The Prize: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Diamond Lake Romance Book 3)

by K. L. Middleton

  “Oh, heaven’s no,” Dad mocked, pretending to look horrified. “The travesty.”

  “Sweetie. You don’t have to spend the entire weekend with the winner. Just be civil and polite. Then go your separate ways,” Mom said, like it was an easy fix.

  I sighed.

  “Who donated the prize?” Dad asked, changing the subject. “This trip could get pretty spendy.”

  Mom smiled. “Actually Ransom did.”

  “Nice,” he replied.

  Rory suddenly appeared at the table.

  “Hey, guys. What’s shaking?” he asked.

  Mom smiled up at him. “Rory, I didn’t know you were showing up here tonight. I would have gotten you a ticket.”

  “It’s okay. The money goes to charity, so I didn’t mind buying a ticket. Is this seat taken?” Before anyone could answer, he sat down. I could tell he was excited from the look in his eyes. “That show Ransom put on was lit. How in the world did you get him to perform here?”

  Mom explained how they’d met.

  “Nice. Who would have thought such a huge celebrity would be vacationing here in Diamond Lake,” he said.

  “It’s a beautiful town. You’d never know but we actually get a lot of famous people vacationing here. I mean, look at you two,” Mom teased, her eyes sparkling. “Ghost hunter gurus. Even Ransom watches your show.”

  Rory’s eyes lit up. “No joke? Maybe we could talk him into making an appearance sometime?” He looked at me. “Seriously dude. Could you imagine what that would do for us?”

  “Don’t get your hopes up. He likes his privacy and wants to stay out of the limelight, from what I’ve gathered. I was shocked he was even willing to perform here tonight,” Mom said.

  “I’m sure that he was grateful for what you did, helping his wife and all,” Dad said to her.

  “I’m glad I could help. Anyone would have done the same.” Mom stood up. “I should grab some food. I haven’t eaten for hours.”

  “I’ll go with you. I want to get some cheesecake. Do you two want anything?”

  Rory and I shook our heads.

  When my parents left, Rory pulled out his phone. “Check this out. I filmed the entire concert.”

  “You’re lucky they didn’t catch you. From what I heard, Ransom didn’t want it recorded.”

  Rory shrugged. “Fuck it. He’ll never know. It’s not like I’m going to upload it to You Tube or anything. But you, getting raffled off? That, I’m going to share. Our viewers are going to fucking love it.”

  I sighed. “I’d rather you didn’t.”

  “I bet. You’d rather we didn’t film anything. But, that’s what keeps the money flowing in. We need to keep providing fresh content and considering we haven’t uploaded any material for a couple of weeks, we need this.”

  I knew there was no point arguing with him. Plus, he was right. We needed to keep making money. That meant new content.

  “This will be cool. You get to stay at The Stratton Hills Hotel, right?”

  I nodded. “I hope so. As long as my date agrees on it, though. They might not be keen on staying somewhere haunted.”

  “Good thing not many people know it is. Anyway, the place is pretty extravagant. I’m sure it won’t be too hard convincing the winner to want to stay at such a lavish resort. Not to mention, you’re Adam-fucking-Knight. They’ll probably agree to go anywhere with you.”

  I smirked at the shot and shook my head. He loved goading me. “Fuck off.”

  When I was younger I’d been a cocky, arrogant asshole, bragging about stupid shit, especially in high school. Hell, I’d been pretty insufferable until the day of the accident. The crash had humbled me and had been a reminder that I wasn’t the shit I’d thought I’d been. It was pretty embarrassing to look back and think about the shitty way I’d acted sometimes.

  Rory laughed. “Seriously, though. You’ll swing it.”

  “I hope so.”

  His eyes moved across the crowd. “Oh, hey. Blair Burns is here. I’m going to go over and say hello.”

  I looked over to where he was staring but didn’t see who he was talking about. The name rang a bell but I couldn’t quite put a face to it. “Okay.”

  Rory took off right as my parents returned.

  “They should be starting the raffles any minute. I’d better eat quickly,” Mom said.

  “You have to do those, too?”

  “I’m just helping. Dean Weathers is going to be calling out the winners,” she replied and winked at me. “I can’t wait to see who the lucky girl is that wins a date with you.”

  “Who said it has to be girl?” Dad said, smiling. “You might end up with a dude. Hell, I should have entered the raffle. You and I could have went to Vegas and partied like rock stars.”

  Mom rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure you’d be disqualified.”

  “Damn, I should have asked Rory to enter. That would have solved a lot of problems if he’d have won,” I said.

  “Speaking of which, where’d he disappear to?” Dad asked.

  “He went to talk to someone.” I glanced over to the table he’d stopped at. It was then that I recognized the gal he knew, Blair. Next to her was another familiar face.

  Chloe Maverick.

  She looked up and our eyes met. Her stare was so frosty, I could almost feel my blood turn to ice.

  Shit.

  From the look in her eyes, I knew she still hated me.

  And fuck if I didn’t deserve it.

  5

  Chloe

  I looked away first, the memories of some of our conversations, making my stomach churn.

  “It must be hard sitting with that stick shoved up your ass. I bet your parents own stock in Preparation H.”

  “Fuck you,” I’d replied.

  “In your dreams, Princess.”

  “Get over yourself. From what I hear, fucking a pencil beats humping that little toothpick in your pants.”

  Of course, I hadn’t heard any such thing but that’s the way it had been between us – a constant volleying of insults. Ever since I’d stuck up for Stephen Fisher, in middle school, he’d had it out for me. For some reason, Adam had tried picking a fight with him and had knocked him down during recess. Because I’d had this massive crush on Stephen, I jumped in, punching Adam before he could react, and giving him a bloody nose. I don’t know who’d been more surprised, me or Adam. Especially since he’d been an eighth grader, and much bigger than me. In the end, we both received detention and had been enemies ever since.

  “It was nice seeing you again. You too, Chloe,” Rory said.

  I smiled up at him. “Yeah, you too.”

  Rory had been the only friend of Adam’s that hadn’t been a complete douchebag. We’d never really talked much, but he’d always been a real likeable guy.

  “Who are you here with?” Blair asked, looking around.

  “Adam Knight.”

  She made a sour face. “You’re still friends with that jerk?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, I know. He’s actually gotten better over the years.”

  “Right,” I muttered.

  “We actually have a web show.” Rory told us about it.

  “Yeah, his mom mentioned it. I didn’t know you were involved,” Blair said.

  He nodded. “You should check it out sometime.”

  Blair nodded. “For sure. So, have you ever encountered any real ghosts?”

  “Yeah, a few of times.”

  “That must have been crazy.” Blair sat back in her chair. “I could never do that. With my luck, they’d follow me home and haunt me until the day I died.”

  His face grew serious. “It’s always possible. Especially with demonic entities. Fortunately, we haven’t run into anything like that.”

  She shuddered. “Scary.”

  One of the faculty members announced that it was time to start calling out the raffles. Rory wished us luck and then headed back toward Adam’s table.

  “I don’t care wha
t Rory said about Adam,” Blair muttered, watching him. “Once an asshole, always an asshole.”

  Normally, I liked giving people the benefit of the doubt. But not Adam. He was a coldhearted bastard and there was no way I’d ever think otherwise.

  The raffles part of the event was fun, but seemed to take forever. Fortunately, we did win a couple of cool items – an instant pot and Kindle. We also won an expensive makeup kit, which I let Blair have.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Of course. I just bought something similar to that myself.”

  “What about your grandmother?”

  “She’s not into makeup and I know she’ll be thrilled with the other stuff.”

  She began looking through the kit. “There are so many cool things in here. If you change your mind, I won’t care.”

  “I won’t. Seriously, it’s yours. Keep it.”

  “Ladies and gentleman,” the announcer said into the microphone, “this last prize has been donated by our musical guest, Ransom, and his family. It’s a weekend getaway, for anywhere in the country, with NASCAR driver, Adam Knight.”

  Blair and I looked at each other.

  I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, though. What kind of a prize is that?”

  She snorted. “A very nice one if Adam wasn’t involved.”

  “Actually, Adam, why don’t you come up here,” the man said, smiling.

  Adam stood up and walked to the stage while everyone, besides Blair and myself, started clapping. He grinned at the crowd and I was irritated to see that he was even better looking than I’d remembered.

  With his deceivingly friendly smile and handsome face, he was definitely the perfect poster boy for NASCAR.

  His features seemed a little more sharp and rugged and it was obvious that he was no stranger to barbells. He wore his hair quite a bit shorter and his eyebrows appeared more groomed than I’d last seen. They used to be thicker and we’d once exchanged insults after I’d over-plucked mine. I could still remember how he’d made fun of them in the hallway and my “unibrow” comeback, which I knew had pissed him off. He’d laughed it off, but I’d seen the venom in his eyes. I’d managed to embarrass him again and he hated me even more for it.

  When the clapping died down, the announcer asked where he’d want to go with the winner.

  Adam grinned. “Somewhere hot and sunny.”

  “I’ll go with you, Adam!” a girl called out.

  Adam chuckled.

  “You just might if you have the winning ticket,” the announcer replied. “Let’s get this show on the road.” He pulled out a ticket from the box. “Here we go. The lucky winner is-” he read the number off.

  We waited for someone to jump up and claim the prize, but there was just a low hum of voices as people checked their ticket stubs.

  “Uh, oh. You’d better check yours,” Blair said, looking around with a frown.

  I peered down at the tickets. Having so many, I’d put them in order, and it didn’t take long for me to go through the stack. When I saw the one with the matching numbers, I was horrified.

  “What?” Blair whispered.

  Our eyes met and I started breaking out in a cold sweat. I didn’t even want to say the words out loud. I was so sick to my stomach that I could almost feel the bile rising in the back of my throat.

  “Wait, you won?” Blair asked, staring at me in shock.

  “Shush,” I whispered, my mind racing. Hell, nobody had to know I’d won. Adam and I would both benefit that way.

  “Excuse me, didn’t your friend just say that you won?” someone asked behind me.

  My heart sank. I turned around and found one of my professors, Mrs. Hardgrove, standing behind me.

  “Anyone?” the announcer called out, his eyes scanning the crowd.

  “I… I don’t know,” I replied, wishing she would have just minded her own business.

  “It’s a little dark in here. Let me see your ticket.” She grabbed it from the table before I could stop her.

  I glanced over at Adam, who looked almost relieved that nobody was claiming the prize yet. That was about to change, especially when he found out it was me who won.

  “We have a winner!” Mrs. Hardgrove called out, smiling.

  Everyone in the room turned toward us.

  “Chloe Maverick,” she said, placing a hand on my shoulder. She squeezed it gently. “Go and claim your prize, Hon.”

  My eyes met Adam’s. His expression was unreadable, but I knew that deep down, he was as thrilled about this as I was.

  6

  Adam

  What were the fucking odds?

  I pinched myself – nope, definitely not dreaming.

  She looked pretty surprised herself. Which was odd, because she’d obviously purchased a raffle ticket for it. For what reason, I had no idea. Maybe just to push me off of some cliff while we were on vacation.

  Chloe stood up and slowly made her way up to the stage. As she drew nearer, I noticed how much she’d changed since the last time I’d seen her. It had to have been a few years. Not that she’d ever been ugly, but the young woman approaching the stage was stunning – long honey-blonde hair, cat-slanted green eyes, and mouth-watering curves. It was just my luck that the person, who probably despised me most in the world, had grown into one of the most beautiful.

  “Congratulations… Miss?” The announcer asked.

  She cleared her throat. “Chloe Maverick.”

  “Congratulations, Chloe Maverick.” He handed her an envelope and smiled. “Your prize information is all in there. You two can discuss where you want to go. It’s totally up to you, as long as it’s in the U.S. Now, let’s get a picture for Ransom, our very generous donor, so he can see who won.”

  I moved in closer to Chloe, who avoided looking directly at me. I caught the scent of her perfume and it drew me even closer.

  “Smile now!” called out Rory, his camcorder aimed toward us. I could tell by his expression that he was enjoying every minute of this.

  “Could you two maybe move just a little bit closer for the photo?” one of the photographers asked. “I want to get a picture for the Diamond Lake Gazette.”

  She stepped closer, reluctantly, and I put my arm around her shoulders. She stiffened up and I could almost feel the anger radiating off of her.

  Rory’s grin widened. “Don’t you two look cute together?”

  Chloe mumbled something under her breath.

  “Honey, could you please smile?” the guy said to her.

  I had to fight to keep from laughing. That couldn’t have possibly helped. I knew women hated being called “honey”.

  The photographer grinned. “Much better. Say ‘Cheese’.”

  Neither of us did, but I grinned widely and he took a couple of photos. Immediately afterward, Chloe moved away from me and headed back toward her seat. I walked down from the stage and approached Rory

  “Looks like the prize-winner isn’t too excited about the trip,” Rory said, still recording me. “Do you want to explain the reason to our fans?”

  I gave him a dirty look.

  “Come on. Don’t keep everyone in suspense.”

  I sighed. Luckily, I could edit this part later. I knew that if I didn’t answer the question, he wouldn’t let up. “We knew each other from high school. We weren’t exactly friends.”

  “Did you two ever date?”

  “No.” And he knew that, but just asking for the show. “I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t exactly a nice guy back in those days. I’ve grown up since then. Hopefully, I can use this trip to make it up to her.”

  “Make up for being an asshole?” he reiterated, amused.

  “And then some.”

  He stopped recording. “You think she’s going to even go on the trip?”

  I peered over toward Chloe’s table and saw her talking with Blair. She appeared angry and frustrated. “Doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. It’s strange. I don’t understand why she entered the raffle
in the first place. She obviously didn’t want to win.”

  “Yeah. I don’t get it either.”

  “Maybe she didn’t realize I’d be joining her?”

  “Maybe.” He snapped his fingers. “Hey! I have a fucking awesome idea. How about we invite Blair on the trip, too? The only stipulation is that we all stay at The Stratton Hills. They can go and do their own thing. We can do ours.”

  “I don’t know if that’ll even work.”

  “Think about it. We won’t even have to pay for the hotel, since I can room with you and Blair can stay with Chloe. Plus, I have some travel miles saved up on my VISA, so that should help pay for her, along with extra flight tickets.”

  “I guess it’s worth asking. I still feel like a prick for the way I treated her in high school. I was such an asshole.”

  “Was?”

  Chuckling, I shoved him.

  He grinned and then looked over toward Chloe and Blair. His face turned serious. “I’d better go and talk to them before she rips up the prize voucher.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “No. You’d better stay put. I think it’s better if I go and talk to them alone. You might scare them off.”

  I glanced over and saw both girls were now watching us with cool expressions. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “I’ll let you know what they say.”

  “Sounds good.”

  He took off and I went back to my parent’s table. They both gave me a funny look.

  “What’s wrong with Chloe? She looked like she wanted to run for the hills up there on stage,” Dad asked.

  “She did. She hates me. We weren’t exactly friends in school,” I admitted.

  Mom sighed. “She seemed like such a nice girl, too.”

  “She is. Anyway, it wasn’t her fault. It was all mine,” I replied.

  Dad frowned. “What did you do?”

  What didn’t I do?

  I told them a little about it, leaving off most of the shitty things I’d done. The feud actually started when I was in the eighth grade. Stephen Fisher, a cocky dude with short-man syndrome, had mouthed off to me about something, I don’t even recall what it was anymore. Admittedly, I’d been a hothead myself. Tempers flared and I eventually shoved Stephen to the ground. That’s when Chloe decided to stick up for the asshole and punched me in the face. Everyone around us had cheered her on, including some of my friends. She left me with a bloody nose and a bruised ego. From that day on, I had it out for her, jabbing her with insults and just being a dickhead. I even managed to slip a dead fish into her gym locker one morning. Then there was the time by the beach, when my friends and I’d cornered her by the bathrooms. One of my buddies had dared me to kiss her and I’d accepted. I could still remember the look in her eyes afterward. Not only had I bragged about winning a bet, but I’d insulted her again. Once I sobered up, I regretted hurting her. Especially since the kiss we’d shared had been pretty fucking awesome. I’d never told anyone how much I’d actually enjoyed it or how later I’d fantasized about doing more than simply kissing Chloe Maverick.