Chapter 24
“There were four hundred and eighty,” Nic said, leaning over her shoulder to read.
“Wrong. Four hundred sixty.” She closed her spiral notebook and went back to what she was supposed to be doing. She dug through the bag to find the other package of Peeps.
Nic huffed and headed over to the posts to straighten the EASTER EGG HUNT banner. “Do you have to argue with me about everything? You always have to be right.”
“Only when I definitely am right.” They’d spent the morning hiding the eggs they had collected from local businesses all over the immaculately cleaned-up empty lot.
They had another hour before the kids would get to the courtyard to start signing in.
They’d roped off the entire lot so that no one would get a head start.
Nic plopped back into the seat beside her. “Why does it even matter how many Easter eggs we put out?”
Felicity tried a second time to open the Peep package and failed. “We were calculating how many each kid could find to have it be fair.” She passed it to him.
“The forces of rampant socialism at work corrupting our children.” Nic snapped the plastic open and handed it back.
“Hey, jackass, you have a bumper sticker on your truck that says, This chef thinks we should eat billionaires.”
“My beliefs about national politics have no bearing on Easter egg hunts. This should be a battle of wills and a test of one’s keen power of observation.
A sacred hero’s journey,” he said, speaking with the kind of overblown gravitas better suited to a melodramatic hero monologue right before deciding to steal the Declaration of Independence to prevent Boromir from getting it.
But she was really trying to get over her thing with Nic/Nik/Nick.
“This should be a test of fortitude where only the strongest survive to eat their jellybeans.”
Felicity looked to the sky as if to beg any potential goddess watching for patience with this man.
“We’re not turning this neighborhood event for five- to ten-year-olds into Lord of the Flies.
What if the guy you hired to wear the Easter Bunny suit becomes the next Piggy? These are impressionable minds.”
“Kids these days. So wimpy. Participation trophies were just the start, weren’t they?”
“You mean like the ones you ordered for all the kids coming to the Strawberry Field-Day Forever Festival in June?”
“Not everyone’s an athlete at that age. I don’t want any left out. I’ve got a gu—”
“Guy who makes trophies. Yep, I know.” The diorama they were building definitely didn’t look anything like what it was supposed to. She was not the right choice to be handling this contest, but Thea had bowed out at the last moment when Courtney got pulled in to do some gig in DC.
“Is that supposed to make the kids feel better about their—”
She threw a Peep at him. “Fuck off.”
He caught it and bit the head off, exposing the marshmallow fluff beneath the yellow sugar.
She pretended to gag.
“How can you not like Peeps?”
“Strong—”
“Strong dessert opinion. Yep, I remember.” He threw the rest of the Peep at her.
“Ewww gross, stop. Yuck. Unhygienic monster.”
Still laughing, he headed inside to check on the restaurant.
A little while later, he sat back down on the folding chair beside her. His head tilted, his nose wrinkling. “What is it supposed to be? Are the Peeps torturing the babies?”
The diorama was supposed to be a veterinarian office with the Peeps acting as the vets caring for their tiny human patients. It looked good in the online photo, but Felicity had never had much patience for arts and crafts.
She grabbed a Peep from the package and shoved it into his mouth. “If you aren’t going to be helpful, just shut your trap.”
He grabbed her hand, and with a small sweep of his mouth, the yellow sugar crystals were gone from her thumb.
She bit her lip.
That smolder should warrant an arson charge.
A door nearby opened, and his fingertips slid down her forearm to her elbow as Samantha came out from the bookstore. Ani was sleeping, strapped against her chest. She flipped through a notepad. “I added everything up, and I think since there are four hundred twenty eggs total—”
“Wrong,” said Felicity.
“Incorrect,” said Nic in the same beat.
“Well, I was going to give you a present, Felicity, but given the way you’re doubting my Peep-counting abilities, maybe I should give it to someone else.”
“Wait—what?” Nic said.
“Did you get an ARC?” Felicity stood up so quickly she nearly knocked over the Peep diorama.
“What’s an ARC?” Nic looked between the two women while Ari cooed somewhat unhelpfully.
“Advance reader copy of a book. It’s an early version of a—”
“Did you get book two in the Stolen Rebellion series?” Nic’s eyes were wild.
Sam tapped her fingers on her bag, smiling like a benevolent dictator. “It depends. Who still thinks I can’t count eggs?”
“Your counting skills are the best and most superior,” Felicity said in a tone more appropriate to a knight swearing fealty to a queen.
Nic frowned. “I’m still pretty sure it was four hundred eigh—”
“Felicity wins.” Sam pulled the book out of her bag and tossed it at Felicity.
Nic used his long arms to snatch it out of the air before it reached her hands.
Felicity jumped, trying to grab it back. “Hey, no. I’ve been waiting for this for weeks.”
“Weeks?” Nic scoffed while holding the book out of reach. “I read the first one last summer. I’ve been waiting forever.”
“Boo-hoo. She wanted to give it to me first.”
“Yeah, just because you—hey.” The book was snatched from Nic’s hands.
Abbott had appeared on the stairs, and the combination of the steps and the four inches Abbott had on Nic meant the book was far out of reach. “Baby, how could you?” He gaped at his girlfriend with wide, wounded eyes.
“You’re supposed to be studying for the bar.
” Sam growled her rage while swaying to keep Ani settled in her carrier.
“Fine, all of you duke it out, then. Start a fight club for all I care.” At that, she bit the head off a marshmallow chick in a way that made little Ani laugh so hard everyone else couldn’t help but join in.
“Oh, and I’m glad you’re all here,” Abbott said, handing Felicity the book. “Ms. Dale—that woman from the city council—called.”
Nic’s snickering cough barely concealed him saying “You mean, Mommy?” with an impish grin at Felicity.
Felicity elbowed him in the ribs. “What’d she say?”
“The land use board meeting is getting rescheduled. It’ll be a month earlier. May tenth.”
“It was supposed to be in June.” Felicity blinked and rubbed her sternum. “Shit … that’s so soon.”
Nic wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It’ll be okay.”
The four of them turned to stare at the empty lot where Bruce would build the parking garage if they lost their appeal.