Page 6 of Chasing Sunsets

Chapter One

Fourteen Years Later

“Sadie Truex,” a man reading from an iPad called.

Out of her periphery, Sadie saw a cameraman turn the lens her way. The cameras would take some getting used to since they would be her companions for the next ten days. Concentrating on iPad man, Sadie picked up her backpack and crossed the cream-tiled room toward him. Doubts nagged at her, making her uncertain she was prepared for this.

She signed up for this reality show three years ago, hoping it would one day come to Texas. Contestants were required to live in the state where the season was being taped. A couple of months ago, a representative phoned and offered her a spot on the show.

After flying to Dallas last night, she’d stayed in a hotel room provided by the network. Per instructions left in the room, she’d made it to the lobby at five-twenty this morning, ten minutes early. If the creators of the series were trying to exhaust entrants, the early hour would definitely do it. Other women contestants were easy to spot wearing the provided clothing—a tealChasing Sunsetst-shirt, khaki shorts, and carrying a backpack—the only baggage allowed. Although some women had gathered in small groups in the foyer, she kept to herself. Two women with red, angry faces stood near the wall in a heated conversation.

A man in a different coloredChasing Sunsetsshirt arrived and led them to an oversized black van waiting outside the sliding glass doors. Their driver chatted and spoke about different spots in the city. Even though she couldn’t see much because the sun hadn’t crested the horizon, as they passed the grassy knoll and he spoke of JFK’s assassination, a lump lodged in her throat.

Shortly thereafter, they’d pulled into the parking lot of a business complex that had a skyscraper with mirrored windows. Upon entering the building, they were led to this conference room on the seventh floor set up with a breakfast buffet. Since the room only had one huge table and a dozen chairs, she’d taken an end seat and eaten with the other women, remaining quiet and not engaging in their chatter. Half an hour ago, a cleaning crew swept through and removed the food.

IPad guy waited for her with his hand extended. “Hi, Sadie. I’m Jessie.”

She shook his hand.

“Follow me.”

When she applied to be a contestant, she’d wanted the adventure. Now, she desperately needed the prize money. The series paired strangers to race around a state against other twosomes. Teams traveled to different cities and performed assigned tasks. Each day, the time it took the couples to get from the start to the finish was calculated and added to the other days. If a pair arrived first, ten minutes were deducted from their time, and if they finished before sunset, another ten minutes were taken off. Other subtractions and additions were applied as well. The team with the lowest time total at the end of ten days won a million dollars, split evenly between them.

Every season opener she’d watched started with females on one side of a curtain and males on the other. Therefore, she wasn’t sure being summoned individually was normal, but the women were being called one by one and ushered from the room.

Jessie stopped at a door down the hallway, turned the doorknob, threw the door wide, and gestured for her to enter. She stepped past him. This conference room, with gray walls and carpeting, had a drape splitting the space and blocking her view of one side of the room.

He pointed. “Stand on the X.”

A few paces forward and she landed on the X. The black drape in front of her had space at the top. Quiet voices and shuffling feet sounded.

Jessie peeked around the curtain and said, “She’s here,” then left.

Seconds later, Gemini, the beautiful actress and hostess of the show, came from the other side of the drape and waved. She wore a pink jumpsuit with a matching headband in her blonde hair and stood in front of the door so she could be seen by everyone in the room. “Ready?”

Curiosity at a fever pitch, Sadie bobbed her head.

Her heart pounded.

Gemini smiled. “We are allowing you three minutes with your partner to determine if you want to race.”

Odd. From what she understood, participants never got to choose whether they wanted to compete with the stranger they were paired with. Maybe they never showed this part or there’d been some kind of problem last season, and they came up with this method instead.

The host pointed at surveillance cameras on the wall, one directed Sadie’s way and the other aimed toward the opposite side of the room. “There are cameras, but no microphones.”

---