Danielle Maltby was like a breath of fresh air in the middle of what The Bachelor star Nick Viall called "a wild week" of first dates.
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"I couldn't have been happier to have Danielle M. on the first one-on-one of the season," Nick wrote in his People blog.
"I wanted to bring a woman who I felt a strong connection with on the first night, but also who was a bit of a mystery. Danielle was an easy choice."
For their date, Nick and Danielle took a helicopter ride and landed on a yacht in Newport Beach. They drank champagne and shared a few sweet, flirty kisses on their romantic boat ride.
"Landing the helicopter onto the yacht was crazy surreal. We both joked about how it went from The Bachelor to James Bond pretty quickly. Too bad I wasn't as cool as James Bond because the second we landed on the moving yacht, I had to lay down for five minutes due to motion sickness," Nick revealed.
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"But lucky for me, I had my favorite nurse beside me to hold my hand," he said of the 31-year-old neonatal nurse from Nashville, TN. "Once I felt back to normal -- on (somewhat) solid ground -- we had a great time."
Upon meeting Danielle on the first night of filming, the Bachelor could immediately tell she was sweet and personable. He wanted to learn much more about her, and so this one-on-one date was his chance.
"We talked about growing up in Wisconsin and more about her job as a neonatal nurse. Moving onto dinner that night I wanted to learn more about her past," Nick noted.
That's when Danielle opened up about her late fiance, Nicholas Haag, who died of an overdose five-and-a-half years ago. About three months into their engagement, Danielle tragically found him dead, and she had no idea he was even an addict.
"It was heartbreaking to hear about Danielle's ex-fiance. She has gone through something that I couldn't even imagine. It puts a lot of things into perspective and in that moment, I knew just how much of a strong and resilient woman she is," Nick disclosed.
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"On a day-to-day basis she works with these infants who are fragile and need the best care in the world. Danielle has also dealt with tragic heartbreak, but here she is standing strong."
Just as Nick said during Monday night's The Bachelor episode, giving Danielle a rose on their date was "the easiest choice" he made that week.
"Saying goodnight that evening, I didn't want our date to end and felt excited about what kind of future we could have," Nick wrote in his blog.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski