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“Women are never as simple as you’re making that sound.”
The last one I’d been involved with was precisely the reason I was here. I had every reason to be nervous.
“Speaking of women, I’m going to go chat with that gorgeous dark-haired beauty in makeup. See if I need anything before I’m on camera later.”
He half rose off the couch and spun around the arm of it as he walked in the opposite direction. I needed to adapt some of his cool demeanor before meeting all the women later that night.
Ever since running into Harper a couple of nights before at the tubing hill, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Between the commitment to the show and her brother, my hands were tied. But regret sat heavy on my chest anyway.
I’d come on the show to prove to my sponsors, leadership, and anyone else important watching, that I was serious about settling down. That my personal life wouldn’t interfere with business. Grand gestures and big scandals seemed to have adapted to my persona, and it needed an overhaul.
I ran my hands down my face.
My publicist told me to pick someone and settle down. It didn’t matter who. We’d play the game, smile a lot for cameras, and eventually go our separate ways.
Walking into this, I’d been so sure this was the answer.
Now? The only thing that felt right was being home. And old feelings I thought I’d buried rushed to the surface. For years, all I’d wanted was Harper Evans. And minus the one time I’d crumbled, I’d mostly spent my adult life heading in the opposite direction of wherever she was.
I thought it would be easy to keep my distance, to pretend she wasn’t anything more than Steven’s kid sister. After all, she deserved more than my tabloid-laden life could give her. Even if most of it wasn’t true.
I had to keep my head down and stick to the show.
“I guess we’re just not meant to be,” I whispered to myself.
Overwhelmed by all the contestants I’d already met, I pushed my shoulders back in a quick stretch, then leaned my neck back. Silence enveloped me like an old friend, and I closed my eyes, relishing in the quiet moment.
My hands prickled with the cold, yanking me back into the present, and I dug around in my pockets for my hand warmers. We’d filmed the women’s arrivals all evening, and there was a distinct difference in standing around in cold weather for hours dressed in ski gear and standing around in regular clothes.
“Want another hot chocolate, man?” A crew member yelled, poking his head out the front door of the inn.
“That would be great. Thanks.”
Studio lighting bathed the front of the inn, and cameras were positioned at different angles to catch everything they could. I hadn’t seen the inn since Colton worked his magic with renovations, but what would ordinarily feel safe felt strange. Foreign.
Too many strangers, though I was used to that. It was the fact that they’d overrun all the spaces that felt like home. The only privacy I had was in the room Madison had tucked me into.
There’d been a vast array of women paraded in front of me, all dressed in clothes hardly appropriate for the Colorado weather. We still had snow on the ground, and some of them had opted for heels anyway, with tight, arm-baring dresses that dragged along the snow.
Giant, fluffy snowflakes floated down, making me wish I was anywhere but there. I desperately wanted to be on the slopes, feeling the wind against my cheeks as I cut through the fresh powder.
Bells jingled in the distance to the rhythm of a horse trotting, signifying the next contestant.
How many more are there?
Out of all the contestants I’d met so far, there’s only been a couple I felt even a hint of a spark with. One woman still tugged at my attention, and she wasn’t here.
As the sleigh came into view, so did strawberry blonde curls. Hope sprung in my chest, mixing with shock.
It couldn’t be. She’d never be caught dead on a show like this.
I thought maybe she’d been so heavy on my mind the last few days that I’d conjured up a delusion.
Yet there she was, real as me.
She stood as the sleigh came to a stop, tossing the blanket she’d had over her lap off to the side. My mouth went dry as I took her in, dressed from head to toe in a deep sapphire blue. Unlike many of the women before her, she wore a long-sleeved top that seemed to cling to her waist before a long skirt spilled down to her feet. She reminded me of a snow princess, elegant but still unique.
Completely and totally Harper.
