Chassie’s hit connected with my ball and sent it flying.
She twirled to me. “Oh no, Vivi! I’m sorry!”
“Honey, that’s the game,” I said as I trudged to my ball.
I had to get it back on the appropriate trajectory.
My hit failed and it went too far the other way.
“Revolting luck, darling,” Battle cooed, coming to me, curling his arm around my shoulders and tucking me into his side.
“Luck has nothing to do with it. I suck at this,” I replied.
“You’ll get the hang of it.”
Maybe I would.
But even if I never did, when the croquet set came out, I’d be there.
Because the sun shone, the flowers bloomed, spring was in the air, croquet was fun (no matter how bad I was at it), and I was happy.
I leaned my weight into Battle and whispered, “I wish Mom could be here.”
His arm tightened and he kissed the side of my head.
He didn’t need to say anything.
That was perfect.
In the end, Hamish won, and I thought Battle would pitch a low-key aristocratic fit (one could say my guy was competitive).
But he just said to Hamish, “Shall we set up the thrower and shoot?”
Hamish’s strong white teeth emerged from his bushy red beard. “Works for me.”
But me?
I knew Battle’s game.
Hamish was an outdoorsman.
And here we were, doing a bunch of shit outdoors.
He was doing his bit to help his sister win Hamish to The Downs.
So falling for my fucking guy.
And with his suggestion, people scattered.
Then we reunited in the south parkland (for your information, Tempie had a pair of shiny red, short shaft wellies that she was so cool wearing them, she made them look hot).
The thrower shot clay pigeons in the air that Battle, Tempie, Hamish, and even Chassie shot out of it (if they hit it, and just to say, Battle definitely excelled above all the others in this, though Hamish wasn’t far behind and Tempie rocked it) while Prue and I sat on a thick blanket wearing ear protectors (Battle insisted—we all had them, then again, shotguns were loud) and looked through her sketchbooks.
Admittedly, it wasn’t super close to spending time with Battle in his bed.
Still.
Lawn croquet and trap shooting in the sun with all of these lovely people was second runner-up for how I liked to spend time at The Downs.
