“Tell me what I have to do.” Lani had a fierce look in her eyes.
Not competitive, my ass.
“I thought you didn’t want to compete.”
“Shut up and tell me what I have to do.”
He swallowed his smile as HRH approached with scarves over her arm.
“It’s fairly standard, all of these races are the same, but it’s what you carry that changes. Eggs, potatoes… not overly taxing.”
“I’ve never done it before,” she said out of the side of her mouth so no one but him heard.
“What, never?”
She shook her head.
“Legs together,” HRH ordered.
“Said every mother to every daughter at some stage in their lifetime,” Noah muttered.
“And isn’t that the problem,” HRH said from her position below. “Not all of them listened.”
Noah’s mouth dropped open as he watched the woman regain her feet and move on to the next contestant.
“Why is your mouth hanging open?”
“HRH. Did you hear what she said?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“She doesn’t usually engage in conversation like that. Well, not humorously anyway.” Noah wasn’t sure what had just happened but felt like the earth had shifted slightly under his feet.
“You people are weird. So tell me what the rules are so we can win.”
“I thought you weren’t competitive.”
“I’m competitive sometimes.”
“And this is one of those times?”
“Well, clearly.”
He outlined what they had to do as HRH tied the last two contestants together.
“So you’ve never done anything like this before. That seems weird, considering I’ve been doing this since I was five. Where did you say you were born?”
Because they were tied together, his shoulder touching hers, he felt her stiffen. Chemistry, Noah thought. They had it in spades.
“I didn’t.”
Noah grabbed her chin and turned her to face him. There was that expression again. Closed up tight.
“Okay, so I’ll ask again. Where were you born?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“California.” Lani always went with this. It wasn’t a lie and covered a lot of places.
