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“I think so. I’m in if you are.”

Understatement of my life.

Beth exhales. “Good. It’ll be better if it doesn’t look like there’s bad blood between us. Wallace would have a field day.”

“Yeah, what’s his deal?” I casually look across the dining room to where he’s deep in conversation with Darin.

“He works for the Dasher Valley Dispatch. He’s in charge of pretty much everything at the paper, including their social media accounts.”

“Since when does the DVD have social media?”

“Since Wallace. He’s revolutionized the place.”

I can’t tell if Beth is being facetious or what. I used to know her cues so well. I could read her better than I could recall my favorite book. Now that we’re going to be friends again, maybe I can get back to that. I’d sure like to.

“Good for him,” I say.

“You look like you want to tackle him to the ground.” Beth laughs. “He’s harmless, I promise.”

I rearrange my face to look less like I’m out for blood. “Whatever you say.”

Patrice returns with my coffee, and I thank her.

“Of course, sugar. Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with. I’m going to put together a team of funeral luncheon ladies from church. Do we have to have team names? Because if we do, I’ve already thought of a good one for us.”

The woman is glowing.

“Oh, do tell!” Beth’s eyes sparkle.

“The Kick-Casseroles.”

Beth laughs and Patrice beams.

I can’t help but smile at the good cheer that’s pouring off the two women.

“I’ll let you get to it! Let me know if you need a refill.” Patrice waves over her shoulder and scuttles back behind the counter, where there are now three people waiting in line to order. I make a mental note to tell my mom that business is booming, even in her absence.

“Alright. First things first, you gotta check out the app your mom found.” Beth scoots her chair around the table so she’s sitting almost next to me. I catch a whiff of her. She still must use the same shampoo. I remember her scent. In fact, I think I could isolate it, even in a packed concert arena. It’s sweet, like vanilla mixed with a hint of ginger. “Take a look.”

I will myself to focus on the screen. Beth starts describing the app to me as I swipe through the features.

“See, so everything will run from here. Teams will sign up. Oh, look, they can enter a team name.” She shoots a thumbs-up in Patrice’s direction. “The Kick-Casseroles are a go!” she calls.

“Darn tootin’,” Patrice hollers back.

Beth chuckles and huddles back closer to me. “So we can enter our clues here, and then the teams will basically go on a scavenger hunt over the course of the day of the Dash. At each stop, there will be missions that are assigned different point values. They upload pictures to prove they’ve done the mission, and they rack up points.”

“Wait, clues?” I look up from the phone to see Beth’s excited expression.

“Yeah. That’s on us. We’ve got to come up with something clever.”

I frown. “I’m not known for being clever.”

“Shut up. You literally write music for a living. Between the two of us, I’m sure we can think of something.”

I swipe through a few more screens. This app is actually awesome, but this is also going to require more work than I expected. “How many stops are we sending people to?”

“I’m thinking six total over the course of the day. Five places around town and then the sixth stop will be the grand finale. Your mom wants it to be a big holiday bash.”