“T-ten? You bring the rest of the gang, too, or something?”
“It’s from our bucket list,” I explained as he put the last boxes on the shelf and walked us over to the cash register and the Slurpee machine. “And I want the blue one.”
“Guess that means I’m red.” Lee sighed.
Levi knew all about the bucket list. I’d obviously told him everything, but we’d also been posting a bunch of our escapades so far online so our friends could keep up with all the madness.
“Aah,” he said, starting to pour the first one. “Is this for the great brain-freeze contest?”
“That it is,” I told him with a grin.
“You don’t think three each is enough?”
Lee gave a dramatic sigh, and we turned to each other, both leaning an elbow on the counter. “I thought you said this guy was cool.”
“All this time,” I agreed, shaking my head in dismay, “and he’s still underestimating us.”
“All right, all right. Ten ice-cold Slurpees it is. You guys know it’s not even ten o’clock, right?”
“I feel like he’s trying to make a point. What about you, Shelly?”
“Yeah, but I’m just…not…getting it.”
Levi laughed. As he lined up our drinks, we told him about the successful cupcake decorating—even if Brad hadn’t been too impressed with it.
“But look at that piping. Look!” I waved my cell phone in his face.
“Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would be so proud,” Levi deadpanned. Lee pulled a face, missing the joke, but I laughed. Lately, Levi had gotten way into The Great British Baking Show (or, as he insisted on calling it, Bake Off). “Let me just ring you guys up and then”—he looked around the store, which was empty save for his colleague mopping an aisle—“bottoms up, I guess.”
Lee paid, Levi agreed to take some photos, and we stood facing each other, first Slurpee in hand.
“All right. You remember the rules?”
“No stopping or you’re out.”
“No time-outs.”
“Three…two…”
The cold hit me in a heartbeat, sending a shock right up between my eyes. But I had this. Lee and I stared each other down as we guzzled the Slurpees. I gave him my best stink eye. He kept waggling his eyebrows and crossing his eyes in an effort to distract me.
It wasn’t working, though. We moved on to the second Slurpee within a second or two of each other, but I made it to my fourth while Lee was still struggling through his second.
When he was halfway through his third and I was starting on my fifth, he gave up, dropping the mostly empty cup onto the counter and sinking against it with a groan. “You win, you win. I admit defeat. Uuuugh.”
Just to make a point, I finished the last of my fifth Slurpee before raising my hands to the sky in victory.
“Don’t gloat,” Lee groaned, slumping melodramatically over the counter, his knees buckling. “I…I can’t take it right now. Ugh.”
Levi gave a long, low whistle. “Jeez, Elle. That was impressive.”
I closed my eyes, the brain freeze pretty severe by this point. “If I puke while I’m at work, this is all your fault, Lee.”
“You guys gonna be okay to drive?” Levi asked us, trying not to laugh.
“Sure we are. In, like, a little while,” I admitted. I was definitely gonna need a few minutes to recover. Lee and I stayed at the checkout while we did so, groaning and holding our heads, Levi laughing and promising to send us all the photos.
Twentysomething minutes later, we were high-fiving and back on the road. Lee got out the crumpled, faded sheet of paper and unfolded it on his lap. He rooted through my glove box for a pen, then drew a neat line across the page with a grin.
20. Epic brain-freeze competition!!!
I pulled into the parking lot of Dunes, climbed out of the car, and handed the keys to Lee. “I’ll text you at the end of my shift? Come pick me up and we can head for laser tag.”
“You’re only here a couple of hours,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll hang out with you. May won’t mind.”
I didn’t have to say, “What about Rachel?” because she had plans to visit her grandparents today. But I did say, “What about the realtor? I thought she was supposed to be coming this afternoon. Your mom wanted you and Noah there.”
Lee scowled, a dark look on his face. I felt a twinge of sympathy; any mention of selling the beach house seemed to bring his mood down.
“Noah can handle that himself. He’s a big boy.”
“Well, okay. But the costumes—”
“I put them in your trunk earlier. Ready to go when you are. Hey, do you think May will have any fries ready yet?”
May, it turned out, wasn’t overly surprised to find Lee had tagged along. Although Dunes wasn’t technically serving lunch for another thirty minutes, she got him a soda and a bowl of fries. She didn’t ask why Lee was here, but she did ask why he had red smeared all around his mouth and why my tongue and teeth were bright blue.
We explained the bucket list to her, and Lee said, “And later we’re doing laser tag.”
“Oh! That’s…” She gave us a curious look, her smile a little stiff. “No offense, but that sounds kind of…normal.” Then she groaned melodramatically. “Why do I feel like there’s a catch with you two?”
“It’s Star Wars laser tag,” I explained with a grin. “We’ve got Han Solo and Princess Leia costumes. We wore them for Halloween a couple years back. Lucky they still fit.”
“Noah didn’t feel like renting a Chewbacca outfit and joining in,” Lee added.
May laughed. “You kids. I hope you bring in some pictures! Oh, hey, looks like we’ve got customers. Elle, time to get to work.”
I was worried Lee would be a distraction, but it turned out I was so run off my feet once the lunch rush started that I barely had time to spare him a glance. I did, however, notice him taking a phone call, looking unusually serious. I walked over before dropping an order to the kitchen, long enough to hear him talking in a deep, gruff voice.
“Yes. Yes, of course. Next week is fine. Thank you so much for understanding about the short notice. Mmm-hmm. I’ll be sure to let her know. Have a great day.”
“What was that about?”