This friends-to-lovers spin on The Bachelor follows two childhood besties reuniting to spend the summer in L.A. after five years apart—but when they both get involved with a teen reality dating show, their lives take an unexpected turn for the unreal.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Kaitlyn Hill’s Not Here to Stay Friends, which is out now!
Sloane McKinney feels like a background character in her own life. But this summer will be different, because she’s spending it with her childhood best friend, Liam Daniels, in her dream city, Los Angeles. Sure, she’s surprised to find that Liam just happens to have had a Hot Guy glow-up since she last saw him, but so what? A little attraction won’t ruin her plans for their fun—and completely platonic—reunion.
What might, however, is that Liam has been roped into working for his producer dad’s new teen reality dating show, Aspen Woods’s Future Leading Lady. Liam figures Sloane can still hang out with him on set while he fetches coffee for the film crew, or whatever it is that production assistants do. Except it turns out the show is one contestant short . . . and Sloane is the perfect last-minute addition.
Once cameras are rolling, the whirlwind of dating teen heartthrob Aspen Woods feels way more real than Sloane expected, and Liam doesn’t exactly enjoy watching it all unfold. But it’s behind the scenes where the drama really picks up. . . .
Because wanting to kiss your best friend? That’s a plot twist neither Sloane nor Liam ever saw coming.
“You want me to be the twenty-fifth contestant?”
“Dad,” Liam says again, more strength behind it this time. “This is ridiculous. Sloane has no interest in doing that.”
Don’t I? I mean, I don’t think I do. Or I didn’t before visiting set. But I have been thinking all day about how cool it would be to live here, get a glimpse of what the experience of filming The Cove is like—even if I don’t really want to date Aspen Woods. But this is a lot to process all at once.
“I… I don’t know if I can do that,” I say meekly.
Mr. Daniels steps closer and lays a hand on my shoulder. “You could absolutely do it, Sloaney. You’re sharp, you’re personable, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. You’d give viewers someone solid to root for, even if the rest of casting’s picks are duds. Oh, and of course I imagine you’ll be a hit with Aspen.”
He raises his eyebrows on that last part, and I cringe.
“I don’t think I want to be a hit with Aspen, though. I mean, I don’t want to date him. So I’d be, like, faking.” I’m grasping at straws to explain why I can’t, shouldn’t, won’t agree to this. But it feels almost like fighting the inevitable already.
Mr. Daniels gives me a smile that straddles the line between caring and patronizing. “Welcome to reality TV, sweetheart. But you never know what could happen, how you might feel once you’re in it. And regardless, you’re there for a bigger purpose. You’d be really helping me out, being my hand-picked competitor. I’d owe you big.” Something else seems to occur to him then, as he snaps his fingers. “You know what, I can help you out too.”
“Help me?” Guess I’m back to dumbly parroting him.
“I happen to know the dean of the Los Angeles Film Academy. You heard of them? Great screenwriting program. If you do this for me, I’ll have him over for dinner with us once we’ve wrapped this season, before you leave at the end of summer. That’s more or less a guaranteed admission for you next year. And I have some other contacts in the TV writing space who we could talk to about job shadowing, mentoring, you name it. All of that, if you’d be the twenty-fifth contestant and do your best to stick around a while. Let’s say…if you make it to the top four. How does that sound?”
I gape at him. I’m already starry-eyed just thinking about the list of opportunities Mr. Daniels rattled off. But surely he could pull these strings for me whether I do the show for him or not—whether I somehow make it to the top four or not. Right? The fact that he’s not offering to pull them regardless makes me feel… weird.
My gaze snags on Dorian’s house behind us, Chelsea’s and Brock’s on either side of it. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to being in The Cove in real life. And all I have to do is flirt with an admittedly super-hot actor until I get to the final four, then I can dip out. That couldn’t be so difficult, could it? It’s not like I’d be losing out on much—Sloane and Liam’s Summer of Fun bucket list has already gone through the metaphorical paper shredder. I’ll get to spend more time with Liam than I would if I wasn’t on set. And at the end, I get a major kick start to all my dreams coming true.
What’s the worst that could happen?
“Dad,” Liam says, basically pleading. “I’ll help you find someone else. I’m sure there’s a girl from my school or something who could—”
“I’ll do it,” I say, turning back to them.
“You’ll do it?” Mr. Daniels’s face lights up.
“You’ll what?” Liam sputters at the same time.
“Yeah. I’ll be your twenty-fifth girl, and do my best to stay till the final four,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest and trying to look like someone who is not Completely Winging It. “But you’ll have to talk to my parents, like you said. And if they agree, get me the paperwork or whatever.”
Mr. Daniels beams at me, and I wish it didn’t warm up all my insides. I’ve always loved him like a second dad, but I can’t decide how much I like him right now.
“You’ve got yourself a deal,” he says, extending a hand to me. I shake it, watching Liam walk a slow circle in my periphery, his hands on hips as he looks up at the sky. “I’ll go tell the crew and start making calls. Stay close by.”
“Sloane, you don’t have to do this,” Liam says, pinning me with a worried look as his dad heads back to the tent. “Dad is just freaking out right now, but when he settles down, I’m sure he’ll see it’s a stupid idea and—“
“Why stupid?” I cut in, surprised at how defensive I feel. “You think I’ll embarrass myself or something? Aspen won’t be into me and I’ll get my fragile heart broken?”
An exasperated breath puffs out of him. “Of course not. I’m sure you’ll do great, and I don’t see how he couldn’t be into you. But I’m sure there’s another way to make those writing connections happen. You don’t need this ‘hand-picked contestant’ thing to get you there.”
He pushes a hand through his hair. Unlike Mr. Daniels, it leaves his sticking up in a cute, messy way rather than contributing to a fivehead. I reach out and wrap my fingers around his, giving them a quick squeeze.
“Liam, it’s fine. I think… I think I want to do this, honestly. It’ll be an adventure. Living on set will be cool. I’ll get more time around you while we’re both here. And it’ll require, what, a few minutes per episode of pretending to be impressed by a narcissistic child star whose name sounds like an air freshener? It may not be the start of the world’s greatest love story, but it also won’t kill me. Probably.”
I add a wink at the last part, but Liam isn’t looking at me. His gaze has shifted just over my shoulder, and he seems to have gone a shade paler.
Then it’s a new voice that responds from behind me, one I’ve only heard through my TV screen for hundreds of hours before, and suddenly Liam’s reaction makes much more sense.
“Well, you’ll never know till you try, will you?”
