“Boo!” Caleb said through cupped hands. “You know Preston is biased.”
“Let’s call it even,” Natasha suggested, having been reduced to giggles.
“Never!” both Caleb and Nathan shouted at the same time.
Preston suggested a pie-eating contest. This went over well with the mob. In under a minute, Caleb and Nathan sat beside each other on a picnic bench with a pie tin on the table in front of each of them. Natasha walked among those gathered to watch, taking bets, of all things. Didi put herself down for ten on Caleb.
“All right,” Preston said. He stood at the other side of the table in front of the competitors, who bumped shoulders with each other. “The rules are simple. No use of hands. The first one to finish eating the pie wins.” Then he gave the floor to Didi.
Biting her lip, she glanced at Caleb, who gave her a wink and grin. The combination evoked flutters in her belly. “Ready,” she said. Caleb and Nathan shared a look. “Set.” She raised her hand and dropped it at “Go!”
The Parker cousins plunged their faces into the pies. Cherry for Caleb and blueberry for Nathan, going with the red, white, and blue color scheme of the party. The crowd cheered for their respective bets.
She danced on her toes, egging Caleb to chew faster. She clapped when half his pie was gone in what seemed like seconds. He moved his face around the tin until nothing was left, then pushed off the table and raised both arms above his head and roared. Half his face was red.
Everyone screamed with him, including Didi. She caught the naughty spark in his blue eyes too late because he was already on her, smearing cherry sauce all over her face. She shrieked and laughed at the same time. His arms around her waist kept her from getting away. In her struggle, Caleb tripped, sending them both to the grass. The breath in her lungs came out in an oof and giggles.
Thirty minutes later, with faces washed, she and Caleb entered another game. They came away from the egg toss with second place. Nathan and Preston had joined that one and won uncontested. By the third game, which involved a version of blind man’s bluff, where a guy was blindfolded and had to find his girlfriend in a group of girls by listening for her calling his name, Didi had gotten a sense of just how competitive the Parker cousins were.
Caleb had bet Nathan a thousand dollars he could find her in less than five minutes. Nathan took the bet and doubled it. Her head spun from how careless they were being with money. At first she had wanted no part in the silly competition of theirs, but when Caleb had said he would use the money to buy her art supplies, she quickly agreed. If she wanted to give him a painting for his birthday, she needed the supplies. She was running low on canvases. Two grand’s worth could keep her painting for the rest of the year. Hell if she wasn’t going to take that.
So, standing with nine other girls in a circle and Caleb at the center, she cleared her throat. She needed to be loud enough for him to hear her. Natasha stood behind her cousin and placed a silk scarf over his eyes, tying the ends at the back of his head. Then she tested him by making faces. Caleb merely rolled his shoulders and neck like a fighter waiting for the bell, oblivious to his cousin’s antics. Nathan, meanwhile, cued up the stopwatch on his phone and shouted, “Five minutes!” as if Caleb needed a reminder. The taunt earned Nathan the finger.
Didi bit the inside of her cheek to keep the laughter in. The girls had to stay quiet until the game officially started. To add more of a challenge, Natasha spun Caleb in place three times. At his third rotation, Natasha let him go, and the game was on.
All ten girls called out Caleb’s name. None of them could approach him. Didi rocked on the balls of her feet, saying his name over and over again. For what seemed like an entire minute, he didn’t move from where he stood. He tilted his head one way, then the other. The flutters in her stomach intensified, radiating from inside her belly to manifest as goose bumps on her skin.
Even as she said his name, she mentally willed him toward her. Not because of the bet. Not for all the art supplies in the world. She genuinely wanted him to find her; she wanted to see if he could pick out her voice from nine other girls.
“Caleb!” His name sounded shrill to her ears. The excitement in the air was getting to her. Like a drug, she drew from it, charging her senses to the point of overload. The sunset seemed brighter. The leaves seemed greener, the sky bluer. The air sweeter. She took all of it in like electric shocks running beneath her skin.
At the two-minute mark, Caleb still hadn’t moved. She was at the end of her patience. Her excitement had reached a painful peak in her chest. When she called his name again, he tilted his head toward her.