Page 39 of Holly Jolly Cake Fight
She gave him a little pout, and there it was, that perfect moment.
The pucker of that pout, that fierce but diminutive scowl, and the dip in those pale brows, the flush in her cheeks that bloomed in conversation but never at her work station, the incessant fluttering of her fingertips no matter what she was doing, even when she was engrossed in a book, he was fascinated by all of it.
Especially that quirk at the corner of her lip when she finally said, “How do you know I’m not an amazing soccer player, too?”
The answer was easy enough — she’d just said the only things Aunt Miriam had ever been able to cheer her on for had been math and baking. He touched her leg, instead, feeling through the thick pile of velour to her slender calf beneath. “You’re not a runner,” he said. “You’d have more definition here.”
Her breath snagged slightly, nothing more than a faint stutter he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been watching so closely. Her eyes locked onto his. It took far more willpower than he cared to admit to hold himself back from leaning in to examine all the colors that had blended to make the wintry blue of her eyes.
“Are you calling me weak?”
He stroked her leg ever so lightly. “No, I’m sure you have plenty of . . . stamina.”
There was a glimmer of unmistakable body language: a dilation of the pupils, a glance down to his lips, a flick of her tongue. But then her eyes darted to the camera, and she shimmied an appropriate distance away.
Laurin couldn’t blame her. Wrong place, wrong time. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t try again when everything was right. He flashed one last grin at her and picked up a puzzle piece. “So, tell me more about your Aunt Miriam.”
After that one touch, that one innuendo, Laurin was the perfect gentleman for the rest of the evening. Not a touch, not a wink, not a molten gaze that got Candace’s heart beating hard and her . . . her other areas doing . . . other things.
It was infuriating, but she wasn’t sure what bothered her the most: that he’d touched her to begin with, that he hadn’t done it again, or that she wanted more.
He stuck to safe conversation but didn’t try to hide his past when she pushed him into answering personal questions about himself. Yes, he’d always been popular with the ladies and had gone through plenty of girlfriends, yes, he’d probably been a jerk to a lot of them.
“If I had to do it all over again, I doubt I’d change anything,” he admitted on Tuesday when it warmed up enough that they could go out on the lake. The canoes weren’t big enough for three people, and Candace got the feeling Laurin took some secret pleasure in forcing the production team to get not only a second canoe but also a crew member to row. If they wanted Candace and Laurin to be filmed all day, they’d have to work for it. “Another decade plus of life experience wouldn’t be nearly enough to counteract the stupidity of teenage boy.”
Candace frowned, forcing her attention away from Laurin’s arms as he worked the double paddle. He had a sleek build, but his biceps strained at his sleeves as he led the poor cameraman on a race around the lake. “So then, there’s nothing to be done about it but to let boys be boys?”
“I hope not. I was cocky. Prowess on the field led to popularity in school, led to unchecked arrogance. I’d rather have taken future consequences, no matter how bad they were, to current moderation. So if I’d known my sports star days were numbered, I’d have been even worse.” He dipped his head slightly, but any embarrassment he was feigning at was easily dashed by the glint of sunlight off his teeth.
“So you’d have been just as horrible with girls then if you knew what you know now?”
Laurin’s fluid stroking hiccupped as he dug to one side, turning the boat a sharp ninety degrees. Behind him, the secondboat nearly capsized in the scramble to avoid the bank of lily pads Laurin had maneuvered around.
“And to more of them, likely. God, I’d probably shag all of them back then.”
“You can’t now?” Candace asked before realizing how many horrible ways that question could be translated. Why were they even talking about this?
Laurin glanced back to see where the other canoe was. It had gotten stuck in the lilies, and the cameraman was helping with an oar. Candace and Laurin were alone for the moment, and he took advantage, dropping a hand from the paddle to her knee and squeezing it, his first touch in almost three days. “Of course I can. But I’m a different man, now, and I won’t set a bad example for Vivvy. She needs to know the proper way for a man to treat a woman so she doesn’t fall for an arrogant footballer.”
It was there in Candace’s mind to ask about Vivvy’s mom, but the frogs were chirping, the dragonflies were buzzing, the boat was rocking, Laurin was leaning in just enough. All she had to do was lean a little more, and—
Laurin backed off and got back to paddling, leaving her hanging there, desperate for touch and terrified of touch. Knowing exactly what he was doing but not knowing why, scared that he was fake and just as scared that he was real.
He was piecing together the heart she was sure she’d smashed to smithereens, and there wasn’t nearly enough glue to hold it together this time.
Episode 4:
Holiday Dinner
Chapter 15
Wednesday’s challenge hadthem back in the pavilion, but the current decorations had the six remaining contestants exchanging knowing nods. The tops of all the work stations had been cleared so they could be draped with tablecloths. The crew had gone with Christmas red edged in green and gold plaid, darkening the overall look of the pavilion considerably, but they’d compensated for it with extravagant poinsettia centerpieces and full table settings for two at each station. They’d even brought in café chairs and, inexplicably, enough mannequins to fill them. The mannequins were matte black, expressionless, and dressed in tacky Christmas sweaters.
The whole creepy display indicated two things: the set designer needed to cut back on the hallucinogens, and the contestants would be working in their cabins today. They’d reached the second team challenge.
Both Zara and Harper were unhappy about this. If, back in the cookie challenge, they’d somehow eliminated Patty, the girls would now be partners. Zara was still working with Patty, and the three days together had clearly only made things worse. Harper, meanwhile, didn’t have anything against Mark, but no one had yet been impressed by him, either.
Laurin had the most recent win. Candace hadn’t won anything yet, but she’d nearly gotten it on cookie week. More importantly, they were ready to work together this time.
