Free Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1) by Susan Stoker Page A

waiting to hang out with some guy, whatever. And with that Sam decided she’d take a walk back up the rise. It wasn’t a long walk, and she could still see the camp from where she was. It was simply beautiful. How she’d love to explore a bit, Sam felt like she was “tied” to the camp. It wasn’t fair, here she was in one of the most beautiful parts of the world and she was waiting with thirteen other women to meet the guy they were supposed to be “dating.” She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him and that he was hot, but it was depressing that she was in competition for him.
    Sam sighed and tried to put the whole show out of her mind, then looked behind her and saw the ever-present Kina with the camera and smirked. She’d make Kina earn her keep today. There certainly wasn’t much to film back at camp. That had to be why Kina was following her. Sam noticed she wasn’t filmed nearly as much as the other women were, but it didn’t bother her in the least. Let them have all the camera time. Sam started off down the hill. She didn’t know how long it would be before they were supposed to go and visit with Al, but she needed this. She needed to get away from the other women for a while. Most of them weren’t bad, but they did grate on her nerves. They were just so different. For about the hundredth time Sam wondered how she had gotten on the show. She convinced herself that it was either a mistake or they needed some comic relief.
    The sun was hot, but it really was pretty. Sam walked on, almost oblivious to Kina trudging along behind her. Every once in a while she heard Kina mumble to herself, but Kina didn’t stop her or talk to her. After all, that was against the rules. Eventually, after about twenty minutes of walking, Sam stopped under a large tree, sat down, leaned against the trunk and shut her eyes, just breathing in the clean air and enjoying the fact that she was in Australia. After a few minutes Sam heard Kina sit down next to her. Sam peeked out of one eye and saw Kina had put down the camera and was looking at her.
    “What?” Sam asked.
    “I don’t get you,” Kina responded. Sam couldn’t help it, she laughed.
    “I know. I’m a loner, what can I say? Look around, look at how beautiful all this is. I’d choose this over sitting around talking about how much I miss the mall any day.”
    With that, Sam put her head back against the tree trunk and shut her eyes again, not waiting to see how Kina reacted to her bluntness.             
    Finally, she heard Kina say, “I like you, Sammi.”
    Sam smiled, but didn’t say anything. At least one person seems to like me.
    Sam and Kina sat under the tree for about thirty minutes. Sam was half asleep when she heard Kina’s voice.
    “You’re missing it, you know,” Kina finally spoke up again.
    “Huh? What am I missing?” Sam asked absently.
    “The meet-and-greet,” Kina responded. “They left ten minutes ago.”
    With that Sam leaped up.
    “Oh, shit, I can’t believe they left without me!”
    She looked at Kina again and saw she was back to her camerawoman mode. The camera was up and pointed at her again. Sam figured it wouldn’t make any sense to go running back to camp, especially if the women had truly already left. They obviously knew where she was, Kina had some sort of communication with them since she knew they’d already left. Screw it. Sam thought. If I’ve already missed the bus I might as well explore some more. And she set off walking again. I won’t go far, just a bit more.

Chapter Nine
     
     
    The bus pulled up to the clearing where the producers had set up a sort of “living room.” There were tree stumps around for seating and a few tables set up around the clearing. Alex watched as the women climbed off the bus. He was immediately surrounded by all of the women who seemed to all be talking at once again.
    I can’t wait until more of them are gone, Alex thought and immediately felt guilty.