Page 58 of The Cuffing Game
“Children,” Damien said under his breath. But the slight smile on his lips told Mia he thought this moment was adorable, too.
This was the nature of reality TV, she was beginning to realize. You set the rules and gave people instructions, but in the end, they did what they wanted anyway. And sometimes, they did things that were much better than you originally planned.
Mia had barely attempted to think positively when she caught sight of something that almost made her heart leap out of her chest.
“Damien!” she hissed. “Zoom in on Tiana and Shirin.”
While Carlos and Violet were off to one side, continuing to roll a big ball for the snowman’s torso, Shirin andTiana were rolling a smaller one for the head. As the girls worked, their hands brushed together, too many times to be accidental. They laughed, staring into each other’s eyes with the sort of heat that threatened to melt their snowman before he could even stand.
Mia’s ship was finally sailing. Just not how she thought it would. She smiled and rested her chin in her hands.
Her head still woozy with secondhand euphoria, Mia was looking around to see how everyone else was doing when she realized someone was missing. Or rather, multiple someones.
“Wait,” she whispered to Damien. “Where’s Noah? Or Celine and Kyle?”
She glanced around at all four corners of the clearing. But all she could see were trees, snow, and more trees.
From behind the camera, Damien shot her a concerned look.
“Is your walkie-talkie muted?” Mia hissed.
He nodded.
Mia grabbed her walkie-talkie, rushing away so the contestants’ lav mics wouldn’t pick up on her voice.
“Does anyone have eyes on Noah? Over,” she asked. “And Celine. And Kyle. Over.”
Alex’s response came first. “Shit, did we loseallof them? Over.”
Mia looked around, her stomach lurching when she realized she couldn’t find Kallie either.
“Wait, where are you, Kallie? Over.”
There was a long pause. Mia’s body began to tremble from head to toe. Somehow, her worst nightmare had come true, and she hadn’t realized it until it was too late.
She was about to tell Alex to call for help when her walkie-talkie crackled back to life.
“Hi,” Kallie said. “I’m with all of them right now, over. About a ten-minute walk north of the clearing.”
Mia breathed a big sigh of relief. They were fine. She freaked out for nothing.
But then Kallie continued, “I think Noah and Kyle are about to fight. Mia, come quick!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Noah
Noah came across Celine and Kyle making out with each other in the woods. Which wasn’t wholly unexpected. But it certainly made things awkward.
“Hey, what’s your problem?” Kyle asked when Noah approached them. “Are you jealous or something?”
All the friendly “bro-eyness” was gone from Kyle’s voice, replaced by the sharpness of a serrated knife. Well, that hadn’t taken long.
“No,” Noah simply said. Because it was true, he realized. He wasn’t jealous of them at all.
Before anyone could say anything else, Noah stepped aside to reveal Kallie standing behind him with her camera. Noah himself hadn’t known Kallie was following him until he heard her whispering into her walkie-talkie, calling Mia for backup. He didn’t want Mia to have to deal with ... whatever this was. He resolved to take care of this mess before she arrived.
Kyle cursed under his breath. And Celine, who’d beenglancing between the two boys in horror, said, “Noah, how could you? We just wanted some privacy.”
