Jack snickers. “No. They think we’re celebrating a random anniversary related to Theo not getting detention for something when we were kids.”
“Seriously?”
“He set a new standard for troublemaking. Decker and Lucky and I have bets on how much heartburn his kids give him before they’re eighteen. My money’s on the oldest. You never suspect the oldest.”
“Are you the oldest?” I haven’t asked that yet.
“Middle.”
The way that makes so much sense…
“Now, here’s how you throw a dart,” he says to me as he turns to demonstrate.
“Don’t listen to him,” Rhys says. “He wants you to lose. And it’s about that Monopoly game last weekend, not about who beats him in darts.”
Now that cracks me up.
And even I can tell Jack’s completely lying as he explains the best way to hold a dart. He’s emulating throwing it with the pointy side aimed away from the board.
We get three games in, with me performing better than expected, before I realize just how crowded it’s getting here in the basement too.
I reach for my phone—I know Rhys has me, but when there are this many people, I like to know Cyril’s nearby too.
But my phone isn’t in my pocket.
I pause.
“You okay?” Rhys murmurs.
My own security training kicks in, and I blurt an answer I know he’ll understand. “I was going to take a picture, but I don’t have my phone.”
Jack glances at me. “You lost your phone?”
I pat my pockets, front and back, and a sliver of panic starts to work its way into my chest.
When did I have it last?
Surely someone couldn’t have taken it out of my pocket without me noticing.
And even if I hadn’t felt it, Rhys has been watching.
“Where’ve you been?” Jack whips out his own phone. “We’ll look for it. Case? Color? Homescreen?”
“No case. It’s black. Black home screen. White clock. I was upstairs and then down here.”
He squints at me. “You know you have a boring phone?”
“Did you bring it inside?” Rhys asks me.
“I thought so.”
He’s wearing a straight face, but I can feel him tensing. “Let’s go check the truck.”
“I told Decker and Lucky to look for it too,” Jack says. “We’ll find it.”
We split up, and Rhys and I head outside.
“I was having such a nice time, I wasn’t paying attention,” I whisper to him.
