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I feel my face scrunch into a look of uncertainty. “You want them to get dressed here? I think there are public-indecency rules to consider.”
“No, Gabe. Gosh.” Beth rolls her eyes at me, but she’s fighting a laugh. “They’ll come here dressed, but then we can have stations set up here for them to create their own Christmas Dash apparel. Like a team uniform.” Her eyes widen with delight. “An ugly Christmas sweater!”
“That’s actually good. And we could assign different point values for the complexity and creativity of the sweaters.”
“Yes!” Beth beams. “You think your mom’ll go for it?”
“Why wouldn’t she?”
“I don’t know. Her café might get messy if we have people decorating sweatshirts and winter hats. We’d have to push tables around to make workstations. I know your mom likes things just so.”
“For the sake of the Dash, I’m sure we can convince her.” I nod. “Besides, if she doesn’t like it, she shouldn’t have left us in charge. What we say goes.”
“No pressure,” Beth says. She’s smiling, but there’s an undercurrent of worry in her tone. Is she actually concerned about what my mom’ll think?
“Really, it’ll be fine, Beth. We can run it past her if you want, but I say we’ve landed on our first scavenger hunt stop.”
Beth takes a drink of her latte, and a smudge of whipped cream lingers on her lip. She darts out her tongue and licks it off, and my mouth goes dry.
“Now we just have to write the clue to get people here. We’ll upload it to the app, and then on the day of the race, it’ll get pushed out to everyone who’s signed up.”
She taps her pen against the paper at the back of her planner and jots down a couple lines. She spins the notebook around so I can read them. I’m grateful to have something to focus on that isn’t her mouth and how I’d like to taste the sweetness of the whipped cream on her lips.
Come one, come all
From far and near.
Bring your holiday spirit,
With an extra shot of Christmas cheer.
“We’re rhyming our clues?” I look up at her, not bothering to hide my incredulity. “Why are we rhyming?”
“Why wouldn’t we be rhyming?”
“Oh, I don’t know, because it would make our life ten times easier not to have to come up with rhyming clues for five—”
“Six!”
“—six stops.”
“But don’t you think a rhyming clue adds to the charm?”
“I guess. But I left my poetry shoes at home, so this is going to have to be all you.”
“Come on. You’ve always had a way with words, Gabe.”
“Not true.”
“Um, I’m pretty sure the top country countdown begs to differ.”
A weird sensation unfurls in my chest at the thought of Beth keeping track of my music.
“Come on.” She holds out the pen and wags it in front of me. “You can help me with the next stanza.”
I grab it and give her a side-eyed glance.
Beth takes a sip of her latte, pointing to the notebook. “So, the first stanza welcomes everyone to the Dash. Next, we’ll want to give them a hint as to where they need to visit. It needs to be obvious, but also clever. See how I included some coffee lingo in that first one. An extra shot of Christmas cheer. Get it? An extra shot. Coffee. The Clatter Café.”
