Why couldn’t he keep his big trap shut?
But he had missed seeing her sitting by the fire, sipping her hot chocolate, whether he wanted to admit it or not. Hell, he even missed seeing her slide the tiny tube of lip balm across her lips. Yes, that he definitely missed.
Damn it.
He had to put distance between himself and that team of girls. Zoe and Paige could be his kryptonite and he couldn’t let that happen. Not when he had so much at stake.
Chapter Eight
Paige wandered into her room, closing the door softly behind her so as not to wake Zoe if she’d happened to fall asleep already. She couldn’t stop her shoulders from drooping a little at the disappointment coursing through her.
“He didn’t show again tonight, did he?” Zoe said from her bed where she was propped up reading. Reading a book. Not even a trashy magazine or anything, but a book without pictures and everything.
Paige stuffed down her disappointment like it didn’t exist. She wasn’t about to show weakness in front of Zoe. They may be partners and, God help her, roommates, but that didn’t mean Paige was ready to share all her deepest and darkest feelings with the enemy all of a sudden.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said simply.
Lie. She knew perfectly well. She’d been checking out the common room since her close encounter of the kissing kind with Miles in the kitchen a few nights ago. She’d gone from trying to avoid him to being the one who was now avoided. Every night since the kitchen incident, she’d gone to the common room to hang out with everyone. Only Miles was always missing. She didn’t understand. He’d said he missed her, now he was MIA. It didn’t make sense.
Zoe set her book beside her, trapping Paige in her lie. “What, you think I’m too thick skulled to notice you glancing around the common room looking for Miles to come in every time someone so much as sniffles?”
“No, I just … ”
“If you want a guy like Miles, you’re going to need better moves than that. Look at Eve. Every time that girl sees Miles, she’s first in line to talk to him, flirt with him, touch him.”
Zoe was right. Damn it. Miles would never notice her sitting in the room like a lump waiting when the room had girls like Zoe and Eve in it. But how would he ever see past those beautiful women to find her? It was useless.
“It doesn’t matter anyway. I only wanted to say hi to him. He’s kind of nice to talk to.”
“Sure. Right. You’re looking for good conversation and long walks on the beach.” Zoe didn’t even try to hide the mocking sarcasm in her voice.
“Fine, you caught me. I think Miles is hot, okay?” Paige said, walking into the bathroom to change into her pajamas. She might be roomies with Zoe but that didn’t mean she felt comfortable enough to change in front of her. Not when it would give Zoe more ammunition to use against Paige when she wasn’t expecting it.
No way. Her girly bits and pieces were staying hidden.
“And he’s also funny, and nice to talk to, and he’s super considerate, especially about his friend Ben. I heard from one of the other teams that Miles gave Ben the entire ten thousand dollars he won to help with his medical bills.”
“That’s sweet,” Zoe said, sounding surprised.
“Did you know he teaches kids to rock climb? How could I not like him? He’s everything a girl would ever want in a guy.” Paige dropped the dreamy look she knew had to be on her face. She didn’t have the patience to put up with Zoe making fun of her crush on Miles, even though this felt like a lot more than a simple crush. A lot more. Miles was amazing in every sense of the word. “Never mind.”
“So do something about it,” Zoe said when Paige walked back into the room.
Paige climbed into bed. “If it were only that easy.”
“It is. What’s so hard about going after what you want?”
“That’s easy for you to say when you look like, well, when you look like you. But I don’t look like you. Miles is way out of my league. And therefore a non-issue.”
Zoe sat up and turned toward Paige. “I’m not interested — at all — in Jack Miles. And I can guarantee he’s not interested in me either. So if you want him, then you go and get him but don’t use me as an excuse not to go after him.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“It is. You’re making excuses for yourself so you don’t have to risk getting rejected.”
“Like you know what rejection feels like.” Paige laughed at the absurdity of it.
Zoe was quiet for a moment while she examined the polish on her nails. “If you don’t want my opinion, then stop whining at me about it.” She got up from the bed and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door closed.
Did she want Zoe’s opinion? Not really. But did she have any other choice? If they were allowed to make calls, she’d be on the phone with Cassidy in a second. But their cell phones had been confiscated before the start of the race and the hotel room phones had been disconnected except for room-to-room calls or emergencies.
Paige cursed her lack of confidence. If only she were more like Zoe, this wouldn’t be an issue because she wouldn’t feel like she wasn’t good enough for a hot guy like Miles. But she didn’t have Zoe’s confidence. Or her looks. Or her style …
What if?
The bathroom door opened and Zoe climbed back into bed, turning off the bedside table lamp and plunging the room into darkness. But not before Paige noticed her eyes had been red rimmed as if she’d been crying in the bathroom. That couldn’t be. Girls like Zoe didn’t cry. It ruined their make up.
What if?
No. It was stupid. And bound to get her laughed at if she asked. And absolutely would be more hassle and nuisance then it was worth. She sighed and rolled over, trying her best to get comfortable.
If only she could be more like Zoe, minus the bitchy part, of course. Then Miles wouldn’t have a choice but to notice her. Then she’d be closer to his league. And maybe …
No. I will not.
She sighed again and rolled onto her other side, toward Zoe’s side of the room.
“Oh, would you just spit it out already?” came Zoe’s voice in the darkness. She didn’t need to see Zoe’s face to know she was completely annoyed. “I’ll never fall asleep with all that tossing and sighing so say what you need to say and get it over with.”
Oh, yes. I’m a complete glutton for punishment.
“I. Well. Maybe you could … ”
“I haven’t got all night.”
“Maybe you could teach me to be more like you. You know, have more confidence, be more irresistible to the opposite sex. That kind of thing.”
“That really was hard for you, wasn’t it?” Zoe giggled. Actually giggled. It sounded … bizarre.
“I’ve seen the way guys look at you and also the way you don’t care unless you’re interested in them too. In which case, you stake your claim and go for it, like you did on the show with Brad.”
She harrumphed. “Immature surfer boy,” she said quietly.
“So I was thinking … ”
“Don’t hurt yourself.”
“If you could make me be a little more you,” Paige continued, ignoring Zoe’s comment, “then maybe I’ll feel confident enough to go after Miles the way I want to.”
“And what’s in this deal for me?” Zoe said after a moment.
Paige rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Zoe would never do anything out of the goodness of her heart. She should have known asking her for something would come with consequences.
“What do you want?” Paige asked cautiously.
“I want to team up with Miles and Ben to work together. Form an alliance.”
Paige breathed a sigh of relief. Was that really all? That was awesome, actually. Teaming up with the boys would g
ive her more chances to get to know Miles. More chances for him to see her as his equal instead of the girl who was sitting on the counter in the kitchen in her tiny pajamas with apple juice running down her chin. Maybe he’d even look at her with more than a fleeting moment of lust in his eyes.
“Okay,” Paige agreed quickly before Zoe could change her mind.
“And I want them to win,” Zoe said with the confidence in her voice that Paige so desperately wanted to have too.
Paige stared at Zoe, stunned into silence for a moment. Had aliens come down from the sky and taken over her body because this girl who wanted another team to win didn’t sound at all like the bitchy girl Paige knew and loved … liked … tolerated.
“But I thought you wanted to win. I thought you said you wanted the money and the prizes.” Paige couldn’t keep the shocked confusion out of her voice. “You really want to give away your chance at half a million dollars? Why?”
“My reasons are my own. Either you take my deal on my terms, or you don’t.”
Paige thought about it for a minute. Could she really give up her portion of the prize to Ben and Miles because Zoe said so? Because she wanted Zoe’s help? Was the chance at winning Miles’s affection worth the sacrifice?
She had come on the show as a way to spend time with Cassidy while she figured out what she wanted to do with her pathetic dating situation back home. Sure, it sounded great to have men come out in droves to court her with flowers and promises after she’d gotten kicked off The One. But the reality of it was more along the lines of annoying and confusing. She’d just wanted time away with Cassidy to figure out if it was time to jump back into dating or not.
And now here she was with a very good, very hot dating prospect in front of her. All she had to do was give up some money she hadn’t really expected to win anyway.
That didn’t sound so terrible.
Honestly, the chance of either of their teams winning was pretty slim anyway. Team Firefighters were basically kicking everyone’s asses at this point with over a hundred caches found already and a pocket full of prizes like the pair of motorcycles they’d recently won. So what did she have to lose by saying yes? Nothing.
“Deal,” she said before she could think about it any more. She needed this. Not only to try to win Miles’s attention, but also for herself. She needed to learn to be more confident in every aspect of her life, not only dating. She was tired of people overlooking her and not taking her seriously — like Chip had, signing her up for the show based on a half-hearted “yes” she hadn’t had time to think through, like her friends and parents back home had overlooked her opinion by forcing endless prospective suitors on her.
But no more.
Zoe’s help was exactly what she needed to start the changes she wanted to make to her life. And once she was more confident in herself, she’d finally stop waiting for things to come to her and instead she would go after the things she really wanted. Like Miles.
“And you agree to listen to me and actually take my advice, no questions asked?” Zoe asked.
Oh jeez. She could practically hear Zoe’s head getting bigger by the second.
“Yes.”
“We start tomorrow. Now you better pipe down over there. You’re going to need all the beauty rest you can get.”
As Paige pulled the blankets tighter under her chin, a spike of excitement shot through her. Followed quickly by a spike of dread.
Had she really just made a deal with the she-devil Zoe?
• • •
Paige and Zoe parallel parked around the corner and a few streets down from Macy’s in Herald Square. Yesterday had taken them all over hell’s half acre along the Hudson Valley and nowhere near a shop where they could pop in and get started on Paige’s new Zoe-ish style. But they’d had plenty of hours while driving around to work on her confidence level and her flirting techniques.
According to Zoe, it was all in the delivery and less in what you actually said. Half-lidded eyes, a subtle tilt of her head, a sultry smile, and a bedroom voice could make a man crumble to his knees — or so Zoe said in her lessons. But it was the practice that was even worse. It was hard to flirt while following an arrow on a GPS and even harder when it was Zoe she had to flirt with.
Paige tried to flirt with Evan a few times because at least she found him attractive. But every time she’d tried, all she could imagine was Cassidy watching it on TV and commenting on what she was doing wrong. Not that any of her flirting scenes with Evan would ever make it on air. Not when he laughed so hard he nearly dropped the camera on more than one occasion. He’d made it perfectly clear that he thought their plan was a bad idea, but he didn’t seem to mind the comic relief she provided while practicing on him.
If Evan’s reaction to her flirting was any indication, she still had plenty of work left to do.
That could wait, though, because today, finally, they’d ended up in the city. And according to their GPS arrow, they were heading right into Macy’s. They walked into the building and were instantly greeted by the bright lights of the cosmetic counters.
“We should have a little look around for you,” Zoe said, eyeing the nearest counter.
“No, we need to find the cache first, then see if we have any money to spare. I may have to borrow your makeup for a bit.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, we can’t spend all of our money on needless things, like new eye shadow, when we still have to buy gas and pay parking fees among other things for the next few weeks. You know as well as I do that Chip will never give us more money if we run out. And parking the first day put us way over budget right off the start.”
Zoe shrugged. “There’s always a price to pay for beauty, so either you pay it or you don’t. It’s your call.”
Paige thought about it as they wove their way through the large department store trying to find the cache. After riding what had to be the world’s oldest wooden escalators, the arrow finally narrowed down their target area to the shoe department. They searched as inconspicuously as they could but it was tricky in the busy department. With every shoe they peeked into and every table they looked under, the shoppers around them grew more and more interested in what they were doing.
Of course Evan following them around with his giant camera probably played a part in the spectacle too.
Finally, tucked back into the corner of the department, they found a shoebox marked with the purple logo of the show. They opened it to find the cache card as well as an envelope. They quickly snapped a picture of Zoe with the cache number, then she opened the envelope, smiling as she read the contents.
“I think our money problems have been solved.” Zoe held two plastic cards and a note out to Paige to read. “We’ve each won a five hundred dollar shopping spree.”
“After the show is over we can come back and get everything for my new me,” Paige said, tucking the card into her pocket.
Zoe reached into her pocket and pulled the card right back out. “We’re going to start your transformation right now.”
“While we’re racing? We’re already way behind a few of the other teams with our count, we don’t really have time for this right now. Maybe we can come back in a few days after we have more?”
“Nope. You agreed to listen to me and I say we start now. You’re only putting off the inevitable if you want to snag Miles’s attention.”
Paige thought about it. True, she did want Miles to see her in a different way. But was she ready for that now? It didn’t seem to make much sense to put it off for much longer. The competition only ran for so long and then the show would be done filming. If she wanted her best chance to catch Miles’s attention, then she may as well do it now. Besides, that way they had many more chances to see each other and to practice her new flirting skills once they started their alliance with the boys.<
br />
“Where do we start first?” she conceded.
“Right here.” Zoe walked off in the direction of the women’s shoes.
“But I need my boots for hiking.”
“Oh, silly girl. You have so much to learn.” She stopped at a large display of shoes, picking up one that had a three-inch heel with thin black crisscrossing straps. “It’s time to introduce you to some of my best friends.”
Chapter Nine
Paige blanched at the sight of the tall stiletto heels in Zoe’s hands. No way would she ever be able to walk in those let alone hike on some of the trails they’d already been on. Simply impossible if she wanted to complete the show without a broken ankle.
“Is there a training size for girls like me who like flats?” Paige asked.
“Sure, we could get you a kitten heel if you’d like, but then I’m pretty sure Miles would be more interested in making sure you were cuddled up nicely on the couch with your blankie and mug of warm milk. Is that what you want from Miles, to be tucked in and treated like a child in your little kitten heels?” Zoe put her hands on her hips.
“No, I guess not.”
“Do you want him to look at you as if he can’t get you out of your clothes fast enough so he may just put you back up on the kitchen counter again and have his way with you?” She held one kitten heel and one stiletto heel in her each of her hands. “Do you want to be tucked in at bedtime or have Miles rip your clothes off for sexy time in the kitchen? Your call.”
Zoe made a pretty convincing argument.
Paige grabbed the arm of a passing salesman, stopping him. “I’d like to try a size six please.”
“In which style, miss?”
She motioned toward the table of stilettos in a variety of colors. “All of them.”
Stuck on You (Crimson Romance) Page 7