Anyone who watched the finale of Charity Lawson’s stunning Bachelorette season knew it was coming. We all saw Brayden Bowers sitting in the audience with his arm possessively encircling Rachel Recchia. I just hope they’re both in it for the long haul.
When he came to Mexico, the travel nurse was hoping to meet someone who would accept his quirky personality – and his 34 pairs of dangly earrings. At first, he thought he might have found her in fellow RN Kat Izzo.
“[Being with Kat] felt really good,” Brayden said, explaining how accepting Kat was. “A lot of times people kind of try to dim me down. I feel like when they meet me, they’re like, ‘Oh, we got to change this about you. I don’t know if this is going to work.’”
Someone who loves you the way you are
Initially, Brayden was attracted to Kylee [Russell]. “[But she] was like, ‘Maybe not the dangly earrings, maybe some studs or something like that,’” he says. “So when Kat [was just] like, ‘No, I love your look. I wouldn’t want to change anything.’ It kind of just made me feel good because you want someone that just doesn’t want to change you.”
While the two registered nurses hit it off right from the start, Kat admitted during Hannah Brown’s Bonfire of Interrogation that she was hoping for either Tyler Norris or Tanner Courtad to arrive. Brayden, who had just admitted he was only interested in Kat, looked visibly deflated when he heard her response.
The Murietta, California native confessed that he doesn’t do well dating multiple people at once. “How do you truly get to know someone when you’re getting to know five other people?” he asked. But when he felt she wasn’t as committed to getting to know him as he was to her, he was ready to move on.
In a trailer for the October 12 episode of BIP, both Tanner and Tyler arrive to Playa Escondida, and Kat accepts a date from Tanner. That was the death knell for his and Kat’s relationship.
“I know that Paradise is really open,” Brayden said, “but for me, I have my own rules.” Kat going on a date with someone else was a deal breaker for him.
When one door closes…
“Rachel … is an absolutely beautiful woman,” he gushed. “She is carefree and fun, and she’s super intelligent. I mean she’s a freaking pilot. That’s pretty freaking cool.” I forgot Rachel was a pilot. There seem to be a lot of pilots on this show. Who’s driving America’s airplanes?
“A lot of things about [Rachel are] really amazing,” Brayden continued. “Instead of [asking] what are the good traits about her, what are some of the bad traits that wouldn’t make you date her? Because I feel like those are very few. She’s a great girl.” He sounds suitably smitten.
As for the rest of his stay in Paradise? “You’re going to see a lot of hot and sweaty rose ceremonies,” he teases. “It was terrible. You’ll see me sweating over some other things, too. It’s definitely going to be a wild ride.”
When you think about it, she’s a pilot and he’s a travel nurse. They might just be a match made in Paradise.
Bachelor in Paradise airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.
TELL US – ARE YOU HOPING BRAYDEN AND RACHEL WILL FIND THEIR HAPPY ENDING TOGETHER? DID YOU EVER THINK YOU’D SEE THE TWO OF THEM AS A COUPLE?
