The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden(55)

“I bought it off one of the Carnies.” He unscrews the cap and sniffs the inside of the bottle, pulling a thoughtful face. “Alright, who’s ready to get this party started?’

Seth’s gaze skims over the three of us. “What kind of party are we talking about? Because honestly, I was trying to work something back at the ticket booth, but got a little distracted by the bear.”

“Really,” I ask excitedly and he nods with pressing eyes.

I want to hug him, but I’ll save it for later when he can give me the details. Seth hasn’t dated anyone since Braiden and I hope he’s ready to finally move on.

Luke takes a swig from the bottle and his shoulders twitch as he swallows it. “I want to do a challenge.”

“No challenges tonight,” Kayden grimaces, but there’s a hint of amusement in his voice. “We have practice early in the morning and challenges always end in pain.”

My head snaps toward him. “Pain?”

“Good God,” Seth says with a dramatic sigh. “Please explain what this challenge thing is.”

“It’s a long story.” Kayden waves us off with his hand and faces Luke. “Just know that you don’t want to do it.”

“You’re just pissed off because you lost last time,” Luke says in a taunting tone. “Besides, I bet Callie would totally be into it. She seems tough for a tiny girl.”

“Hey,” I start to protest as Luke takes another mouthful. “I’m not that tiny.”

Kayden pinches my side and I flinch. “Actually, you are really tiny, but it’s cute.”

I cross my arms over my chest and inhale quietly, uncertain how to respond.

“Relax, Callie,” Kayden says, looking a little remorseful. “Now, if you want to do the challenge we can, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I’ve never been much of a curious person. I just did what I had to and stuck to myself, at least since my twelfth birthday, but curiosity sparkles inside me.

“I am kind of curious to see what your challenges are,” I say and Kayden seems extremely pleased, the corners of his lips quirking as he struggles not to smile, even though he’d just been protesting it.

Luke takes another mouthful of tequila and wipes his lips with his arm as he passes the bottle to Kayden. “Usually we set up an obstacle course, like running and jumping and shit.” He gestures his hand at the net above us. “But we got a prebuilt one right here.”

“So what? You just race?” I ask as Kayden hands Seth the bottle, moving his arm around my back. “And what does the winner get?”

Seth tips his head back and takes a long, loud gulp. “Damn that’s good.”

“The satisfaction of winning.” Kayden exchanges a look with Luke.

Luke stares up at the top. “I say first one to the top and back is the winner.”

“I say that this time the winner owes the other one a favor.” Kayden steps around me and steers me to the side by the shoulders. “Like letting the other one borrow their truck whenever they want.”

“That’s fine,” Luke retorts. “Just as long as when I win, I get to ride that motorcycle, that hasn’t left your garage, when we go home for Thanksgiving.”

“That’s my brother’s,” Kayden states with a noticeable rise in the pitch of his voice.

“You drove it once before,” Luke protests.

“And I got in deep shit for doing so.” His breathing is ragged and tension swirls in the air.

He lets out a breath as Luke takes another drink with a challenge in his eyes. I’ve heard the term “too much testosterone,” but never witnessed it until now.

“Fine, you got a deal.” Kayden jerks the bottle from Luke’s hand and throws his head back, pouring in a mouth full of tequila. “But I’m not letting you win.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.” Luke steals the bottle back and wraps his lips around the top, knocking back a shot.

“You know what?” Seth shuffles toward the exit, staring at his phone. “I think I’m going to go find the person I was talking to.”

“No way.” Kayden steps toward him. “You got to stay down here and call the winner.”

Seth waves his hand at him, brushing him off. “Nah, Callie can do it.”

Kayden shakes his head. “Callie’s in the challenge, remember?”