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Sighing, Blair elaborates. “Every time we go camping, there is an incident. Something goes wrong, someone gets hurt or nearly breaks a bone, or someone gets food poisoning.”

“The food poisoning only happened once,” Mom refutes. “And if all of my children would just relax instead of acting like…”

“Children?” Blair finishes for her.

“Yes,” Mom says. “It was fine when you guys were younger, but now it’s like you purposely plan things to make something go wrong on the trips to prove a point.”

Dad rubs her shoulder. “I promise, it’s purely coincidental.”

Mom shrugs. “Whatever. We’re all still going because it’s the one weekend a year that I get my entire family together—minus Sloane, of course. But we’re together with no technology or real-life obligations in the way. One day when I’m gone, you’ll all be thankful I made you take these trips.”

I twist to face my mom. “Please don’t talk about you dying.” I can feel my eyes fill with tears. “My hormones can’t handle that right now.”

“Oh, honey.” She cups my face in both hands. “I’m not going anywhere for a very long time. Trust me. I’m not done sticking it to the patriarchy.”

Easton wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. When his lips brush my temple, I melt. “Don’t cry, babe. There’s no crying in football, right?”

“The phrase is ‘there’s no crying in baseball,’ dude,” Crew says as Nora hangs on his every word.

Easton glares at him. “I know, man. It was a joke.”

“Go Sloths!” The crowd takes up the chant as Garnet Valley makes their next attempt at a touchdown.

Blair chuckles from behind me. “I swear, it will never get old hearing a crowd of people cheer on sloths when they’re talking about a football team.”

Dad clears his throat. “Or baseball team, or hockey team…” He sighs. “I mean, hell. The hockey team is on their longest losing streak in history. Being ‘the Sloths’ sure doesn’t help.”

Everyone starts laughing as Hudson throws his clipboard at the ground down on the field.

“Yup. Looks like they were moving too slow to make that play work,” Blair says before doubling over.

Great-Grandma Banks might have had a strong appreciation for higher education, but she also had an unhealthy obsession with sloths. So when it came time for the school to pick a mascot, she brought her second love—the first being her husband—into the mix.

Trust me. It’s a running joke around town and in every conference GVCC plays in.

It’s hard to be taken seriously sometimes when your mascot is one of the slowest mammals on the planet.

“Hudson is gonna be pissed about that play,” Dad mutters.

“Can’t win them all, Chief.” Beau slaps my dad on the shoulder. “Maybe we should all go down there and see if we can help Huddy and his boys.”

My father cackles. “Please. I can barely get you all to clean up after yourselves at the firehouse. Playing an organized sport? That’s entirely out of the question.”

Beau gasps dramatically. “Hey. I take offense to that.”

Aiden speaks up now. “Yeah, me too. We were organized when we built that shed on the back of the firehouse property. Remember?”

My dad shrugs as Easton shifts beside me, glancing back at the guys. “Hey, that reminds me. I want to start the deck on the back of my house soon, particularly before it gets cold. You guys wanna help?”

Crew scratches his chin. “That depends. Are you gonna pay us?”

Easton huffs out a laugh. “Uh, yeah. In pizza and beer.”

Crew draws out a dramatic pause, glancing at the rest of the guys. “Yeah, I guess we could do that.”

“Thank you.” Easton lifts my hand and brings it to his lips. “I promised Lennon a deck with rocking chairs, so I have to make sure it’s done before our baby comes.”

Nora bounces in her seat. “Oh my god, that’s adorable.” Then she glances back at Crew. “And I think it’s really sweet that you’re willing to help Easton, Crew.”