Damn him. She wasn’t going to cry for him when he’d already moved on to sleeping with someone else. And she wasn’t going to stand here in the hall like some jealous girlfriend and spy on them.
Nope. Miles could do whatever he wanted — whomever he wanted.
He wasn’t her concern anymore. She wouldn’t let him be.
Paige jogged back down the hallway on the balls of her feet trying to get away as quickly as she could without making any noise to draw them out of the common room to find her. The last thing she needed was a confrontation with Miles. She’d managed to keep her emotions in check earlier tonight, but she couldn’t guarantee she’d be able to do it again now that she knew he was spending his free time with Eve instead of her. Not that it mattered anyway. She’d washed her hands of him the minute he’d chosen Ben over her. Hadn’t she?
She climbed back into bed no longer thirsty and prayed Zoe hadn’t heard her come back. She couldn’t handle Zoe right now. Paige pulled the covers over her head.
Miles had made two choices today, both of them bad. And neither included her.
This time she didn’t bother to stop the tears.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Miles knocked on the door to Zoe and Paige’s room. With an hour left until they had to check out for the day, he hoped he’d have enough time to convince Paige he still wanted to be in an alliance with her.
And he still wanted to be with her in other ways too.
If only he could get her to talk to him for two seconds.
It had been a couple days since their argument at the cache when Paige ended up walking away from him — literally and figuratively. He’d tried a few more times to talk to her since the night by the fireplace, but he couldn’t seem to get her to stay still long enough. Every time he approached her, she started a conversation with another team until he got tired of waiting around.
After completing the climbing cache with Ben, he’d realized how wrong he’d been to assume Ben couldn’t do the harder caches. Miles also realized he’d probably been wrong about Paige and Zoe not being able to do the caches as well. And he planned to tell her as much when he finally got the chance to.
His last hope of getting his alliance back on track with her was coming to her room early in the morning before the day of racing started. Being that today was the last day of the race, he was out of options and time. He wanted to race with Zoe and Paige. He wanted to learn more about Paige before it was too late and the show ended and everyone went back to their own lives.
Damn it. He needed to spend time with her. It didn’t seem to matter what he filled his time with each evening, not being with Paige made him lonelier than he cared to be. Lonelier than he’d ever been, even after Ben had stopped climbing and had gotten married.
He missed Paige.
Somehow she’d become a part of his life during the show and he hadn’t felt the same since she’d walked away. It killed him knowing she thought so poorly of him. He had to change her mind.
He knocked on the door again, harder this time. They had to be in there. He’d checked all of the usual areas and he hadn’t seen either of them yet. Therefore they had to still be getting ready. He had her trapped. There was nowhere for her to run off and hide … no one for her to start another conversation with except for Zoe and she didn’t count. He wouldn’t care if he had to interrupt her, not that he thought Zoe would actually bother to play along with Paige just to torment him.
Or maybe she would.
Come to think of it, Zoe had basically only spoken to Ben for the last couple of days. He was glad they’d connected. Ben needed someone in his life who actually understood what he was going through, since his wife and Miles were only so helpful.
The door cracked open. “What the hell? God, you’re annoying,” Zoe said through the door.
“Good morning to you too, sis. Is Paige here? Can I talk to her, please?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “No.”
He sighed. Dealing with Zoe first thing in the morning always required an incredible amount of patience. Far more than he ever had available. Today was no exception. “No she’s not here, or no I can’t talk to her?”
Zoe shrugged. “Either. Both.”
“Come on, Zoe. Be a good sister and let me talk to her.”
“I can’t. She’s in the shower right now, and there’s no way I’m letting you in there.”
“I’ll wait in the room and you can let her know I’m here.”
She shook her head. “She told me specifically, on many occasions I might add, that she doesn’t want to talk to you again. You lost your chance when you pulled that alpha male crap on her.”
He closed his eyes and banged his head against the doorframe feeling defeated. “I didn’t mean to.”
“Well, you did. And now you have to deal.” Zoe stepped back and moved to close the door.
He thrust his hand into the space, gabbing the side of the door, stopping her from closing it all the way. “Let me talk to her. If you have any heart, don’t close the door on me.”
“I think you should know me better than that by now.” She smiled and he knew she wouldn’t budge. When Zoe made up her mind about something, there was no changing it. One of the ways they were very alike. “Today’s the last day of the show and our last chance to get caches. I can’t let you talk to her or else instead of a capable partner, I’ll have a distracted, sniffling mess to take care of like I have since you pulled jerk.”
“That’s exactly why I need to talk to her. I promise she’ll be fine to compete today if you let me apologize.”
“I thought you wanted Ben to win. Isn’t that why you chose him over Paige to begin with?”
“I didn’t mean to pick him over Paige. At least, I didn’t think that was what I was doing when I did it. I only wanted to prove to him that he could climb and you’re right, I want him to win.”
Zoe nodded. “Yeah, I wanted him to win too.”
“You did?” Miles asked unable to keep the shock from his tone. Zoe didn’t do nice things for others especially not let them win a pile of money she could try to win herself.
“I thought winning would help Ben get his life back, just like you did,” Zoe said. “But take a look at him now. He doesn’t even need to win anymore. He doesn’t need our help anymore. He can win all on his own merits if you let him. And so can I. I want to win too. So I’m keeping Paige away from you until after the check in tonight.”
“So now you’re out to get us?” Miles asked. Typical Zoe. Using someone until she got what she wanted then walking away without remorse.
Fuck. Just like Paige thought he’d done to her. Great. Another similarity to Zoe. No wonder Paige didn’t want to talk to him again. Wow. They really were related after all. Paige was right. His actions did speak louder than his words. His stomach rolled. He was no better than Zoe.
“Fine,” he said, sighing. “Can you give her a message for me?” Zoe nodded, so he continued. “Tell her that I’m coming to find her tonight at base camp and I want to apologize. And … I know she’s strong and all that, but ask her to be careful. I hate that I’m not there to race with you girls today. Keep an eye on her for me, okay?”
Zoe’s shoulders dropped a fraction at his words. If he could get through to her, maybe he still had a shot at saying something right to Paige to help make this all better too. Now he had to wait until tonight to get a chance to say it.
He stepped back from the door and turned away as Zoe closed it. Hopefully tonight wouldn’t be too late.
• • •
“Who was at the door?” Paige asked, walking out of the bathroom with her hair wrapped in a towel and another around her body.
“It was Team Father Daughter checking to see if we’re okay since we haven’t made it to breakfast yet. I told them we we
re running late.” Zoe crossed the room and slipped her feet into her sneakers, tying them. “I can’t wait until I’m out of these stupid sneakers. How can I look cute on TV in these?”
“You look great as always. You could wear flippers on your feet and you’d still look awesome.”
Zoe smiled. A genuine smile. “Thanks. You look pretty hot today too. I’d do you.”
Paige laughed and blushed while she straightened her shirt. She did look pretty hot today in her yoga top, tight Capri pants, and heels. Too bad Miles wouldn’t get to see it.
Not that his opinion mattered anymore.
“Well, thanks. I appreciate the compliment coming from you,” Paige said. Maybe their last day racing would be an enjoyable one.
“Don’t get used to it. I’m just being nice for the cameras.”
“You remember there are no cameras in our rooms, right?” Paige asked.
“Damn. I guess I was nice for no reason then,” Zoe said, the teasing tone in her voice unusual but welcomed.
“We should probably head out. I need to grab something for breakfast quickly and I want to make sure we leave right on time. We have to try and get as many caches as possible today since it’s our last shot.”
Zoe nodded. “Are you sure you don’t want to work with the boys again today? We usually got a bunch of caches with them.”
Paige shook her head. “No. I’m done with the boys. They don’t want us around anyway. We’d probably get to a cache that’s ‘too hard for little girls’ and then they’d leave us again to do it themselves. No way. Today I’m all about girl power.”
“I think Miles feels bad about that.”
“Good. He should feel bad.” Paige squared her shoulders and looked directly at Zoe. “Today I want to go for the hard one.”
“The firefighter’s cache?”
“Yep. I know it’s tricky, but they wouldn’t open it again if it wasn’t safe. And no one else has done it yet, so I really think we should do it. And we won’t have Miles around to tell us we suck.”
“I don’t know about this,” Zoe said, looking nervous for the first time Paige could remember. “I think there’s a reason none of the other teams have gone for it.”
“Yeah, because they’re all scared like Miles. But I’m not scared. I know we’re strong enough to do that cache — now’s our chance to prove it to everyone else. And we’ll score an awesome prize too.”
Paige held her breath waiting for Zoe to disagree with her. If she did, Paige had another few arguments in her arsenal to use. She wasn’t going to give up until Zoe said yes.
“Okay. I’m in. But if it gets too scary or looks too dangerous once we get there, then we have to leave. I’m not going to risk being removed from the show because of an injury on the last day. We’ve been here way too long not to be in the finale. Deal?”
“Deal.”
• • •
Paige and Zoe stood at the edge of the bluff peering over the side. Below, water splashed gently against the rocks. Somewhere on the side of these rocks the cache that had caused the firefighters to fall was hidden. But could they find it?
“I think we should go back to the truck and find another cache,” Zoe said, her voice wavering.
“No way. We can totally do this.” Paige did feel confident, sort of, but maybe not as confident as she made her voice sound. She didn’t want to add to Zoe’s already nervous state since both team members had to descend to find the cache.
“But it’s so steep. And the water … ” Zoe’s voice trailed off as she took a step away from the edge. “I don’t know.”
Paige turned with her arms crossed. “Are you trying to tell me there’s something in this world that Miss Zoe Oliver is too chicken to do? ’Cause I don’t believe it. I might have to call the tabloids myself so they can get the inside scoop on the real Zoe.”
“You wouldn’t,” Zoe said, trembling less and looking a lot more annoyed.
“I would — if you’re too chicken to try. But it’s okay, people love to know everyone is human and has weaknesses, even the people they see on TV.” Paige shrugged and turned back to peer over the edge again.
Zoe huffed from behind her then came to stand at her side. “That’s a dirty trick.”
Paige grinned and nudged Zoe with her elbow. “I learned from the best.”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “Let’s get it over with.”
They waved over the rappelling crew for a quick lesson. It didn’t sound too hard, and this was apparently a fairly easy rappel, but Paige couldn’t stop her hands from shaking.
“Okay, so you told us how to get down to the cache, but how are we supposed to get back up?” Zoe asked. Paige wondered the same thing.
“You don’t,” the instructor said. “This is a one-way trip. Once you get the cache, you rappel the rest of the way down. When you get close to the bottom of the lines, a boat will come over and you’ll land in it.”
“We have to rappel into a freakin’ boat?” Zoe shrieked in an octave Paige thought only dogs would hear.
“That’s right. Then the boat will bring you over to shore and you’ll hike back up the path to where you parked.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Paige grumbled while another repelling crewmember fastened different belts and loops around her legs and waist.
“If it was easy, the other team wouldn’t have fallen and we wouldn’t be stationed out here to make sure you hook on right.” The instructor shrugged. “Just take it slow, be careful, and yell if you need help.”
“And what happens if we do need help?” Zoe asked.
“Then I climb down and help you and then you have to leave the game.”
“What?” Paige and Zoe said together, turning on him as if he’d insulted their hairstyles.
He took step back. “If you have to be rescued, you have to leave the game. It’s the rules.”
“Those are stupid rules,” Paige said.
Maybe coming to do this cache wasn’t the best idea she’d ever had. But they’d spent so much time driving back out here that they probably wouldn’t get too many more caches today. It seemed like a waste to come all this way and leave empty handed. Again.
No. They were staying and they were going to get this cache marked off their logbook.
Paige walked to the edge again, fully clipped to one of the four rappelling lines available. Zoe came up beside her and turned her back to the edge like the instructor told them. Paige did the same. Somehow, she’d expected it to be less scary if she didn’t have to look over the edge anymore.
Turns out it was actually way more terrifying.
Paige’s hands shook as she started down the side, leaning back as the instructor had told them. The first few steps were the worst, but once she was over the edge and on her way, her fear subsided as she focused on the task. Before she knew it, she was halfway down.
“How much further?” Zoe asked a couple of feet higher up the side from Paige.
Paige peeked at the GPS unit clipped to her chest. “Says just a few more feet. We should see the hiding spot soon. Come further down so we can find it together.”
“Okay,” Zoe called. “Wait for me.”
Paige peeked over her shoulder and scanned the rock face below her trying to find anywhere there might be a nook to hide a cache. With Zoe on the farthest outside line on the left and Paige on the line beside her more to the middle, it made more sense that the cache would be somewhere below Paige. That way, the other two lines on Paige’s right could reach the cache as well if another team happened to show up at the same time. It only made sense that the cache would be directly in the middle of the four lines so that two teams searching at the same time could have equal ability to reach the cache.
“It’s gotta be near me and in the middle somewhere. It’s
the only thing that makes sense in this situation,” Paige called back up to Zoe who was slowly making her way closer.
Paige continued to search until Zoe dropped down beside her. “See right there,” Paige said, pointing to an outcropping of rock a few feet below them, directly between the middle two rappelling lines. “I think that could be where it is.”
“It’s as good a place as any to check,” Zoe said. “Let’s just find this thing and get the hell out of here. I don’t feel good about this at all.”
“We’re doing great. Don’t worry.”
The girls made their way down a little further then Zoe stopped moving. Paige stopped where she was. “Why did you stop? Let’s keep going if you want to get done and out of here.”
“I’m trying,” Zoe said, her voice shaking. “I can’t go any further.”
“Zoe, come on. I’m right here with you. You don’t need to be afraid. We’re totally safe here.” Paige tried to make her voice sound as reassuring and calm as possible. But in her head, she yelled a string of obscenities. Hanging around being scared on the side of a cliff wasn’t going to help their situation any, so Zoe needed to suck it up and keep moving.
Paige looked up to find tears brimming Zoe’s eyes. She’d only ever seen Zoe cry once and that was at the finale of The One. And now the girl was tearing up again. This couldn’t be as bad as being publically rejected on TV by Brad.
Paige needed to be even stronger for Zoe right now. “It’s okay, try wiggling the thingy a little to see if you can get going again.”
“No, really.” Zoe breathed in a hitched breath. “I can’t move. I think I’m stuck.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I can’t believe you hid this from me,” Miles said, slamming his palm against the steering wheel again.
“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. They’re their own team. They can do whatever they want to now that you broke our alliance with them.”
“How did you know they were going for that cache today anyway?” Miles asked, annoyed with himself that he hadn’t figured out the girls were on their way to getting themselves in trouble.
Unscripted Love: The Complete Reality TV Romance Collection Page 44