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Chapter Fifteen
Harper
WeekFour
The last several weeks had been nothing short of tumultuous. Madison tried to prepare me in her mini crash course as she’d helped me pack, but it didn’t hold a candle to the real-life experience. Emotions bubbled close to the surface, and I mentally counted down every day until we could be done with this show and be together. Lexi continued to try and sabotage me at every turn, and I wanted nothing more than for her to go home. The only girls left would be my friends, and we could ride this out to the end.
The rose ceremony that night would take us down to three girls before dropping to two prior to the final night. Maybe tonight would be the night Lexi would finally leave.
Even through all our honesty and stolen moments, Flynn and I had a lot to still work through. It was easy to hide in the house and go on prearranged dates, but life waited for us outside this space. I’d continued to work, but his entire life had been put on hold. Where would it pick up? If we could get through the rest of this show and be able to have a real relationship in the outside world, we stood a chance.
The resulting emotions were a mix of exhilaration and nervousness. But beneath those emotions, calm reigned. Somehow, I knew I’d be the last woman standing. I’d fallen for Flynn, and he’d fallen for me.
“You sure came to bed late.” Candace grinned, sitting up in bed.
“I promise, it’s not what you think.”
“Well, I think that if you’re getting super-secret time with Flynn, it’s totally worth it.” She winked at me before she threw off her blankets and shoved her feet into her slippers. “Come get coffee?”
“Yes. Might opt for the double caffeine this morning.”
She laughed. “Shocking.”
After this show ended, I wanted to tell her everything. I suspected she knew far more than she let on, but she’d long since decided Flynn and I were meant to be. We joked as we walked down the stairs; something that initially seemed so foreign, now my every day.
As soon as we got down the stairs, the change in atmosphere was apparent. As contestants dwindled, so did the amount of noise. Yet this morning, there was a lot of laughter and chatting in the kitchen. More than usual.
As soon as we rounded the corner, I froze.
A gorgeous woman with jet-black hair stood at the center of the other contestants like she’d been there all along. Goose bumps spread across my extremities, the anticipation of waiting for a shoe to drop growing stronger.
“Harper! Meet Amber.” Lexi grinned so big that her eyes bulged. The result was almost frightening.
I tipped my head, examining the situation, trying to make sense of it. Danielle rushed to my side and hooked her arm through mine.
“Let’s walk,” she muttered. “Now, Harper. Let’s go.”
“What’s going on, Dani?” I craned my neck to continue staring at the group of them, as if that alone would give me the answers I sought.
“I don’t know, but it stinks to high heaven. Keep walking.”
We stopped in the library, but my adrenaline was too high for me to actually stop moving. I paced back and forth, my gut screaming that something was wrong.
“Who is she?” I finally demanded. “Why is she here?”
“I don’t know why she’s here, but we’re toward the end of this thing. This show always likes to throw a curveball toward the end,” Dani replied.
“What do you mean?”
No one had warned me of curveballs, not even Madison. I thoughtIwas the curveball.
Candace and Danielle glanced at each other, then back at me.
“Harper, sometimes they like to play dirty,” Dani replied.
I got a sinking feeling in my belly. “Does she know Flynn?”
“I don’t know,” Dani said. “She’s stayed relatively quiet. We ran into her when we all got up this morning.”
