When Jef Holm got down on one knee to propose to Bachelorette Emily Maynard Sunday, he not only chose to become a fiance, but a stepdad to Maynard’s 7-year-old daughter, Ricki. And if you ask Maynard, Holm is well prepared to care for her pride and joy.
“I feel like Jef would make the best husband and the best stepdad ever,” Maynard, 26, predicted on The Bachelorette‘s July 9 episode, where she and Holm, 28, traveled to Curacao.
Finally meeting Maynard’s daughter with her late fiance, Ricky Hendrick, on Sunday’s finale, Holm bonded with Ricki the best way he knew how: By having lots of fun. Splashing around in the pool wearing ultra-girly pink goggles with Maynard’s daughter on the finale, Holm has enjoyed plenty of outdoorsy bonding time since proposing in May — undercover, of course.
“They sent us on couple retreats around the country with basically the FBI following us around,” Holm told Jimmy Kimmel Monday. Among his favorite alone-time activities with Ricki? “They went fishing and caught frogs,” Maynard recalled of Holm, who was secretly dubbed ‘Dean’ so that Ricki wouldn’t slip and tell others who her mom (dubbed ‘Dolly’) was really with.
Intending to enjoy a long engagement, Maynard and Holm have decided that he’ll move to his bride-to-be’s Charlotte, N.C. hometown — but live separately from her and her daughter until they tie the knot.
“We’re going to combine our lives and I’m going to hang out with Ricki all the time and become a car pool dad,” Holm has said. “We’re just going to live our lives together and get accustomed with each other, plan a wedding, and when we get married, move in together.”