Page 37 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
Candace flopped down on her butt and turned her shoes this way and that, making perfect boxes from the pairs as a horrifying thought occurred to her. “You called Mike the minute you got me in the shower, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Told him things were going to get juicy here, right? That you were about to get that premier mental breakdown footage.”
“Candace, I wouldn’t do that.”
“Was Jannie in on it?” She wanted to take those words back, but there was no way to suck back a sound already uttered. She didn’t want to know. She and Jannie had been thick as thieves once upon a time, and Candace had run her off along with everyone else. Jannie didn’t owe her anything. But the idea Jannie might have betrayed her made her stomach flip over.
“There’s nothing for her to be in on.”
Candace grabbed a pair of ballet heels and wrapped the ribbons around them to keep them neat and together. Yeah, Jannie was a good person. She wouldn’t do anything like that. But the most obvious answer tended to be the right one. “You’re not as good a liar as you think you are,” she yelled. “I knew something was up, and I kept asking you why you were being nice to me. You never had a good answer for me. If you’d just told me the network was coaching you, it would have saved a lot of time.”
Something heavy thumped on the door. Candace stupidly clutched her shoes to her chest even though she was fully clothed and the strappy sandals offered minimal coverage. Nothing happened, though, just the thump. The door didn’t open. “I’ve only ever told you the truth.”
“You told the truth about one thing. You told me last night you helped me for the same reason I helped you.” She felt that very unwelcome twitching in her sinuses, a pressure threatening to leak from her in an ugly sob.
She could have fallen for him. She’d been so close. Yesterday, when he’d saved her cake? In that moment, he’d been the one thing she’d always wanted and never gotten in her life, fully realized. Hell, she remembered hardly anything from last night,but she was fairly sure she’d attempted and failed miserably at throwing herself on him.
“Did they make a deal with you? Offer you a guaranteed spot in the top three if you got me to talk? Am I going home on the next challenge now that you’ve gotten it out of me?”
“Candace, I’m coming in.” It wasn’t a question. He wasn’t giving her a choice, only a moment to prepare herself if she wasn’t decent.
He stood in the doorway for too long, larger than life and sleek and handsome, that hint of scruff on his cheeks and easy twinkle in his eyes despite his frown as he surveyed the room. “What, ah, what are you doing?”
“Packing,” she whispered.
“You moving into another cabin?”
“I’m going home. I’m not going to be their pawn anymore.”
“You’re not their pawn now.” He took the shoes from her hands, placed them back in the tote, and slid it under the bed. “I promise you, I’m not on any secret mission to stir up more drama. I don’t have any motive here other than making this place more comfortable for both of us. Harper and Zara are good pals, but they’re both going through hell with their partners, and there’s nothing to be done about crotchety old lady or racism. You? You just need to trust me when I say we’d both be doing way better right now if we worked together instead of fighting against one another.”
Candace touched her leg instinctively, feeling for her tattoo beneath the velour, but Laurin grabbed her hand and pulled it away.
“Trust me, Candace. Even if it’s only for the rest of the season and we go our separate ways afterward.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. Not now, not if they got any of that on film. They’ll never invite me back again.”
“Then win. Do the very best you can, use me to help you through the difficult bits, and win.”
“And you’ll just let me win? I’ll hate you forever if you take a dive just so I can win.”
Laurin sat down facing her, his legs crossed, his knees brushing hers. He took both her hands to settle them between them, squeezing them tightly. “No, you’ll have to beat me. But you know you can. You’re the best one here.”
“Perfect Patty—”
“Patty has weaknesses. We all do. There’s going to be a twist soon. We have too many contestants left; they’re not going to get everything aired in time for the Christmas Eve finale if we don’t have another double elimination. If we work together through that, we’ll stomp everyone else. We can do this, Candace. You can do this.”
He cupped her ears and pulled her forward as he leaned in. She thought he might be about to kiss her, and even though she couldn’t trust him and she still wasn’t sure he wasn’t a network pawn, she wanted him to kiss her. Her life could be told by the mistakes she’d made, but she deserved to enjoy one.
He kissed her gently, his lips feather-soft on her forehead. And then, with a brisk hug and a reassuring nod, he helped her unpack.
An announcement was made that day that no one was allowed out without their teammate, making Laurin feel better about the armistice he’d forged with Candace, even if everything he wanted to do with her now was in direct opposition to her confession. This was absolutely not the time to seduce her. The cameraman who was suddenly ever-present in the cabin further complicated things, and Laurin’s attempt at defusing himself resulted in a cold shower, the most uncomfortable, guilt-ridden masturbation he’d ever subjected himself to — and he spent his teen years in dorms where he’d bunked with half a dozen other teen boys — and an evening of celibate puzzle assembly.
Harper and Zara confirmed that cameramen had moved in with them as well. Mark and Belle had switched cabins, so now Harper had Mark and a cameraman with her at all times. Zara said the one they’d gotten had taken a nap on the sofa. These updates made Laurin feel a little more hopeful that it had simply been a case of bad timing when the cameraman had walked in on their conversation.
Really, the jigsaw puzzle wasn’t so bad with Candace working alongside him. It didn’t take long for him to see that this was her in her element. Her eyes and hands moved in a fluid dance, building the borders and the elements simultaneously. She was smiling, too; every time she took the briefest glance his way, she had to tilt her head to clear the hood from her view, and her smile wasn’t anything more pronounced than Mona Lisa’s, but it was every bit as intriguing.
