Stuck on You (22 page)

“Not all of us grew up with the perfect mother and father who loved each other with a white picket fence, two point five children, and a dog. Our parents split when we were little. He stayed with dad, and I went with mom. We changed our last names after my mom remarried. It just made things easier. People asked fewer questions.”

Paige hadn’t thought Zoe had grown up in anything less than perfection. To hear her life hadn’t been all luxury and extravagance like she’d made it sound made Zoe somehow more real. Almost as if she could have been someone Paige might be friends with if they hadn’t met under such difficult circumstances during filming of
The One
. Almost.

“Why didn’t you tell me Miles was your brother right away? Why did you two keep it hidden, especially after Miles and I started getting more interested in each other?”

Zoe smiled. “And miss the chance to see this moment of horror when you realize you’ve slept with my brother? Not a chance. If he wasn’t going to tell you, there was no reason for me to ruin the surprise. Besides, I knew sooner or later you’d figure out our connection.”

And that was why they’d never be real friends — Paige didn’t take pleasure in other people’s embarrassment or discomfort.

Realization about Miles’s motives for not telling her about Zoe sank in fully. Of course he wouldn’t tell her they were related when Zoe behaved the way she did. Who would want to be related to her when she acted so awful to other people?

And he was right. As much as she hated to admit it, Miles had been right. Paige probably would have judged him unfairly based on Zoe’s actions.

She slipped into her heels, cringing a little as the familiar pain stung her feet again. Damn. How long did it take to break in stilettos? Hopefully not much longer or her feet might stop working altogether.

“You don’t need to bother with those if they’re hurting you. You’ve already succeeded in snagging Miles. I doubt he’ll even notice if you wear your boots again.” Zoe tied her sneakers, after a long jealous glance toward Paige’s heels.

Paige shook her head. “No. I like them.”
They make me feel confident.
Not that she’d ever say that to Zoe, the girl who would surely ooze confidence even while wearing a garbage bag. Whether or not Miles liked her shoes was beside the point now. Every time she put them on, she felt not only taller, but physically, mentally, and emotionally stronger too.

And she really liked feeling this way.

What if she wore her stupid hiking boots or sneakers again and the feeling disappeared? Best not to risk it now while she really needed to keep feeling this way. After the show would be soon enough.

So stilettos it was. She’d enjoy when Miles looked at her with that twinkle in his eyes that told her he couldn’t wait to be alone with her again.

“We should go,” Paige said, standing from the bed. Her toes complained about being shoved into the tight shoes again, but otherwise she was getting more and more used to the heels every day. She walked to the door without wobbling once. Definitely getting better at the whole balance thing too. “The boys are probably already waiting for us in the common room. You and I need to decide if we want to go for that other cache or not.”

Zoe shrugged. “I think we do. It will guarantee us some great points and maybe even a prize. How can we not go for the cache? If we don’t even try to get it, we may as well just concede to losing. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a loser.”

Paige nodded. Funny how a few weeks together could make them start agreeing. “We should have just enough time to try and convince Miles to go for the cache while we eat breakfast.”

Zoe smirked. “We can try, but I hate to break it to you … Miles can be pretty stubborn when he wants to be.”

Paige felt confidence surge through her. “Nothing I can’t handle. Besides, we’re our own team and we can make our own decisions, regardless of our alliance with the boys.” She took out her lip balm but Zoe stopped her before she could even pull off the cap.

“On behalf of every makeup person in the world, please use a lip gloss instead of that crappy wax.” She shoved the dark crimson tube of gloss toward Paige. “Real women wear gloss.”

Paige eyed the tube, contemplating whether or not she should give in and take it. Zoe hadn’t steered her wrong yet, but she hated lip-gloss every time she’d worn it for a special occasion. She couldn’t imagine putting up with the feel of it on her lips for an entire day outside.

But Paige did want to be confident like Zoe was, so didn’t that mean she should start standing up for herself even if it meant standing up to Zoe?

“No thanks,” Paige said easily, feeling stronger and more confident. “I hate the sticky feel of it on my lips. And honestly, I can’t imagine Miles liking it either.”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “Seriously, if you start telling me what he likes in the bedroom next, I’m going to hurl. It’s one thing to know you’re hooking up, but it’s another to find out what he likes and how he likes it.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on sharing any details about anything with you.” Paige had no desire to discuss her love life with Zoe … ugh, his sister. Besides, the more distance she could put between the fact that Zoe and Miles were siblings, the better. Not to mention, she didn’t need another reminder that she was totally falling for Miles and that meant being stuck with Zoe in her life forever.

• • •

Miles watched as the girls sat down at the table with Ben and began eating breakfast. This wasn’t going to be easy. He knew a fight waited for him at the table and all three of them would gang up on him. But it didn’t matter. He would do whatever he had to so they would all stay safe.

And after being in the common room all morning, drinking way more coffee than any one human needed to consume, he was pretty sure he’d come up with the perfect argument. Now he had to convince them of it.

He grabbed a bottle of water, unable to even consider drinking another sip of coffee, and headed for the table. He sat and tried to produce a confident yet understanding expression. It would be best if they decided this wasn’t a good idea for themselves versus him putting his foot down again like he’d tried, and failed, to do last night. Zoe never responded to that attitude and if Paige’s annoyance at him when she’d shown up at his room last night was any indication, she wouldn’t put up with an attitude like that from him again either.

Apparently more of Zoe was rubbing off on her than she realized.

Not that he minded a strong woman. As long as Paige didn’t also adopt the bitchy side of Zoe, they’d be fine. Bitchy and strong were totally different things and Zoe often didn’t seem to understand the difference between the two. Hopefully Paige would.

“What’s our plan for today?” he said with an easy smile. He’d play it cautiously and see what happened.

They glanced at each other, no one meeting his gaze.

Not a great start.

Paige looked at him. Her shoulders were high and full of tension even though her facial expression was laid back and casual. She probably thought she was fooling him. But years of teaching people how to climb had giving him an uncanny ability to read body language, even if they didn’t want to say what was really on their minds.

“We’ve decided we’re going for the cache,” she said simply, not needing to explain what cache she meant. There was only one in question. “It’s the best thing to do for our teams despite the minor risk involved.”

“You have? I see. And all of you are in agreement?” he asked.

Ben and Zoe nodded.

“And I’m only now finding out about this group decision that affects me as much as it affects you?” he asked.

“Yep. Sort of like how I just found out that you and Zoe are siblings.” Paige crossed her arms, looking at him with a mix of annoyance and teasing.

Oh yes, she definitely could be happier with him right now, but at least she didn’t seem angry. Annoyed, yes. Annoyed she could get over quickly and maybe she already had if the teasing tone was any indication. Sure, he’d kept the truth from her for a few weeks, but he’d done it for a good reason.

“Would it have made a difference with how you feel about me?”

“Maybe.” Paige sighed and rolled her eyes. “Probably not.”

And there was his answer. He would never know for sure if things would have escalated to the point of being intimately involved Paige if he’d told her about Zoe earlier. But now they were together and he could talk to her about it. They could work it out because now Paige knew the real Miles and not simply the guy who happened to be related to Zoe Oliver by blood.

“And I guess I’m out numbered with this decision about the cache,” he said, changing the subject. He needed to figure out a way to stop them from going for that stupid dangerous cache.

“You are.” Ben smiled. “But don’t let it bruise your ego too much.”

Miles was quiet for a moment. “So when are we going for that cache?”

“Today,” Zoe said. “First thing. Let’s get in and get out before any of the other teams have a chance.”

He nodded along with them. They all looked so pleased with themselves. With their plan. Under different circumstances he might have felt that way too. But not this time.

“Well, we should be able to take our time today,” he started. He worked hard to keep his voice as casual and nonchalant as possibly. It was crucial they didn’t think he was bullying them into this decision, even if he wanted to. If it kept them from getting hurt, it was worth it.

“What do you mean?” Paige asked. “Everyone will be headed there right away.”

“That’s not what I heard around here this morning.”

“No? What did you hear?” Ben asked.

“Sounded to me like every team had taken it off their list.”

“Why would they do that? It doesn’t make sense when they know there’s a good possibility there’s a prize available.”

He shrugged. “Seems half of them think it’s disrespectful to the firefighters to go after the cache they got hurt on and the other half think it’s bad luck. Like the cache is cursed or something.” He forced himself to chuckle even though he didn’t feel like laughing. He had to agree with the sentiment of the other teams. If only his teams would get on board too.

Miles took a sip of water while he let that settle. “I was thinking, since no one else is going for that cache, it will be safe sitting there a while. Maybe we would be better off trying to do some of the other caches that are hopefully closer, faster, and easier. And since we know where that other one is, we can run over to it anytime we find ourselves close by. Saves going out of our way for one cache and possibly losing a whole day completing it.”

By the expression on their faces and the change in their body language, he felt pretty confident they would agree with his plan. It was a good plan, no doubt. But since he wanted them to figure it out for themselves, he needed to give them a few more minutes to decide.

“I’m going to grab another pastry. Anyone want anything?” he asked, rising from the table.

“I’ll take one,” Paige said. “Thank you.”

He smiled at her and she blushed slightly. He wandered off to the buffet table, taking much longer than necessary to gather two little pastries on plates. Glancing over to the table while he reached for a couple of extra napkins, he saw the three of them huddled with their heads together. After lingering near the food as long as he could without feeling awkward, he wandered back to his teammates and set Paige’s pastry in front of her then took his seat again.

“We’ve decided to leave that cache until later and risk that the prize will still be there when we get around to it,” Paige said.

Good.

“And we will get to it before the end.” Zoe’s voice was determined.

Well, at least it wouldn’t be today. The longer he could delay them, the more chance there was that they’d forget about it, another team would go for it and get it, or they’d decide it wasn’t worth the risk. Any way he looked at it, delaying even another day was a success.

Finishing the last bite of his pastry, he leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. His tension and stress vanished. “Sounds like you guys have it all figured out.”

Paige shifted in bed and snuggled closer against Miles’s side. Funny how she felt like she’d always belonged there even though they’d only been together a few weeks. Felt like a lifetime already.

She yawned, trying to shake off the tiredness before another grueling day of caches and driving and searching hit her. Didn’t matter how much sleep she got each night, she still felt tired each morning. Of course, lying in bed with a naked Miles probably wasn’t equivalent to sleeping soundly. She’d barely been able to choke down dinner each night before exhaustion settled in. Last night, she’d even been too tired to fool around, which was saying something considering Miles had brought her to his bed again, wrapped his arms around her, and wore only his boxer briefs. Just thinking about it now made her girly bits tingle. If only she could wake up enough to do something about it.

But the last week had been too much. Together, they’d managed to find an outstanding seventy-five caches, putting both teams only one place back from Team Frat Boys who still had a five-cache lead. Team Retired Grandparents and Team Husband and Wife were close on their heels. Every day they started out knowing they had to find as many caches as possible to keep their tie together for second and third place.

Of course, in the end, it would all come down to point value per cache not the number of caches alone. But logic told them that the more caches they had, the more points they would collect.

And after each of the long days this last week, they’d come back to the common room to strategize. The noise of the room during the first two weeks had tapered off considerably as everyone made the final push to the end leading into this last week. Some teams didn’t even bother hanging out in the common room every night anymore, preferring instead to hole up in their rooms where they could plan their next day in private.

Paige, Zoe, and the boys didn’t feel the need to hide out. They liked to be out in the open, enjoying their time in the evenings for more than just strategizing. Sure they’d done a lot of that too, but they’d also played a few rounds of chess, goofed off, and eaten way too much for dinner. Seemed their stomachs had become bottomless pits from all the exercise during the day.