Luke Pell missed out on his opportunity to be The Bachelor star, but he still may end up with one of Season 21's bachelorettes, Danielle Lombard.
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Danielle, a 27-year-old small business owner and model from Los Angeles, CA, was dumped by The Bachelor star Nick Viall on the February 6 episode, but she has apparently made a connection with Luke, the handsome war veteran and singer/songwriter from JoJo Fletcher's season of The Bachelorette.
"I met Danielle -- when was it? Three weeks or a month ago back in Los Angeles. And yeah, she's a great girl," Luke, whom producers passed on last minute when deciding Nick should be the Bachelor, told Us Weekly.
"I've met her, and some of the girls are from Nashville. So they come to Nashville and they hang out with me. They all want to see each other after the show, so yeah. She's great. Who knows how things will go."
While Luke, 32, and Danielle certainly aren't serious yet, there is potential for a romance.
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"Danielle and I have probably hung out, like, twice. So it's very, very new. She's great, it's just we haven't gotten to know each other yet. We haven't even had a real, proper date or anything yet," Luke revealed.
Luke was devastated when JoJo broke up with him after his hometown date in Burnet, TX, on Season 12 of The Bachelorette. Similarly, Nick brutally rejected Danielle shortly after the beautiful bachelorette confessed she was falling in love with him.
"I'm single right now and just trying to get to know people and just take everything slow because it's so complicated now to date," Luke clarified of his new relationship with Danielle.
"That's what people ask -- like, 'What's the biggest change?' And I'm like, 'Some people assume it's easier to date after the show because a lot of people know who you are and are comfortable with who you already are, and all that. But no, it's more complicated because some people assume things and everything is in the public.'"
Luke explained, for example, that when he recently took a photo with his "great friend" and The Bachelor alum, Ashley Iaconetti, Bachelor Nation jumped to the conclusion they were dating.
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"'Oh my God, they're dating!' Luke mocked fans with a big smile on his face. "So the assumptions are so volatile."
Ironically enough, if producers had selected Luke as The Bachelor's leading man, he would've gotten to date Danielle along with Nick's 29 other bachelorettes.
The same girls may have been cast for Luke since ABC pulled the plug on his contract hours before he was set to board a September flight to Los Angeles to begin filming.
"The casting department thought it was going to be me," Luke revealed.
"Then the changes were made at levels above their pay grades, which is why they reopened casting and they're like, 'Okay, how many girls will stay for Nick? How many new ones do we need specifically for Nick?' and they just had to go back to the drawing board with that whole thing."
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When meeting Nick's ex-girlfriends now, Luke confessed, "There's this elephant in the room like, 'Oh, well, we were supposed to meet on the show but now we're meeting in person.' How do you react to that, because you don't pursue it the same as you would on the show?"
CLICK HERE to see our photo gallery of Danielle Lombard photos.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski