Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
Tables had been set up at the foot of the gazebo, around which clustered teams of four. Amelia and Leo joined Ari and his partner in front of a table near the far end of the line.
“Today’s challenge is a logic puzzle,” Fred announced. He stood on the steps of the gazebo wearing a crisp white shirt, its top three buttons undone. His slacks were dark blue, tailored perfectly around his powerful frame. Amelia watched him survey his employees and their partners, noting the steel-hard look in his eyes. When Fred’s gaze landed on her, she stiffened her spine. Was his gaze lingering on her for a bit longer than most? Did he look particularly suspicious?
Amelia gritted her teeth. Curling her hands into fists, she used the bite of her nails against her palms to center herself. Paranoia wouldn’t help anyone. Plus, if people kept walking in on her making out with Leo, there’d be no question about the legitimacy of their relationship. It was getting kind of embarrassing.
Yeah—that’s what the lingering heat in Amelia’s cheeks was about. Embarrassment.
“In front of you, you’ll see a board containing various vehicles.”
“Oh, this is Rush Hour ,” Amelia murmured, studying the puzzle on the table. “I used to love this game when I was a kid.”
The board on the table was larger than any of the versions she’d seen before, with the vehicles making up the puzzle carved out of timber. One car, in the bottom left corner, was painted red.
“The goal is to get your car—the red one—to exit through the gap at the edge of the board. You’ll have to move the other vehicles to do so, but you can’t lift or dislodge them. They must move along the slots in the game board. They cannot be turned.”
“It’s a sequence puzzle,” Amelia said with a nod, studying the board. She could already see the first three moves. “We have to slide the cars out of the way in a specific order to clear the way for the red car.”
“Work as a team. When you’ve freed the red car, run to the finish line and press your buzzer. Your time…starts…now!”
Amelia elbowed the men out of the way. This kind of game was her thing . Puzzles? Logic? Please. “Stand aside, boys,” she said and vaguely heard Leo let out a low chuckle.
She started at the opposite end of the board from the red car, because she could see that the long semi-truck blocking the entrance would be what tripped most people up. It had to be moved at the very beginning; otherwise, they’d get stuck halfway through the puzzle.
The carved timber vehicles made satisfying thunking noises as she slid them into their slots.
“Tell me when to run,” Leo said.
“Hold on—why did you move that one?” Ari leaned over her shoulder and tried to reverse her last move. “It’s going to?—”
“This is what I do, Ari,” Amelia barked, smacking her hand away. “Logic and analysis is my full-time job.”
Amelia loved to win. Her competitiveness had helped her build a successful business. She loved to succeed. Unfortunately, that hadn’t been so great for her dating life, because apparently the men she’d interacted with had brittle, fragile egos, and they found her drive intimidating. She’d learned that the hard way, but it wasn’t something she could just flick off like a switch.
She wasn’t giving up a new smartwatch or a trip to Europe just to save Ari Ashfield’s ego. Not after he’d looked so smug when he opened the closet door on them.
“Boom!” She slid the red car out, thrust it into Leo’s hands, and Leo took off at a dead sprint. Past the finish line, there was another table holding a buzzer. He slammed his palm down on it, and Amelia threw her hands up with a cheer.
Ari laughed, hooking his arm around her shoulders. His partner—she hadn’t caught the guy’s name, as focused as she was on the puzzle—gave her a high five. As Fred and Percival came to inspect their game board to make sure the win was legal, Leo jogged back and lifted Amelia in his arms.
Setting her down on her feet, he smiled at her with soft eyes. “Smart woman.”
She beamed. Unlike some of her worst dating attempts, when Leo said it, it actually sounded like a compliment.
“What did you mean when you said logic and analysis is your full-time job?” Ari asked as Percival checked the pieces on their board against the diagram printed on a piece of paper.
Fred’s gaze lifted, eyes narrowing on Amelia.
“Yeah,” their fourth team member said, and she should really learn his name, but now it was too awkward to ask. “I thought you were a singer in a band. The Sex Maniacs or something?”
The urge to throttle Leo was strong, but the panic that gripped Amelia’s chest was stronger. “I, um.” She cleared a blockage from her throat. “Well, music is mostly math, you see.”
Fred tilted his head. “Is it?”
“Sure,” Amelia said, brazenly talking out of her ass. “Half-notes, quarter-notes, etcetera. Harmonies, octaves.” Now she was just listing all the musical nomenclature she could remember from playing the recorder in elementary school. “It’s all logical sequences. That’s why there’s music theory.” Or something. She hoped.
“That’s true.” The lifeline, surprisingly, came from Ari. As the rest of the group turned to him, he shrugged. “I’ve been learning how to play the guitar.”
Fred grunted, and Percival said, “The puzzle is correct. We have a winning team!”
Pride glowed in Amelia’s chest. She looked at Leo and found him smiling at her, his hand reaching out to tug her close. His hug felt like heaven, strong arms encasing her in warmth and safety.
It was strange, to be this comfortable with a man. Leo’s green eyes twinkled in the sunlight, and he leaned down to press a soft kiss to the tip of her nose. “You’re incredible, Amelia.”
“I think what you meant was, ‘incredibly nerdy,’” she corrected in a whisper.
He chuckled. “Same thing to me.”
The warm glow in her chest spread through her body.
“Now it’s time for the face-off!” Fred clapped his hands. “Gather round, everyone. Ari and Hank”— Hank! Amelia thought—“are about to go head-to-head with Leo and Amelia.”
An army of staff cleared the puzzles from the tables and set up a new one on only two tables. One for Leo and Amelia, one for their rivals.
It was a giant Sudoku, where instead of writing numbers down on a piece of paper, they had to place numbered tiles down on a board.
“Nine numbers,” Fred announced. “Each row, column, and box must contain numbers one to nine. No duplicates. You know the drill.”
Freaking easy . Amelia could already see how to place every single number three on the board.
“The twist,” Fred intoned, “Is that one of you will be the eyes, and the other will be the hands.”
“I’ll be the eyes,” Amelia said immediately.
Ari, standing at the table next to them, grinned. “Same here.”
“Okay, Eyes, put your hands behind your back. Your partner will slip their arms beneath your armpits, but first we need to blindfold them.”
Oh, this was going to be messy. Amelia giggled, completely forgetting that she was supposed to be keeping an eye on everyone around her to spot any suspicious behavior. Right now, she didn’t care about a silly, expensive ring. She didn’t care about the mysterious list Ari had been hiding. She didn’t care about Vanessa’s money troubles or Robert’s dark past as a made man.
She just wanted to win the puzzle challenge prize.
Leo was blindfolded, then he threaded his hands under Amelia’s arms. Then Fred counted down, and they were off.
“Okay, we need a number three,” Amelia said. “They’re stacked in the top right corner of the table—no, other right—a bit higher. Bit higher. Yeah. Okay. Now it needs to be placed on the second slot from the left, top row. A bit more. A bit more. There. Okay. Grab another three. Other side. Yep.”
This went on for a long time. Leo had to do things by feel, and Amelia had to wrestle her impatience into submission as the seconds ticked by. She glanced over, and it looked like Ari and Hank were making better progress.
“Gotta speed it up, babe,” she said. “Next slot to the right for that piece. Yep. Okay. We’re doing number nine now.”
Minutes bled together as their audience watched on, laughing and commentating. Staff members milled around with refreshments and snacks, but Amelia had eyes only for the Sudoku board. It was down to the wire. Ari and Hank had only a few more numbers to place down, so she urged Leo to move a bit faster. A bit faster. Just a little bit more?—
“Yes!” Amelia cried. “Done!”
“Percival,” Fred called the butler over, who looked over their board to make sure it was correct. Leo pulled off his blindfold, but immediately returned his arms to Amelia’s waist. She could feel him all against her back, butt, and legs, and she leaned into him while Percival officiated the game.
It was for show, she told herself. Not because it felt good to lean against Leo. Not because his body fit against hers like two pieces of a jigsaw. They were just pretending to be an enamored couple about to be married.
Percival glanced at Fred and nodded. Leo squeezed his arms around Amelia’s stomach, and she couldn’t stop the smile from spreading over her lips.
“We have our winners,” Fred said, and the assembled group of guests—most of whom had obviously lost interest after being knocked out of the first round—gathered closer. “Leo and Amelia have won the puzzle challenge!”
Polite applause and a few cheers rose up, and Amelia beamed. Glancing over her shoulder, she caught Leo’s eye. He winked, then dislodged his arms from her waist and came to stand beside her.
“Now for your prize,” Fred announced. Everyone grew quiet, anticipation rising in the crowd. Amelia could feel it against her skin like static electricity. She’d won! She’d done it. And now she’d have something to show for it.
Fred motioned to Percival, who produced a gilded envelope. Heartbeat thundering in her ears, Amelia watched as Leo accepted it, flipping it around to run his fingers over the wax seal. He met her gaze. “Would you like to do the honors?”
“She deserves to,” Hank said, smiling. “Clever woman you’ve got there, St. James.”
Leo’s gaze was warm as he handed the envelope over. Amelia’s stomach was full of butterflies, her smile so wide it creaked around the edges. She broke the seal, opened the golden envelope, and pulled out a sheet of paper. It was thick vellum, folded in thirds.
Would they get a trip? A piece of tech? Maybe a romantic dinner reservation at a special restaurant? A gift certificate to a luxury spa? Oh, the possibilities were endless! A man like Fred, with connections and money…this was going to be good.
Hands trembling, Amelia unfolded it—and discovered their prize.