It didn’t look like it. He and Charlie executed a perfect high five, both members of Team Blue. I wished I could talk to Annie; I wished she could give me advice. She had been able to light upany social situation, whether that was being the consummate hostess, making others feel welcome, or charming people at a party where she knew few.
If you want to be a part of things,I distantly heard her say.Thenbea part of things!
Embrace this.
Teddy waved around his green marble as soon as he pulled it out of the hat, and then it was my turn. I also picked green. “Yes, I’ve got Olivia!” Teddy cheered, which made me smile. “Who’s jealous?”
“No one!” Maisie and Bryce called, as if it were a rehearsed joke. My sister giggled when I rolled my eyes.
I felt a rush of love for her.
Teddy and I ended up with Allison and an extra person on our team…Erica. My enthusiasm deflated a bit, but at least she was fired up from whatever had gone down with Beth.
“Wonderful!” Peggy clapped her hands when Bugs Bunny’s nightcap was finally empty. “Now it’s time to go over the game…”
“Oh my god,” Beth gasped when her parents brought out what looked like an old-fashioned men’s nightshirt. “I know what this is!”
“What, Gram?” Finn asked, everyone now officially on the edge of their seat.
Too overwhelmed, Beth shook her head. “We did this as little kids,” she said, then looked at Jay. “Remember?”
I noticed she wasn’t tugging Erica down Memory Lane.
Jay jokingly stroked his chin. “Vaguely…”
“It was before I was born,” Erica told him. “But maybeballoonswill ring a bell?”
As if on cue, Peggy held up a package of colorful balloons.
What the hell?I thought as Jay’s eyes widened in an epiphany and Topper held up a nightshirt that looked straight out of Ebenezer Scrooge’s wardrobe. Had they gotten them at that kooky vintage store Sage had mentioned? That old fishing shack? I liked thrifting with Gwen and Quincy but preferred the organized chaos of Poshmark.
“Where did you get these?” Beth asked her parents. “They’re too clean to be the ones we used when we were kids.”
“Hopefully not from the Mermaid’s Trove,” Charlie said. “That place looks like it should be condemned…” He side-eyed Sage.
“Stop!” She playfully slapped his arm. “They have some hidden gems!”
But do they?I almost asked.
Peggy laughed. “Of course not, sillies,” she said. “They’re from Amazon.”
Now that I knew the nightshirts wouldn’t be moldy or visibly stained with sweat, my interest returned. The room’s volume soon escalated, and it didn’t help that Teddy and Bryce stole two of the nightshirts and started running around with them on their heads.
Finn and Maisie looked unimpressed while Connor wasfailing miserably at swallowing his laughter. Warmth flooded my chest as I had a flash of what he looked like at ten years old.
A buzz cut and freckles, I remembered.
Nick whistled, the sharp sound a shock to my eardrum. Even Swede’s head snapped up from resting on my knee. “Everyone settle down!” he called. “Let Nana explain the rules!”
“Yes, I’d love a refresher course.” Beth eyed her brother. “Some of us need to understand that you can’t sabotage another team’s balloons…”
Jay chuckled. “Bethany, I will not apologize for being a competitive child.”
The room heeded Nick’s words, and Peggy explained that the game would involve one player from each team wearing an enormous nightshirt over their clothes. Each team also would be given a bag of balloons and an air pump.
“Using your team’s pump and good old-fashioned lung power, you have ten minutes to blow up as many balloons as you can and stuff them into your team’s nightshirt,” Topper instructed. “The team with the most balloons in their nightshirt takes the cake.”
“You all have five minutes to strategize!” Peggy concluded, and just like that, she took a stopwatch out of her pocket and pressed start. Every team laughed and made a mad dash to different corners of the room.
