Chapter 11-Hudson
Barbecuing is harder than I thought it would be. I spill some of the marinade all over the living room floor when I'm supposed to carry it outside for Mr Tate.
Dad lets out a heavy sigh. My head drops.
“Matty go get the mop.” Tate drops a hand on my shoulder, and I look up at him. “It's okay, Huddy. Everyone makes messes.”
My head snaps up to him.
He’s… not mad?
The brown juice is everywhere but his face isn’t even red. My chest just feels so big and I don't know what else to do but throw my arms around his waist and hug him tight.
When the food is done, Mom puts her party Christmas music on the speakers. Not too loud this time. She has on a new dress and checks her makeup in the refrigerator reflection.
“You look pretty, mom.” I sit at the counter as she works around setting stuff up for the other guests. She gives me one of her happiest smiles where her eyes scrunch up at the corners.
“Thank you, sweet boy. But sweetening me up won’t make me go easy on you in the three-legged race.” She gives me a wink when I snicker. She knows she’s so bad at that game.
That gives me an idea to further my plan. A few people come into the kitchen with Uncle Ronan and Aunt Emalyn. Perfect just who I need. I gasp really loud, so everyone looks at me.
“I just remembered I have math homework!” I smack my hand on my forehead.
“Oh, I'm good at math, I can help.” Mr Liam says. He’s so happy about math. It's weird. I don’t trust him.
Uncle Ronan brushes his finger over the side of his nose with a frown. That’s our signal. I do it back, so he knows there’s a mission.
“On Christmas break?” Mom arches her eyebrow at me, but I nod really fast. That always makes her believe me.
I drag Uncle Ronan and Mr Liam follows. When we pass Matty he throws the napkins down on the table and comes too.
We crowd around in a big empty room. Mr Tate needs more stuff.
“Listen. I have an idea.” We huddle together and Mr Liam looks confused. It’s okay, he’ll figure it out.
“For our plan?” Matty asks. See? He gets me. I don’t have to use a lot of words for him like I do the grownups.
“Yes!”
“Uh, what plan? What about the homework?”
“This is important.” Matty says looking at each of their faces. Aunt Emalyn scoots into the huddle. We let her in.
“What’s going on?” She chomps on a carrot.
“Listen people. Mom and Tate were dancing in the kitchen being so happy. They like-like each other. They are gonna fall in love and get married so we can be brothers. Until Dad showed up and ruined everything. So now, we have to help them.”
Aunt Emalyn claps her hands and squeals.
“YES!”
Uncle Ronan rubs his hands together. He’s a good spy. We should give him an important job.
“You keep dad away.” I point to him. He gives me a salute. I point to Mr Liam. “You have to make sure Mom only gets paired with Tate in all the games.”
“What about me?” Aunt Emalyn bounces a little and her curls do too.
“You’re a girl, so maybe you can just talk about Tate a lot to Mom. You know?”
“Me and Hudson will make sure everyone else loses right?” Matty gives me a nod.
“I don’t know, maybe we should draw the line at sabotage?" Mr Liam scratches his head.
We all just look at him like he’s crazy.
When we get back out a lot of mom and dad's coworkers are here now. We blend into the crowd, so no one suspects us.
Uncle Ronan heads straight for dad and takes him over to the adult table. They have fancy drinks over there that the kids can’t have. Dad's friends brought their kids too. One of the girls keeps trying to get me to dance but I push her off me. I can’t get distracted.
I sneak into the dining room where a man as tall as Tate, with tattoos on his neck stands near the window talking on the phone. He doesn’t notice me though, so I make my way around the table trying to read the little names. Some of them have letters in weird places.
I swap the name plates so that mom sits in between Tate and someone named Randall King. Mr Liam will have to sit on the other end by Dad instead.
There. Perfect.
“Hudson, what are you doing?” Dad asks as he follows Uncle Ronan in the room.
Crap.
Dad makes me switch the name plates back and Uncle Ronan mouths ‘Sorry’.
Later, the grownups start to laugh and talk loudly and we make our way into the dining room. Me and Matty have to sit at the kids table even though we are the oldest. The same girl who wanted me to dance tries to sit next to me and hold my hand, but I snatch it away.
I lean forward and back trying to see where mom sits.
I gasp when Tate pulls her chair out for her and she sits where I moved her name to.
By Tate!
I nudge Matty.
“Did you switch them back?” I whisper- shout. He shakes his head leaning to see too.
The man that was on the phone sits next to mom. Randall King.
He gives me a nod and lifts his coffee to me.
It had to be him.
Tate pours Mom her drink and fills her plate with food.
I shoot Aunt Emalyn a thumbs up.
Our plan is so going to work.