Bold & Beautiful’s Ridge May Be Returning With an Even Bigger Surprise Than Bill’s Hookup With Sheila!

What does a lonely ladies’ man do when he’s away… but find a new lady?

It would be nice to think that while The Bold and the Beautiful has Ridge off the canvas for a minute, the character is doing some soul-searching, maturing better late than never, and deciding once and for all whether his heart truly belongs to Brooke or Taylor. But we all know that that isn’t happening. It just isn’t Ridge.

What we do suspect is going on is that ol’ Romeo is licking his wounds after being dumped by both of his favorite wives and letting himself be consoled by a woman who is somehow unfamiliar with the international playboy’s “colorful” history. We can just see it now. Ridge is drowning his sorrows in an overpriced cocktail at a high-end lounge when the gorgeous stranger next to him observes, “You look like you just lost your best friend.”

“I just lost both of them,” he replies forlornly.

At that, the woman signals the bartender to serve them another round. “Then I guess it’s time you made a new friend,” the woman tells Ridge. “I’m Delia.”

“My name is Ridge Forrester, and I’m a ladyholic.”

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

A Twist of Fate

As one drink turns into two, and an introduction turns into a conversation, sparks fly. Ridge can’t help but notice how easy it is to talk to Delia. “Maybe that’s because we don’t have a past like you do with your ‘friends,'” she suggests.

“What about a future?” he asks. It sounds like a line. It is one. He knows it. He just. Can’t. Stop. Himself. Delia is stunning and smart, intuitive and funny, and most appealing of all to Ridge, he hasn’t [bleeped] up once with her yet.

Well, aside from that cheesy line. “If you want a future with me, you’d better make it quick,” she laughs. “I have to be back in L.A. on Monday.”

“We can fit in a whole lotta future in a weekend,” Ridge replies. And, in fact, he and Delia do. They spend every second together that the lady lawyer isn’t at the conference she’s attending. By the last night of her trip, they’ve agreed that they should leave well enough alone and not have sex. It would be foolish to start something that, in essence, is ending.

“What if I told you I was going to L.A., too?” Ridge asks. “What if I told you the future, our future, doesn’t have an expiration date after all?” That would certainly change things, Delia admits. When Ridge inquires whether it changes them for the better, she responds by kissing him passionately.

Even characters on other shows would be shocked.

‘Honeys, I’m Home’

So when Brooke and Taylor’s ex comes home, he brings with him a new girlfriend. “You were right. You were both right,” he tells his exes. “You do deserve a man who isn’t torn between the two of you. And I’m not anymore. I’ve moved on, so you can, too.” (Typical Ridge to think that they could only move on if he did first!)

Casting the role would be a snap, considering that Thorsten Kaye has chemistry with, um, everybody! Bold & Beautiful could re-pair him with his former All My Children leading lady, Alicia Minshew (Kendall to his Zach). Or, since her CBC drama just wrapped, it could snap up Vinessa Antoine (ex-Jordan, General Hospital). Or it could cross over Young & Restless vet Jessica Collins as Avery, the attorney that she played on that show. But we digress…

Are you looking at Ridge’s next “destiny”?

Credit: J. Graylock/JPI, Michael Bezjian/Getty Images, Jill Johnson/JPI

Needless to say, Brooke and Taylor have a field day filling in Delia on Ridge’s head-spinning history. But her presence in his life actually does nudge them out of his orbit enough to consider other romantic prospects. We already know one that y’all were not remotely into. (Remember this proposition?) But others are just around the corner. For instance, in Brooke’s case, there’s a whole plethora of actors out there who’d be absolute fire with Katherine Kelly Lang. Check out the candidates in the below photo gallery.