Chapter 9 – That Summer, Dupree Family Spartan Race Training—Pick Your Partner Day
Chapter Nine
BOWEN
THAT SUMMER, DUPREE FAMILY SPARTAN RACE TRAINING—PICK YOUR PARTNER DAY
Everyone was hyped that we were doing a money pool this year. The partners who crossed the finish line first would win over twelve thousand dollars.
The money would be nice, but mostly, I just wanted to do the race with my family and make it out with my sanity still intact. With Magnolia constantly underfoot, I wasn’t sure it was possible.
Why was she doing the race anyway? This was Dupree family Spartan Race training. Not Dupree Family Plus Griffin’s Now Full-Time Girlfriend Spartan Race Training. No one else had brought a plus one who wasn’t related.
Also, there should’ve been a dress code.
Especially if your last name wasn’t Dupree or Bishop.
No more tiny shorts and near non-existent tank tops.
My stupid eyes kept drifting to Magnolia’s ridiculously long legs.
No matter how many times I yanked my gaze back to Appropriateville, it kept veering off on its own. I did not need this kind of torture.
“Should’ve stayed in Charlottesville this summer,” I mumbled.
“What was that?” Gramps asked, leaning closer.
I chuckled. “Don’t make me tell Granny you need those hearing aids she keeps talking about.”
“Pshaw.” He huffed. “You calling me old?”
I clicked my tongue. “If the shoe fits.”
“I can still toss you over my knee and tan your backside,” he tried to sound tough. But Gramps was the softest softy here.
“You’ve never thrown me over your knee a day in your life.” I snorted. “Or any of us. You’re too nice for that.”
“But I could.” He laughed. “In theory. Don’t sass me, boy. I’ll take my name back. We’ll get Holden started on the paperwork today.”
“All right, all right. I concede.”
He put his arm around my neck, essentially a headlock. “Proud to share my name with you,” he said, voice warm. “You know that.”
I grinned. “I do.”
Uncle Holden stepped into the center of the group and rubbed his hands together, a devious look in his eye. “It’s time to draw for partners.”
Um, what? Draw for partners?
“Whoa,” Griffin said, “No one said we didn’t get to pick our partners.” He gestured at Maggie, like it was a no-brainer. She didn’t speak, just stood there awkwardly, green eyes wide as everyone looked at her.
“It has to be by chance,” Uncle Ford said. “That’s the only way to make it fair.”
“But…but…” Griffin did an exaggerated flourish around Maggie’s face. “I promised her we would do the race together.”
“Go cry in a corner,” I muttered.
“Come on, now,” Gramps chided. “Play nice.”
“I honestly can’t. He’s such a whiner. I’ve been home from school for two weeks, and all I’ve heard is ‘Maggie this and Maggie that. Maggie, Maggie, Maggie.’ The dude talks about her in his sleep. Literally. Like, get an identity outside of your girlfriend, for the love.”
Gramps laughed quietly. “You know, you sound a little jealous.”
Was it even hotter than a few seconds ago?
I scoffed. “Not hardly.”
Griff threw his hands up. “I’ve been hyping her up—”
“If we make an exception for you,” my older sister Anna declared. “We have to make one for everybody.”
When Anna’s mom, my dad’s twin sister, Sophie, passed away, my parents adopted her. By blood, Anna was my cousin. But in every way that mattered, she was my sister. And in that moment, I’d never been more proud to call her mine.
“Anna’s my favorite,” I called.
She blew me a kiss.
Griffin’s face twisted into a grimace, but he inhaled and forced himself to relax. “Okay. Fine. Maggie and I are out,” he said like he’d just done us a great disservice.
“Your loss,” I said. “Gives the rest of us a better shot.”
Maggie huffed at Griff. “Speak for yourself. I’m winning that money. Sorry, babe.”
Babe? We were at cutesy nickname level already? Everyone else laughed but I couldn’t. This was going to be the summer from Hades. So I frowned.
Griffin frowned too. So I flipped mine to a smile.
Holden clapped his hands together. “All right. We settled?” When no one protested, he gestured at his wife. “Chris. Take it away.”
Aunt Christy was all of five-foot nothing and might’ve weighed a buck fifteen.
But she bounded forward, taking charge like she was a force to be reckoned with.
“I’m only explaining this once, so listen up.
” She fanned a deck of cards. “There are two of every card. For example, there are two king of clubs, two red hearts, two jack of diamonds. You’ll draw one and whoever draws the match?
That’s your partner. Easy peasy. Everyone understand? ”
“Yes, Mom,” my cousin Maddie called. “We’re not idiots.”
“I mean, some of you are,” Holden said, lips pursed like there was no other explanation if Maddie thought talking to her mother that way was a good idea.
“Got it!” Anna answered cheerfully.
“Yup,” her husband, Blue, a retired NFL quarterback, said, punching his left hand into his right. “Let’s do this.”
“There are no trades,” Christy said loudly. “No refunds, and no complaining. You get who you get and you don’t throw a fit. And don’t think we won’t know. Tally is writing it all down.”
Charlie’s mom, Aunt Tally—pregnant belly round as a watermelon—held up her phone with the Notes app ready to go.
Christy drew a line in the dirt with the toe of her shoe. “Single file, right here.”
I waited, letting everyone go ahead of me. Magnolia and Griffin were at the front and I needed distance. Lots and lots of distance. Sure, the odds of getting paired with Magnolia were slim. But if it happened? I’d need time. Time to breathe. Time to meditate. Time to say goodbye to my sanity.
Because nothing—and I mean nothing—could prepare me for spending hours next to her in those booty shorts. I would lose my ever lovin’ mind, as Granny liked to say. No, I couldn’t end up with Magnolia. Could. Not. I’d had a hard enough time staying away from her on campus when she was fully clothed.
I’d suspected for a while that God really disliked me. My mom said that wasn’t how He worked. But all the times He’d thrown me and Maggie together proved otherwise. And if Magnolia ended up as my partner today, there would no longer be any doubt.
As the line inched forward, I tried not to think about it. I balanced a small stone on the toe of my shoe and kicked it up like a hacky sack for entertainment. Magnolia and Griffin walked out of the line, each holding a card. From the way their shoulders slumped, I knew they hadn’t been paired.
It gave me more satisfaction than I cared to admit. I’d had enough of watching them snuggle every night like they were part of some whispery little secret society. Made me feel like an outsider in my own house.
I started paying attention, watching who paired up with who.
The closer I got to Aunt Christy, the tighter my stomach ratcheted.
Jane lucked out and got Blue. If he could turn her into a runner, they’d win it for sure.
Blue ran elite class most years and came in first. Maddie got Uncle Holden. Dad and Sophie. James and Uncle Ashton.
Cash and Charlie.
Dang it!
I’d have taken either of them. Cash was a solid athlete.
We’d played football together in high school.
And Charlie thought she couldn’t run but I was banking that there was speed underneath her I’m-too-cool-for-sports attitude.
The girl could outrun Cash when she needed to.
I’d seen it plenty of times. Plus, she was my favorite cousin.
I’d never say it out loud because someone would poison me in my sleep.
But it was true. We would’ve had a blast training together.
“Boob cards?” I heard Belle shriek.
“There’s boob juice on my hand!” Tristan, Charlie’s little brother, screamed.
I huffed out a laugh even though I’d missed whatever set them off.
All the younger cousins freaked out, throwing cards in every direction, yelling about boobs and juice and how they weren’t doing the race anymore.
But then Uncle Holden roared and within seconds, all the cards had been picked up and peace had been restored.
Through it all, Maggie stood there, looking a little out of place, flicking her card against her perfectly toned thigh.
If she’d stop fidgeting for two seconds, I could see what her card was.
But alas, she was a jittery, nervous mess, in constant motion.
Like a hummingbird who accidentally drank someone’s Red Bull.
I held out hope to the very end. As far as I could tell, Maggie was still unpartnered, but so were Theo, Blaze, Anna, and Aunt Christy.
Blaze took his card and moved from the line. There were three left. Anna swiped the one from the middle and stepped out of my way.
Aunt Christy sashayed toward me, fanning the last two cards like someone auditioning for a low-budget magic show.
Her left eye bugged out between the spread, making me chuckle.
“Pick wisely, child?” she intoned, all low and spooky.
“For the card you choose shall determine your destiny, your companion, and possibly your blood pressure levels this summer.” Her eye blinked, slow and dramatic.
I chuckled again, stomach a fizzy, fluttery mess. I chewed my bottom lip, the entire family watching. And picked the card on the right.
I flipped it over. Six of hearts.
Christy whipped hers around. “Who has the four of diamonds?” she shouted, looking for her partner.
“That’s me!” Anna held her card in the air triumphantly. They squealed and jumped up and down like middle schoolers.
I blew out my breath. “Six of hearts?”
“That’s me,” Blaze, Anna and Blue’s boy, bounded up to me.
My elation shot up like a bottle rocket. “Sweet!”
“Dude,” Blaze said. “We’re gonna dominate.”
“Heck yes.” I grinned, giving him a high five. At fourteen, Blaze had beaten every one of his dad’s records at that age. Looked like God wasn’t trying to punish me after all.
But then Theo walked over. “Bruh. That’s a nine.” He flipped Blaze’s card around and laid his against it. “See? Matchy-matchy.”