Page 51 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

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Grace lookedaround the room and silently sized up the competition. She’d done some research, in the form of Viv finding out the gossip, and she learned that one of the teams were exes from San Francisco. They’d been in the flipping game for over ten years and had made quite a name for themselves in the Bay Area. Viv was convinced they were going to be Grace’s biggest threat when it came to the actual flip.

But as far as the audience vote for favorite couple went, Viv said it was anyone’s game.

The other veteran team were siblings from the Midwest. Twins from Minneapolis who used the twin thing in a lot of their marketing, which made sense considering Minneapolis was twin cities with St. Paul. Viv said that they looked like David Beckham and Jon Hamm had a love child, which Grace couldn’t quite picture but apparently meant they were very attractive.

The other virgin flipping team were childhood best friends. One of them suffered from Lupus and they had done the “Selena Gomez Surgery” which Grace had only vaguely been aware of. She remembered reading that one of Selena’s friends had donated a kidney to her, which is exactly what one of these friends had done on the team. Viv said they for sure were going to get the sympathy vote.

Then there was, Grace and Easton. Viv had mentioned to Grace, more than once, that she should consider being more ‘likeable’ if she wanted to garner the audience vote for favorite team. Grace had asked exactly how she suggested she do that, and her sister had replied, by not asking questions like that. Then she’d told her not to worry about it because Easton’s likability was off the charts and he would “carry the team.”

As much as she’d appreciated Viv’s recon, Grace had to admit it was sort of getting in her head. She was second guessing whether or not she could actually do this.

The door to the community center opened and she looked up expectantly, hoping to see Easton walk through it. But he didn’t. Two men who looked like a cross between David Beckham and Jon Hamm walked in. Grace had to see it to get it, but now that she had seen it for herself, her sister had described them perfectly.

Grace turned back and checked her watch. The production meeting didn’t start for ten minutes but she’d been here for the past fifteen and every time the door opened, she thought it was Easton walking through. She hadn’t really seen him since the day they found out they were cast, and that was very much on purpose. She’d been getting up several hours before the sun and heading down to the coffee shop to hang out with her sisters.

She’d spent her afternoons at Brewed Awakenings going through the program and also researching the market in Hope Falls. If she was going to flip a house here, she needed to know what buyers would be looking for. She needed to know what would add value to the appraisal.

In her research, she’d found her dream house. It was a traditional craftsman that had a stunning view of Hope Falls’ valley. It had drool-worthy built-ins, a two-tone kitchen with white upper cabinets, dark blue lowers, and marble countertops. A large island with a waterfall edge and upgraded appliances. The master bath rivaled any Beverly Hills spa with a standalone soaker tub, two rainfall showerheads and heated floors.

The place was perfect except for one thing...it was in escrow.

A lot of things had been falling into place for Grace, but apparently, her dream home wasn’t in the cards. Not one to dwell on a missed opportunity, she’d put the house out of her mind.

Well, at least she’d tried to. The damn thing kept popping up. And it wasn’t alone. It was usually accompanied by a certain man whom she’d been doing her best not to think about.

Easton Bishop had consumed her every waking and dreaming thought and it was making her a little, no, a lot, crazy. She’d hoped that getting some space from him would tone down the infatuation that she was feeling for him, but if anything, it had ramped it up.

As she sat in the folding chair, she felt nerves popping in her stomach like kernels in a microwave. Not because she was about to embark on a real estate reality show competition. She’d done her homework, literally, she’d finished the program a day early. She’d done her research, and now she was ready to win this thing.

No, her popcorn belly was due to the fact that the next six weeks were going to be spent pretending to be with a man whom she actually liked. A lot.

The door opened again and a very attractive bald man with a designer suit and a stunning woman carrying a Hermès crocodile bag walked through it. The exes from San Francisco. Even if Viv hadn’t given her a heads up that they were the team to beat, Grace would have known that was the case.

After spending a decade working in the entertainment industry with people who were at the top of their game, Grace could spot the best of the best in any room she was in. It didn’t matter what they were the “best” at. Singing. Acting. Sports. Law. Medicine. Academics.

When a person was operating in the highest echelon of their chosen vocation there was an air about them that she couldn’t quite put her finger on but could sniff out with a blindfold on. And the people that just walked in had that air about them. It wasn’t cocky, it was a quiet confidence.

Okay, maybe now she was a little nervous about the competition.

She turned back around in her seat and took a deep breath as she pulled out her phone to see if Easton had texted that he was running late. He hadn’t.

The only text she had was a GIF from Viv of Amy Poehler’s character from Parks and Rec with her thumbs up and text that read: You Got This!

She grinned and was sliding her phone back inside her purse when someone sat down next to her. She looked over and saw Easton and for some reason she almost cried. It was at that moment she realized she’d been scared he wasn’t going to show. But he had.

“Hi,” he smiled and all the anxiety she’d been feeling evaporated.

He was here and for some reason just his presence made her feel like everything was going to be okay.

She smiled back at him. “Hi.”

“Hi everyone.” A voice came over the loud speaker and they both turned their attention to a man in the front of the room. “Thank you all for coming and welcome to season one of Home Sweet Flipping Home! I haven’t had a chance to meet all of you, but I’m Ken, one of the producers.”

The next forty-five minutes were filled with introductions, going over what would be expected of them and procedural information. Then they had a one-hour safety meeting at the end of which was a test. They had a short fifteen-minute break and then they had two more meetings, one to go over sexual harassment and then another safety meeting where they learned what to do if they cut off a finger or shot themselves with a hammer gun, fun things like that.

After that they were told to wait in the hallway in their teams. Grace had no clue what was next. The whole morning had gone by excruciatingly slow—because it was boring—but somehow also in a blur. It was strange.

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