Page 108
“Games?”
Blair snorts. “Oh, Easton. You really have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
***
“Come on!” Blair shouts as she thrusts her hips forward again, sending the ball attached to her back soaring between her legs only to veer wide of the cup at her waist.
“This is rigged!” Hudson shouts from my right as his cup twists on the strap around his waist. He adjusts it. “Seriously, Mom. Where the hell did you find this torture?” On his next thrust, the ball flies past his waist and smacks him right in the eye. “Fuck!”
Blair laughs. “And there’s the injury for the camping trip, ladies and gentlemen!”
Ava is smiling proudly while holding up her phone to record the nonsense happening right now—a stipulation about the rule of technology because videos and pictures are necessary for memories. I try to ignore that my humiliation is now preserved right along with them.
Lennon claps her hands in front of my face. “Focus, Easton! You need to win this.” Everyone has a partner to make the torture that much more competitive. Blair is with Nora, Hudson with his son, and naturally, that leaves Lennon and me together.
I risk a hip replacement as I thrust my hips forward once more, watching the ball dangling between my legs fly up and over my waistband before landing directly inside the cup. I throw both fists into the air. “Hell yeah!”
“Yes!” Lennon shouts, practically leaping into my arms.
For two people that barely spoke on the way up here, I think we’re doing a pretty decent job convincing everyone, including ourselves, that everything is fine between us.
When she loosens her arms, I keep her against my chest, squeezing the plastic cup between us so hard it cracks. But my eyes never leave hers. I can hear my heart pounding and swear hers is beating just as hard.
Fuck, it feels good to hold her like this, especially after last night. The urge to kiss her senseless passes quickly though, thank God. But that doesn’t mean my dick has gotten the message yet.
“I can’t believe there’s a video of me doing that now,” I say, breaking the moment.
Lennon smirks. “Welcome to the Riley Family suffering.”
Laughing, I let her go and watch her gaze flick from my mouth to Blair, who’s clearly pissed about losing.
Blair tosses the belt to the floor. “This game is bullshit.”
James pops a marshmallow into his mouth and glares at his aunt. “Aunt Blair, you shouldn’t cuss.”
Blair arches a brow at him. “I know damn well your father didn’t tell you that since ‘fuck’ is his favorite word, so why don’t you mind your own business, kid?”
Hudson moves toward her. “Hey, don’t take out your sore-loser attitude on your nephew.”
Blair pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. “Shit, you’re right. Sorry, James.”
James shrugs and pops another marshmallow into his mouth. “It’s fine. I know you hate losing, Aunt Blair. I don’t take it personally.”
That’s a profound statement from an eleven-year-old, but James has grown so much since the last time I saw him, it shouldn’t surprise me.
Blair nods before speaking again. “That I do, James. That I do.”
Ava runs over to James and takes the bag of marshmallows from his hands. “James, if you don’t stop eating these, there won’t be any left for s’mores.”
“Then can we make them now, please, Nana? Pleeeease…”
Ava sighs heavily. “Fine. I had one more game planned for tonight, but I guess we can push it to tomorrow.”
“Oh no. That’s soooo awful,” Lennon drawls as she and Nora laugh. In that split second, I’m transported back to when we were younger and Lennon traded inside jokes with Nora all the time.
This family—they’ve always been a constant in my life—until they weren’t.
I guess I hadn’t realized how much I missed them until now.
