“It is,” he confirmed, his smile so wide it made him look like a giddy teenager.
“But… why?”
Brody’s eyebrows drew together. “Why did I bring you here?”
“No, why does this place have a croquet lawn?”
He shrugged. “Why not?”
“Because nobody plays croquet.”
“They do here. I’ve seen the group. They’re very serious about it.”
“Is it like golf? Do they have their own mallets?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“How are we going to play?”
He pointed toward a cabinet. “They don’t keep it locked.”
That seemed stupid. “They don’t keep mallets, which could be used as weapons, behind a locked door?”
“It might be an oversight. It’s possible they don’t care because almost nobody comes to this little area.”
“You just said there are croquet players here,” I argued.
“There are. They come during the afternoons. I’ve never seen anybody here at night.”
I had questions—maybe too many of them—so I couldn’t let it go. “I need you to break this down for me. First off, how did you know this was a thing?”
“I saw it one day after finishing a round with Nathan.” His eyes were on the croquet lawn—the stupid little hoops—and not me.
“You play golf?”
“Not by choice. My father loves golf. So does Nathan. Sometimes I come with him simply because he insists I need to get some fresh air.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to golf.”
“I don’t disagree. It doesn’t hurt me, though, and Nathan does stuff with me he doesn’t want to do.”
I folded my arms. “Like what? Because—and no offense to Nathan—you seem to put more effort into the friendship than he does.”
“That’s only because everything Nathan does is effortless, and I can’t help but look like I’m struggling next to him.”
I opened my mouth, considered it, then shook my head. “Fine. I’m not going to poke at Nathan. I wouldn’t take it well if you poked at my friends.”
There was another unintended double entendre. This time, I could feel my cheeks burning.
“What do you make Nathan do that he doesn’t want to do?” I asked.
“Go to bookstores. Solve escape rooms.”
Well, he had my interest now. “You like escape rooms? Is that because you want to write a mystery?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never really thought about it, but that makes sense.”
“I like escape rooms.” I had no idea why I volunteered that information.
