Help Me Remember (Rose Canyon, #1)(50)

They all yell their agreement.

Sara looks to me. “Are you ready?”

“We’re ready, right girls?”

Silence.

I turn to look at them. “We’re ready, right?”

Taylor shrugs. “Can we get cotton candy?”

“After we win,” I tell her.

“You’re not going to win,” says the kid who has been heckling me since we got here.

“Is your name Timmy?” I ask, hedging my bet.

“Yeah, why?”

“Just making sure.” I grin. Totally going to be my first target.

Then I remember the kid is like nine or ten and I’m sitting here thinking about taking him out. I’m losing my damn mind.

Brielle saunters up to me. “Want to wager again?”

Hell no, I don’t. This is literally me against her entire team, and yet, my stupid mouth says otherwise. “What do you have in mind?”

“I think this one is winner’s choice—after the win. No stipulations.”

“I’m not agreeing to that.” She’s crazy if she thinks I would be that dumb. For all I know, she’d make me do some embarrassing shit in town square. No way. I know this woman, and she’s savage.

“Scared?”

I almost rise to the bait, but I grin instead. “Nope. I have nothing to be scared of because you’re going down, Davis.”

She smirks. “I don’t think so, Cross. Besides, if you were that confident, you’d take my bet.”

I step closer, her head tilts back to look at me. “I am more than confident.”

Her hand moves to my chest, resting over my pounding heart. “About what?”

“That you’re having the best date ever.”

She laughs softly. “Are you saying the date is almost over?”

“Not even close.” I lean down, forgetting we’re on a field with two teams of kids watching us. “I plan to stretch this out as long as I can.”

“I like that idea,” she says softly, lifting just a smidge up on her toes.

I could kiss her so easily.

But then, the little brats yell. “Eww, she’s going to kiss the old guy!”

Brielle laughs and drops back down, moving back. “May the best man win.”

And then, before I can get to my drum, the horn blows and ten water balloons come flying at me.

Game on.





Chapter Seventeen





BRIELLE





It’s been fifteen minutes, and we are still trying to execute the plan to get our map and find their flag. The only goal I had was to take Spencer out. The rest of the kids were collateral damage. All the boys are on board with this plan, but to his credit, Spencer is good.

He ducks and dodges, rolling to seek cover.

We hit him a bunch of times, but the balloons are clear water.

Spencer’s team used our error to only focus on him to get their map first. The second they found it, they scattered and are either hiding or making their way to our flag. I turn to Timmy. “We need the map. We have to get their flag first.”

“I’m on it!”

“Wait,” I say, knowing that running off is not the right move. “We have to do this right.”

Darius takes off anyway and is eliminated while he is digging through the drum, but Spencer was like a sniper tossing balloons at him until he finally hit him with a colored one.

Timmy, Brian, Kendrick, Saint, and I are behind a bush as we regroup. “Okay, boys, there’s only one way out of this.” They all look to me. “We need to take Spencer out and now. We can’t let him stay in any longer.”

Timmy looks irritated. “We know that. My sister can’t throw at all and the other girls are probably pretending their balloons are dolls.”

The boys all nod in agreement. Brian speaks next. “We need a better plan.”

“Well, who has one?” I ask.

Saint has been the quiet one, and I am hoping he’ll speak up. I can see that he knows what we should do, he just needs a chance to be heard.

I look to him. “Any ideas?”

“We could surround him.”

I exaggerate my face a little and gasp. “That’s brilliant. We should.”

Timmy, who is the leader of this pack, thinks on it for a second. “How?”

Once again, I give Saint the opportunity to form our plan. “One of us has to sacrifice for the team.”

I want to laugh, but I don’t. “I’ll do it,” I volunteer.

Kendrick looks horrified. “You’re the leader.”

I smile. “I think you boys have a solid option. Saint will lead you all to victory. I’ll make a break for the drum while you guys do what he says.”

We huddle together and come up with who is going where. My hope is that Spencer will have a little mercy on me, since he’s clearly nine again and wants to win, and he’ll focus on them.

With a plan in place, we bump fists, and they yell, all going in different directions. I rise and beeline toward a drum. We need that map and I will go down swinging. Spencer yells for the girls to take cover, and the boys are launching balloons in every direction, hoping to hit someone in the wood line.

Balloons don’t come at me for a few seconds. Then I hear Spencer shout, “Get her!”