“You don’t say?” Zander replied, mussing the kid’s hair a bit.
“What’s going on?” Kat asked. “Why is it for the kids and me?”
When Zander didn’t answer, Kat turned her gaze to the others in the room. Dad held Noah on his hip while Claudia spoke to him excitedly. Mom was already heading out front with Lorraine and the married couples.
“Guess we better go find out,” Zander said.
Duke filtered past them toward the kitchen, lifted his nose in the air, and sniffed. “Smells good,” he said. “I better not get stuck at the kids table for dinner tonight,” he mumbled.
“I did overhear Michael threatening the kids,” Zander razzed. “He said if they were really naughty he’d put Uncle Duke at their table. They’ve been pretty good today, though, so you’ve got a fighting chance.”
“Very funny,” Duke mumbled as he followed them outside.
Crisp scents of fresh redwood and pine filled the sunlit air as they stepped onto the porch.
“Look,” Ben hollered. “It’s the first clue!”
Lilly squealed before grabbing Ben’s hand and tugging him toward the nearby trees. Kat spotted it too—a bright green shamrock, much bigger than the ones she’d seen out back, hung from a green, beaded necklace. The words Clue #1 were written on the front.
“We can’t reach,” Lilly said as she jumped beneath the clue.
“That’s why you have Kat to help.” Zander gave her a small nudge with his elbow. Link followed behind as she joined the kids at the clue. She took the necklace, a strand of shiny toy pearls, and looped it over Lilly’s head. “Here you go.”
“Thank you! Read the clue. What does it say?”
Kat read the note attached to the first clue. “When it’s time to roast a tasty treat, puffy white things we like to eat. We chop up the logs and stack them high. This special place is very nearby.”
“Oh,” Link piped. “The fireplace.”
“You mean the fire pit,” Lilly corrected.
The little ones tore ahead of the group toward the back.
“There’s coins!” Ben hollered along the way. “Tons of them.”
“There sure are,” Claudia said with a laugh. “And Uncle Duke’s going to go get your little pots out of the garage so you can start collecting them.”
Duke groaned and headed toward the garage.
He came back with four small buckets that looked like black pots suited for the end of the rainbow.
“Who likes Uncle Duke now?” he called, holding them out for the kids.
The adults walked slowly, the group talking among themselves as the kids scurried throughout the wooded area, plopping both gold and chocolate coins into their pots along the way.
“Here’s clue number two,” one of the kids yelled out. Log stools surrounded the fire pit.
“You can have the necklace this time,” Lilly said, looping it over Ben’s head.
“Thanks.”
The kids took a seat as Kat read it aloud once more.
“When raindrops threaten to get us wet, grabbing one of these will be your best bet.”
“I saw umbrellas by the front door,” Ben shouted. “Let’s go!” This time Link led the way through the back of the house, and soon he was handing Kat the next shamrock.
“This is never going to end,” Duke grumbled.
