So. No shooting green teammates. Got it.
He stepped carefully, turning corners and wiggling through narrow passages. He backed into a side alcove in the hopes it would allow him to hide.
Zach’s voice sounded again. “Team two, face masks in place. There is a green ring and a red ring in the maze. Find your team’s ring and return to base to win extra glory. Team two, enter the maze now.”
Shit. Tucker hadn’t been listening hard enough before. The ‘find a thing and bring it back’ was unexpected. It meant he couldn’t simply sit there and wait for the enemy to come to him.
He inched out of his hiding spot reluctantly, desperately trying to separate out the sounds of music from the potential danger of—
His gun hand lit up, and a high-pitched zap sounded. He’d been hit from the left. Tucker spun and shot at the same time, accidentally aiming far too low to hit anything.
Except Luke was on his hands and knees, and Tucker’s rapid fire hit him three times in a row and his red lights died instantly.
“Well, damn,” Luke said with a laugh, then he sprawled dramatically and shook with mock death throes.
Tucker chuckled but saluted his friend before inching farther into the maze.
Three corners later he got caught in the crossfire between Josiah and Dustin, and Tansy and Karen. When the music went down and the lights went up, the only one still standing was Karen.
She lifted the gun to her lips and blew across the opening before grinning.
The entire thing had taken less than seven minutes.
For the next two hours they took turns, random groups going down at the start, and then in teams that were good-naturedly arranged ahead of time.
The best face off of the night, in Tucker’s estimation, was when the women took over the maze. The four Coleman sisters—Tamara, Karen, Lisa, and Julia, grabbed Kelli and Ginny. Lisa switched allegiances and joined Ginny and Kelli on team two.
Tucker and his friends watched the action on the screen. The pace was wicked and fast, shouts and screams and feminine laughter loud enough to rise through the floorboards. By the time team two had finally eliminated team one—it took a lot of energy to get Karen out of commission—Lisa, Ginny and Kelli were each down to one life left. But they’d also found the bonus ring.
“Well done, guys.” Lisa offered high fives then casually pulled out her gun and shot her two teammates where they stood.
The screams of laughter didn’t stop for a long time, especially since Lisa raced out of the basement twirling the ring around one finger.
Josiah shook his head, but he laughed as well. “You are never going to live that down,” he warned as she happily presented him with her prize.
“Life is danger,” she offered back with a smirk.
But she did try to run, unsuccessfully, when her sisters and teammates surrounded her, grabbed her, and threw her outside into a snowbank.
The entire night, Luke and Tucker put themselves on opposing teams. Once the dust settled, they’d played six rounds and the score between them was even, three-three.
By now, it was late enough that couples had slowly begun peeling off to head home until only a few stragglers remained. Dustin and Shim were battling with Fern and Tansy for the fourth time in a row.
Luke lifted a beer to his lips and sipped, watching the screens with amusement. “Those boys are gluttons for punishment.”
“Completely,” Tucker agreed. “Oh, look. Dustin’s about to go down.”
Fern was evil with her laser. She’d somehow attached it to her prosthetic, and she looked like a Star Wars hero while taking out Luke’s brother, yet again.
In the kitchen, Kelli and Ginny were chatting. Heads nodding, laughter spilling free. Beside where Tucker and Luke sat, the fire crackled softly.
“It was a good party,” Tucker said quietly. “Thanks for sharing it with me.”
“It was a good party. Do we need to go one more round to find out who’s the ultimate champion?” Even as he asked, Luke sipped his beer slowly, not moving a muscle otherwise. Obviously comfortable where he was.
Tucker watched the laser-tag screen out of one eye, but more of his attention remained focused there in the room. On his friend and Kelli. On Ginny, who radiated sunshine everywhere she went. “Nah. We’ll call it even for today. But next time, you’re going down.”
“Deal.” Luke stretched his legs out, turning his head just far enough to meet Tucker’s gaze. “Happy birthday, bro.”
Warmth like a summer day slipped in. Tucker offered a chin dip in agreement. “Happy birthday to us.”
22
It had been another busy day, but a productive one. Ginny admired the rows of containers lined up on her kitchen table with satisfaction. The neat labels with the beautiful logo Fern Fields had designed for her shimmered in a pale, glittering green.
Goddess Gifts.
Over the past month, Ginny had received half a dozen responses to her requests for information regarding local artisan products, and while the possibility of putting together a local gift box was still out of reach, Ginny kept exploring. Kept thinking and kept dreaming.
Bonus, working from home meant never being far from relaxing. She stopped work at three o’clock, poured herself a cup of tea and took it and her notebook out onto the porch. She still had to curl up under a warm blanket, but the sunshine felt good. It had been an unusually warm March, and while they were still far from the time when green things would bloom outside instead of in the forced confines of the greenhouse, it felt as if magic whirled in the air. Deep breaths of the clean air refreshed her soul as well as her body.
Flipping pages in her mother’s journal first, Ginny found a story that made her howl, because it was so her mother, and such a clear memory from when she would have been about thirteen, the journal entry triggering details from that summer night to return in glorious Technicolor.
Found a bunch of recipe cards from the 1930s - 1970s. Dear lord, I can’t decide if the cooks who created these were sadists, or were simply fooling around and never thought they’d be taken seriously.
* * *
I decided I had to make one for the family, but the trouble came in deciding which one was off the wall enough to make them blink. Teenage boys will eat anything, after all.
* * *
I decided to try four of them all at once.
* * *
Poor Walter. When I put the food on the table, he looked as if he doubted my sanity. Still, he carefully scooped up one portion of each dish onto a plate and passed it around.
* * *
Caleb didn’t seem to notice. Luke and Tucker gave each other looks but tucked in like everything was normal. Walker smirked but dug in resolutely. Dusty asked for a second bean-stuffed tomato.
* * *
Ginny stared at me for the longest time before a noise escaped her. I thought for a second she was choking, but it was giggles.
* * *
Do you know how hard it is to keep a straight face when your daughter is snickering like crazy even as the menfolk dig into miniature castle-shaped creamed-chicken-Jell-O? Or a very bold pink Salmon Shortcake Delight?