Chapter 33
thirty-three
Cash
D id I think Charlie’s issues would be fixed by setting this whole thing up? No. But it couldn’t hurt.
Somewhere over the past four years, something had happened to her, and I didn’t mean the acid attack. Maybe being away from us made her forget what family was for, or maybe she’d never really understood.
Charlie grew up believing her aunt and uncle were her parents and that Tally was just her aunt. Her ‘dad’ walked out when she was seven. Her ‘mom’ left a few years later to chase a job in New York, leaving her and Theo with Tally. When Ashton and Tally got together, Tally finally told everyone the truth: Charlie and Theo were her biological children. But the final blow came when Charlie read her mom’s memoir and learned that her biological dad had raped her mom.
Everything she thought about who she was had been flipped on its head, over and over and over. So yeah…she was struggling to figure herself out. I got that. Or, I was trying to.
My plan was working. As we ran, she grew lighter and lighter, soaring through the obstacles, teasing our family about how she’d be waiting for them at the finish line before blowing by. Every family member’s declaration of truth seemed to fuel her. While she was flying over the terrain, the rest of the racers were walking, huffing, and dripping sweat on the ground. She was a happy little firefly in a field of sluggish, near-dead mosquitoes. Maggie and Bowen seemed to be riding in her draft, teasing and taunting each other.
As we came up on the spear throw consisting of twenty hay bales, each with a coinciding spear, Charlie slowed. Her face fell for the first time in the past hour. We got there just in time to see Silas hit the bullseye. Then he stepped behind a very red-cheeked Sophie and helped her aim. Together they nailed it, making it look simple. Then they took off. But Sophie looked beat.
Charlie and I found an empty bale.
Griffin and Lemon came running up. Griffin stepped behind Maggie and planted a kiss on her cheek, making her jump.
She laughed when she realized it was him and kissed him right back.
But just then Bowen, who’d jogged ahead to find an empty slot, waved. “Mags!” He pointed to an open bale and she took off.
Griffin’s jaw ticked but he took off after his mom.
“You go first,” Charlie said.
So I did. The spear landed easily inside the center. I grabbed the rope, pulled it across the ground, and handed it to Charlie.
As Charlie lifted the spear, settling it exactly how she wanted it on her palm, I watched Bowen out of the corner of my eye. He hoisted his spear up and sent it flying. It hit dead center. Even better than mine. Maggie cheered.
“I dunno,” Charlie’s voice brought my attention back to her. “What if I miss?”
“Not a big deal. We’ll run the penalty loop.”
“But we need to pass Silas and Sophie.” Everyone else was in our dust.
“We will,” I assured her.
Maggie’s throw missed, landing a foot under the circle, which was weird. She’d gotten to the point where she usually nailed it. Maybe she was tired. She groaned but laughed and took off for the penalty loop.
“I’ll come with.” Bowen jogged up behind her, hands on her hips, lifting her off the ground to go faster.
She squealed, delighted. “You don’t have to.”
He set her down. “Sure, I do. We’re partners.” They jogged off together.
“Is he trying to make her fall in love with him?” Charlie asked, voice tight, spear still in her hand.
“If he is, it’s working.”
Charlie turned to the bale, eyeing it fearfully.
“You’ve got this,” I said. “And if not, we’ll hit the penalty loop together too.”
She blew out her breath, pulled her arm back, and hurled the spear through the air. I held my breath, praying it would land right. Charlie had spent hours and hours trying to nail this.
It curved down and I almost thought it was going to miss—but the tip landed just inside the circle. It hung there for one second before clamoring to the ground.
Charlie and I looked at each other and then we whooped.
I gave her a double-handed high five. “That counts!”
“Ugly but effective.” She beamed, so proud. “Let’s go.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Griffin and Lemon heading into the penalty loop, meaning they’d both missed. Griffin shot daggers at Bowen who was just coming out with Maggie. They were laughing together about something, sweat dripping down Bowen’s pecs.
“Someone should’ve made him wear a shirt,” I said.
Bowen and Maggie caught up to us and once again, we were the Fantastic Four.
Charlie was on cloud nine, going on and on about how amazing it felt to nail the spear throw. “There can’t be more than six or seven obstacles left,” she said to me. “What’s next?”
“The Beater, I think.” I’d studied the map when I arrived this morning. “At least, I hope. It’s my favorite.”
“Spinning monkey bars,” Charlie said, chewing her lip. We’d watched how-to videos of each obstacle so she’d be prepared.
“It sounds hard but it’s easier than real monkey bars, in my opinion,” I said.
“Totally,” Bowen agreed. “The spin gives you momentum. You just gotta feel your flow and don’t let go. Like Tarzan swinging through the trees.”
“Feel my flow and don’t let go,” Maggie echoed like she was whispering a prayer to the obstacle Gods.
Just inside a group of trees, we came upon Silas and Sophie stopped on the side of the trail. Silas had a hand on Sophie’s back and she was bent over…throwing up.
“Oh dang.” Bowen slowed. “Soph,” He stood on her other side, hands on his knees to see her face. “You okay?”
In response, she puked again though hardly anything came out.
Bowen didn’t flinch or scoot back. He watched her with concern, brushing a lock of hair off her forehead. Maggie watched him with soft eyes like he was the father of her future children.
“What is happening?” Charlie breathed too low for anyone but me to hear. The worry on her face, aimed in Maggie’s direction, told me she saw it too.
“Do you need me to get help?” Bowen asked his dad.
Sophie stood and wiped her mouth. “No. I’m good. Let’s go. I have big plans for that money. Maddie and I are splitting it if either of us wins. Sephora…” She exhaled carefully. “Here we come.”
“Uh, uh, uh. You’re pushing too hard.” Silas waved us on.
“Dad,” Sophie whined.
“We’ll take it easy for a bit,” he said to her. Then to us. “You guys, go.”
So we took off again.
When we came up on The Beater, there were two lines. Charlie and I picked the one on the right, Bowen and Maggie the one on the left. Turns out Charlie and I had better instincts because we ended up a good two to three people ahead of them.
But they didn’t seem to mind. Bowen talked animatedly, his hands moving as he explained the aerodynamics of the obstacle to Maggie. She hung on his every word. But then her gaze dropped to his chest and there was a want in her eyes that I’d never seen when she looked at Griffin. Then again, Bowen was a lot more ripped than my red-haired cousin. Maggie’s cheeks flushed when she realized what she was doing and her eyes snapped to his face. He was so busy looking at the obstacle and explaining that he hadn’t seen, thankfully.
Charlie nudged me and whispered, “Did you see that?”
I scrubbed a hand down my face. “Yeah. Not good.”
“We don’t leave them alone,” she said.
“Agreed. I think Bowen’s oblivious?”
“One can only hope.”
“Ma’am.” A volunteer brought our attention back to the obstacle. “You’re up.”
Charlie eyed the scaffolding above like it was twenty feet in the air and she had no idea how she was going to reach it. She stepped back, shaking out her hands. “You go first. I want to watch how you do it.”
As I climbed up onto the metal foot bar, I gave her one simple instruction. “Just like the multi-rig, use your momentum and don’t overthink it.” Then I flew across the spinning bars, feeling like a bird soaring through the air. I slapped the red cowbell at the end and dropped to my feet, turning to watch Charlie. She was already halfway across, sailing along like she’d done this a thousand times.
The majority of our family came jogging into view, including my parents, Griffin, James, Theo and their partners, except for Aunt Lemon. Oh, here she was, with Silas and Sophie, who looked even paler than her normally fair complexion.
Bowen heaved himself off the end of the Beater, smacked the bell, and hit the ground. Then he turned to watch Maggie.
Charlie’s hand shot out, gripping my forearm, a look of shocked disbelief on her face. “She pierced her belly button,” she hissed like it was scandalous.
My eyes darted to Maggie’s stomach. Sure enough, her tank top had ridden up, leaving a slice of skin right across her belly, highlighting a navel piercing. Maggie was perfectly comfortable in a bikini and we’d all spent a fair bit of time at the lake this summer. That piercing was new. But I didn’t get why this was a big deal.
But it must’ve been because Bowen was staring at it too, stunned. Maggie flung herself from bar to bar, oblivious, focused on the task at hand. Bowen was still standing at the edge of the obstacle, frozen. So when Maggie hit the bell and came flying off, he caught her, still dazed. Her legs curled around his waist, matching her arms that looped around his neck like it was the most natural thing in the world.
She was still grinning, breathless, triumphant—until she noticed the way he was holding her. The way he was seeing her. Her laughter faded.
“You pierced your belly button?” he asked, reeling. “I thought you said you weren’t going to.”
Charlie shot me a disapproving sideways look. That’s why Bowen pierced his eyebrow. Some kind of dare, or maybe a bonding effort since they were partners. Charlie seemed to have understood the moment she spotted the piercing on Maggie.
Maggie nodded, no smile, no shame, but she wouldn’t meet his eye. “For the race.” She chewed her bottom lip. “For you.”
Charlie gripped my forearm, nails digging into my flesh.
With flushed cheeks, Maggie’s hooded gaze lifted, hooking Bowen’s. Something in his eyes must’ve reduced her will to dust. She folded into him like she couldn’t hold back another second and smashed her lips to his.
It all went in slow motion then. Bowen did the right thing—going stiff and dropping her like he’d been burned. He stumbled back a step. Then two. The way he stared at her though—wide-eyed, chest rising and falling—said everything. He didn’t want to want her. But he did .
She pressed her hands to her cheeks, shocked at herself.
My gaze snapped to Griffin, one of my best friends on this planet. He was frozen, watching the scene unfold from the line of people waiting to get on the obstacle, hurt and horror all over his face.
Bowen’s eyes were twin blue flames—scorching and locked on Maggie like he was trying to burn through every reason not to kiss her back. The way he was looking at her made it clear he didn’t know our family was on the other side of the Beater, watching.
“Bowen,” I warned, but it was like he’d been hypnotized and couldn’t hear me.
He took one step toward her and stopped, body tense. She stared at him like she was torn between wanting to run away or waiting, hoping he’d kiss her back.
“Don’t do it,” Charlie and I breathed at the same time.
But the decision was already made.
He grabbed her face between his hands and their mouths collided. She melted into him, arms around his neck.
And all hell broke loose.
Sprinting toward them, Griffin let out a shriek that could’ve rivaled the angriest pterodactyl to ever walk the planet. He slammed into Bowen, shoving him to the ground, knocking Maggie on her butt. Then he dove on top of Bowen, fists flying.
I raced over, pulling Griffin back, but that just left him open for Bowen to kick him in the stomach. Griffin ripped free from my grasp and tackled Bowen again. And I just stood there watching, not knowing who to help—because I loved them both and this was going to ruin their relationship for months, maybe years.
Possibly forever.
Maggie sobbed into her hands. “Stop,” she cried. “Please stop.”
Charlie knelt down and wrapped her in a hug, as she helplessly watched Bowen and Griffin rolling around in the dirt.
“I’m gonna kill you!” Griffin screamed.
“Get off me!” Bowen raged. “She kissed me first, jack weed! She doesn’t want you!”
“That’s not true,” Maggie sobbed. “It’s not true.”
But that kiss told a different story.
Finally, everyone else arrived, prying them apart. Dad and Holden hauled Bowen off to the side. Griff—tears streaking his dirt-dusted cheeks—thrashed like a bucking bronco trying to break free, determined to pulverize Bowen into the ground. It took Blue, Theo, Ash, and James to hold him back.
“You’re dead to me!” he seethed at Bowen twenty feet away. “Dead!”
Lemon stepped in front of him, holding his face. “No. Don’t say things you’ll regret,” she soothed. “Hey, now. Calm down, Griff. Calm down.”
Dad caught my eye and tipped his head toward the trail, signaling for me to take Charlie and go.
I can’t , I mouthed.
Go ! He jerked his head, his expression intense. Yeah, yeah, I got it. There was nothing I could do here and Charlie needed this money.
Little did he know, she didn’t need it as much as he thought.
I did.