Golden Bachelorette’s Chock Told Friends He ‘Was an Underwear Model’ to Hide Flying to L.A. for Joan Vassos (Exclusive)

Joan Vassos and her fiancé Chock Chapple struggled to keep their engagement quiet after committing to forever with one another during the Nov. 13 finale of The Golden Bachelorette.

“The family obviously knows — you can’t keep that from your kids — but not telling your friends, it’s very tough,” Chapple, 60, tells PEOPLE in a joint interview with Vassos, 61. “We were traveling a lot to the happy couples homes in California, so they kind of know what’s going on, but you can’t say it.”

Vassos thinks Chapple had a harder time keeping their engagement a secret than she did.

“I think they can see it on your face when you’re really happy,” the mom of four says. “They’re like, ‘Well, this obviously worked for you.’ They would suspect maybe it worked for me, but I think it’s really hard for Chock because he was one of 24 [suitors], so walking around looking that happy all the time, people suspect.”

Chapple came up with a creative cover story for those numerous trips from his home in Wichita, Kan. to Los Angeles for visits with Vassos.

“I told them I was an underwear model and I was going to L.A. to do numerous shoots,” the insurance executive says. “They wanted a guy my size and I just kept getting more popular and popular.”

Now that Vassos and Chapple can freely be together in public, “we’re really looking forward to just being a couple out in the world and being just normal people living life for at least a couple of months,” she says. “And then we’ll start thinking wedding.”

Chapple will be staying put in Kansas and Vassos doesn’t want to leave her home in Maryland, but they plan to find an apartment together in New York City where they can meet up for some one-on-one time.

“We’re going to be going back and forth between Kansas to Maryland and to New York,” Chapple says. “We’ll have a full-time place in New York and whenever we get the opportunity, we’re going to be there. We’re going to get it figured out this next year.”

Vassos plans to travel to Kansas to get to know Chapple’s family, and he’ll bring his loved ones to Maryland for Thanksgiving and Christmas. “But when we want to be alone together, we’ll probably be in New York,” the private school administrator says.  

So far, Vassos has found Chapple to be “a really easy person to live with” and “very easygoing.”

“I’m very trainable!” the father of two quips.

Chapple says he’s been “thoroughly impressed” with everything he discovered about Vassos since filming ended.

“Joan said this of me, one of my characteristics is that I’m a fixer,” he says. “She’s a fixer as well, and we’re handling life just beautifully as we go through.”

The Golden Bachelorette is streaming now on Hulu.