“It’s another bad business decision. I can’t offer up how I feel about it on a bet. In fact, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. You and Parker should change positions at work.”
That took me aback. “Wait, what?”
“You should take over acquisitions. He should stick to maintenance and repair.”
“Have you told him this?”
“Of course not. I figured I’d introduce the idea to the less stubborn of the two of you and go from there."
“He’d see it as a step down in position, you know. He already does repair. All you want to do is cut his purse strings and hand them over to me.”
“I know.” She deflated, and I pulled her into me. As hard as it was to work with friends, it had to be a lot harder to work with family. “That’s why I haven’t brought it up, even though I’ve thought about it for years.”
“So, back to our wager. What are you offering if you lose?”
“You get to drive home?” she asked.
Ah, her magical truck. I’d have fun with that. “Deal.”
We started our game over, with Lauren throwing the target this time. She tossed the golf ball a lot lighter than me, which would be to her advantage. Or so she thought. My short game was pretty good, and I took the round, getting two points for being closest, and one point for second closest.
Lauren was focused though, and even though I tossed the target farther on the next round, she gave it her all and took all the points, tying us up at three.
When we were tied at ten to ten, I really started to get nervous. We were only playing to twelve.
“Watching you sweat over this is a reward in and of itself.” Lauren bounced up on her toes as I took my next turn.
My ball veered left and just kept going. My second ball fell short. Not good. Lauren would have to choke or it was over.
Unfortunately, she learned from my mistake and tossed her ball a little to the right to miss the dip in the grass my ball had fallen into. She was taking first place. She threw her second ball and it skimmed passed my short one and kept going until it hugged the target. First and second. Thirteen points to my ten.
24
___________
Lauren
I ran upstairs to my apartment with donuts for Jenny while Clay waited downstairs in the truck. I had told him several times I wouldn’t hold him to our bet, but he was a man of his word and had called his grandparents and asked if we could come over. In a show of support, I’d let him drive my truck despite my win. Except for peeling out of the parking lot just to tick me off, he’d treated my metal baby very well.
I found Jenny in the kitchen, working out her feelings through culinary means. Whenever she had something on her mind, she cooked or baked. We were both enthusiastic leftover eaters, so it worked out well. And occasionally, when her creations got out of hand, we brought some to the neighbors in our building. The old guy who lived next door did not like chitchat, but he loved Jenny’s stir-fry.
“You’re back early. And without Clay. Dare I ask?” Jenny dried her hands and came over to see what type of donuts I’d brought. Clay and I had devoured half a dozen between the two of us, but we’d left Jenny the chocolate flavored cake donuts I knew were her favorites.
“He’s waiting in my truck. Are you okay?”
“Couldn’t be better. I forgot I’d preordered a book from my favorite author, and it showed up today in my reading app. As soon as this dough is ready to rise, I’m going to dive into it.”
“Good, because I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Really? I’m liking the sound of that, sister.” She slapped my butt with a kitchen towel and ran before I could retaliate. “I want to hear it all later.”
“Sure, sure.” Assured she’d be fine, I hurried back downstairs so Clay and I could drive over to his grandparents. He had made no promises on what type of visit it would be. Usually, his grandma would hint when it was time for him to go, and that was that. It broke my heart a little, to hear him talk about it so matter-of-factly. The few times I had interacted with his grandma in the past had not been unfriendly, but had definitely not been friendly either. I wasn’t sure if she was purposefully intimidating or if it just came naturally to her.
Clay had moved to the passenger side while I was gone, so I jumped into the driver’s seat and adjusted the rearview mirror before running my hands lovingly over the steering wheel, silently apologizing for letting someone else drive it. When I looked at Clay, he was smirking.
“How come I don’t get a greeting like that?”
“Jealous?”
