CC completed it first, and he shot to the next challenge, Sandro not far behind him. Here, they hopped from plyo block to plyo block that got steadily higher until they reached the monkey bars. After that, they were rewarded with half a red Solo cup of beer they had to chug.
Then came the hard part: an egg on a spoon they had to keep safe with cold fingers while slightly inebriated as they jumped over hurdles—this was where Bennett had lost his egg—tiptoed across a balance beam, hopped through a net of ropes, and jumped on and off a series of chairs. The eggs got deposited into a bucket gently enough so that they didn’t break, there was another half cup of beer to chug, and finally, gliding down what looked to have been slides stolen from a child’s backyard playground.
Bennett was waiting for Sandro at the bottom of the slide, where Sandro landed in a heap at his feet, giggling uncontrollably.
Charmed and amused in equal measure, Bennett offered him a hand up. “Proud of yourself?”
“Depends. Did I win?”
“Nope. Sorry,” Bennett said, Sandro’s hand surprisingly warm in his as he hauled him onto his feet. “CC won by half a second. No idea if he beat his record time, though.”
“Shut up.” Laughing, Sandro rounded on CC, who was already hugging the bear to his chest. “He won again?”
Deeley waved his phone. “I’ve got the video evidence.”
Sandro cocked his head, regarding CC with quiet contemplation that made Bennett sigh and CC back up a step.
“No.” CC held out a hand to ward off Sandro. “Whatever you’re thinking, no. Mr. Wiggles is mine.”
Sandro pushed up the sleeves of his sweater. “We’ll see about that.”
CC let out a high-pitched eep and started running.
“Mr. Wiggles?” Bennett asked as Sandro chased after CC.
“In our defense,” Hughes said, “he came with that name from the store. Had a little tag that said Hello, my name is Mr. Wiggles.”
“And you didn’t think to change it? Also, what happened to his eye? Actually, you know what? I don’t want to know.”
“That’s probably for the best. Besides, we’re going to play two truths and a lie now. If you guess wrong, you take a shot.”
“A shot, huh?” Bennett looked over his shoulder as he followed Hughes inside. Sandro was goading CC into a best-of-three game of rock-paper-scissors for possession of Mr. Wiggles. “I hope you have enough beds for all of us. Your teammates are half-drunk already.”
“Did you notice any cars out front when you arrived?” Hughes asked.
“Uh . . .” Closing the sliding door behind himself, Bennett thought back to when Sandro had pulled into Hughes’ driveway. “Now that you ask, no.”
“Because everyone took an Uber here, and they’ll take an Uber home later. Only CC will stay the night.”
“Because . . . you’re an item?”
“No.” Hughes’ smile was all confidence. “Not yet.”
Bennett didn’t know what to say to that, and he was saved from having to figure it out when Sandro, CC, Eli, and Matty Coates trooped into the house, Mr. Wiggles still in CC’s grasp.
Sandro shrugged at Bennett as he toed off his shoes and left them by the back door. “Sorry I cost you a hundred bucks.”
“Money well spent,” Bennett told him.
Sandro beamed at him, and a firecracker went off in Bennett’s chest.
“Who’s up first for two truths and a lie?” Hughes asked as he removed a pizza from the oven where it had been keeping warm. They’d eaten Chinese before the obstacle course. Apparently, the pizza was to be their second course.
Eli raised a hand. “I’ll go. When I was a kid, I released my pet fish into the pond by my house and he got eaten by a bird.”
“Morbid, Eli,” Sandro muttered.
“I once lost my wallet in the Mississippi River. And I crashed my bike into a cow on my twelfth birthday.”
