“How about this?” Indy loops his arm around my shoulders and draws me close to his side. His lips press to the top of myhead. “We’ll skip the whole games and pizza thing. Stay in here, watch aTop Chefmarathon, order whatever takeout you like?—”
“Nope.” I hop off the bed and grab Indy’s hand, tugging him along with me. I don’t even think about which hand I reach for, and when I touch the hard material of his prosthetic, his posture stiffens a little.
But he doesn’t pull away.
And a second later, his fingers wrap around mine.
“I want pizza,” I tell him. “I want to meet your friends and hear embarrassing stories about you. And I want to try this extreme Jenga I keep hearing about.”
His worried features relax into a smile. “Extreme Jenga can get pretty crazy. Although we won’t let it go that far tonight. When we’re back at HQ, though, and shots get thrown into the mix…”
As we leave the bedroom and head down the hallway towards the living room, Indy adds, “Our friend, Leo, came up with the game what… fifteen years ago? It started out as regular Jenga, but then people complained it was too easy. So Leo started adding more rules. More challenges.”
“Challenges like what?”
“Making your move while blindfolded. Using four sets to get the tower as tall as possible. Taking a shot after every turn. Team play, where one person is blindfolded and the partner has to tell them what to do.”
“Taking a shot after every turn?” I look up at Indy in surprise. “How could you evenseethe pieces after one game?”
“It’s tough,” Ace answers. He’s standing by a card table set up in the corner of the living room, unpacking what looks like at least half-a-dozen Jenga sets. He finishes peeling off the cellophane wrapping on one of them before adding, “But that just adds to the challenge.”
“The Bravo Team guys got one of those oversized sets,” Tyler says as he walks out of the kitchen with a tray of chips and pretzels in his hands. “When it’s set up, it’s something like eight feet tall. So you have to team up to get high enough to reach.”
Yara follows Tyler out of the kitchen holding another tray, hers filled with cut vegetables and bowls of the dip I prepared earlier. She catches my eye and shakes her head in a universalthese guysgesture. The shadows I’ve noticed in her eyes when she doesn’t think anyone’s looking are gone. “They’re obsessed with this game.”
“And you’re not?” Indy shoots back. “I seem to recall one night when yourefusedto stop playing until you won.”
She sets the tray of vegetables on the coffee table. “That was becausesomeonewas cheating. I had to prove I was the rightful winner.”
Indy grins. “You call it cheating. I call it strategic diversion.”
Yara snorts. “Strategic diversion my ass. You threw a pillow at my head. While I was trying to place the top piece. How is that not cheating?”
“You should have been paying better attention,” he retorts. “And you know the rules when it comes to Extreme Jenga.”
Tyler chuckles. “There are no rules,” he tells me. “That’s the fun of it.”
“And coming up with new and crazier ways to play,” Ace says. His gaze drifts to Indy and my entwined hands before raising to meet mine. “You’ll have to come up with something too, Bea. The harder the better.”
A soft chime sounds through the room, and even though I know it shouldn’t, my muscles still tense.
Yara scoops her phone off one of the end tables. “It’s Rhi and Hawk. Indy—” she glances at him. “Since you’re closest, can you let them in?”
Indy casts a quick side glance at me, his brows raised in silent question.
My heart swells.
Even now, he’s concerned about how I feel.
“Of course,” I answer for him. “I can’t wait to meet them.”
And this time, when I say it, a fizz of excitement fills my chest.
No more worrying.
I trust Indy. And if he thinks it’s okay, it is.
So we head to the door, hands still intertwined. Indy unfastens the three additional locks, which bear a striking resemblance to the ones on my door at Blade and Arrow. Then he pulls the door open to reveal a striking couple waiting on the other side.
