the business. First, Suzanna deserved a raise. Second, whatever her future held, her being more involved in operations at Stone Castle was going to play a significant role in her life.
