He looks ridiculous. Laughing, I look across the room, where the adults’ orange is moving rapidly down the line, and then look down at him. “We can’t let the old folks win!” I say. “Get the orange!”
He starts moving the orange around with his face, trying to get it under his chin. It rolls toward my shoulder, then down my arm. Wes is crouched around me, since he’s so much taller than I am, and I’m on my tippy toes, trying to raise my shoulder toward his chin.
“Stop wiggling!” he says.
“You suck at this!” I reply.
Charlie is next to us, trying to give Wes directions, but all Wes manages to do is roll the orange around my arm, then back to my shoulder until he gets really close to my boob.
“You need to get the orange and move along,” I say.
He finally manages to catch it in the right place. Wes squeezes me close one last time and then he’s gone.
It’s a clean pass to Laurel and then she turns to the guy behind her.
Wes looks at me over his shoulder and my heart is pounding. We stare at each other a few seconds before he turns away.
When we beat the grown-ups, Judd picks me up and swings me around.
Mrs. Brown gets our attention for the next game. “I’m going to pick six from the youngsters and six from the oldsters.” I become one of the lucky ones; Judd jumps around like a maniac and points at me until Mrs. Brown picks me. She hands me a rectangular tissue box that has a long ribbon attached to the bottom. I shake the box and it rattles. It’s full of Ping-Pong balls.
I can’t even imagine what this means.
“Now, everyone, tie the ribbon around your waist so the box is sitting right above your behind with the opening pointed out.”
Olivia helps me get mine tied on just right. I notice Charlie and Wes were also picked to do this challenge. I glance around for Laurel, but she’s nowhere to be found.
Wes is standing with his hands up so Charlie can get the box tied around his waist. His T-shirt fits a little snugger around his biceps than I remember—it looks like he’s been working out. He looks…good.
I brush the thought away immediately. Why am I noticing Wes’s arms?
Mrs. Brown claps her hands several times. “Okay, when I yellGo!you dance around and shake what your mama gave you until all the balls are out of the box.”
I shake my head at Olivia and mouth the wordNo!
She laughs, nods her head, and mouths the wordYes!
The music starts again and Mrs. Brown screams, “Go!”
And then we all start moving. I find out quickly that up and down isn’t doing the job, so I start moving side to side. Basically I look like I’m stuck in the washing machine spin cycle.
I should be humiliated, but for some reason I’m not.
Charlie is doing some sort of crazy motion where his hands are on the ground and his butt is in the air and he’s bouncing it from side to side. His Ping-Pong balls are flying out everywhere. Wes seems to be having the same trouble I am. He moves toward me while shaking his hips back and forth.
“Aren’t you glad you came?” he shouts over the music.
“I’m still not sure!” I shout back.
“We’ll help each other out. Give me your hand. I’ll dip you and hopefully, they’ll all come flying out.”
I put my right hand in his and lean back. He keeps his arm around my shoulders while I shake my hips. “That’s cheating,” an older woman says. She’s jumping up and down like she’s on a pogo stick.
“She said to dance, and we’re dancing!” Wes says.
Charlie comes up beside us and yells, “Say ‘cheese!’?”
More pictures.
