CHAPTER SEVEN #2
Naomi sidled up beside me. “I hope you don’t mind, but I set your pizza box out on the table too. But I didn’t open it. I figured maybe Mabel has a thing about sharing food?”
I stared down at her for a few heartbeats, stunned by her thoughtfulness and those gorgeous green eyes. “She does, actually. Her pizza is also a little strange. Olives, feta, and bacon. Thank you.”
“Ah, that doesn’t sound too weird. I’m one of those weirdos that likes barbecue sauce, pineapple, banana peppers, mushrooms, and chicken on my pizza.”
I gasped. “You put pineapple on your pizza like a heathen?”
“Like a proper heretic. I even dip the whole thing in ranch dressing too. How do you like that?”
“I may have to call the cops. That sounds illegal, and not in a good way.”
Her smile was cheeky and sweet, and brought out a single dimple on the right side of her face. “I’m friends with the cops on the island. I’ll walk on the wild side with my pizza selection. Take my chances.”
“Are we going with Cranium tonight, or just Pictionary?” came a loud voice from the living room.
It was an open-concept space, so I could see that the voice belonged to a pretty redhead who was next to an enormous, bearded man on the couch.
They had a stack of board game boxes in front of them on the coffee table.
She craned her head around and waved at me.
“Hi, Principal Paul. Come to join the chaos?”
I gave her a wave back. “It would appear so.”
“Come on,” Naomi said, giving my elbow a gentle but familiar tap. “I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
I followed her into the living room where a bunch of kids I recognized—Austin included—as well as an older boy that I didn’t, sat around the coffee table eating pizza.
“This here is Raina,” Naomi said, pointing to the pretty, freckle-faced redhead. “Her son is Marco. And this is her boyfriend, Jagger McEvoy. He’s uncle to the McEvoy kids. Jagger and his brothers own the brewery.”
I shook hands with Raina and Jagger. I recognized them both from the parent meet and greet.
“This here is Maverick Roy. He is with Gabrielle.”
“Wait, hold up,” I said, pausing before taking the guy’s hand. “The Maverick Roy? Like NHL Maverick Roy?”
Maverick shook his head. “No, you’re confusing me with someone far more handsome. I’m the Maverick Roy who discovered electricity. Much more important, significantly less famous.”
A few of them snorted at his cheesy joke.
He shook my hand. “Yeah, man. That’s me. But I’m retired now. Working on a podcast with my producer here.” He gave the young man with the patchy mustache over his top lip a friendly shake on the shoulder. “This here is Damon, Gabrielle’s son. He helps me with Man Advantage.”
Damon had the moody teenager thing down to a T.
I could tell he was out here with the family because he had to be.
Not because he wanted to. His brown hair hung in his face, and he wore an oversized, dark hoodie.
Obviously with the hopes of hiding him from extra attention, or anybody remotely uncool.
“Nice to meet you, Damon,” I said.
Mabel joined us in the living room, and Damon’s eyes filled with curiosity. His high cheekbones also developed some color. “Dad, where’s my pizza?” she asked.
“Over here, honey,” Naomi said, stepping away from me. “I left your box closed.”
“That’s my daughter, Mabel. She’s thirteen,” I said. “But she won’t be at your high school. She’s homeschooled.”
Maverick elbowed Damon. “Something you two have in common.”
“You’re homeschooled too?” I asked.
He nodded, but then his gaze flicked back to Mabel where she was putting two slices of her pizza on a plate. “Yeah. Only since February though.” When Mabel rejoined us, he tossed his head in a way to move his hair from his forehead and eyes.
Mabel seemed oblivious to his interest and just sat down on the floor in the living room, crossed her legs, and ate her pizza.
Poor guy.
“And you know Austin, my daughter Honor, Raina’s son Marco, and Gabrielle’s daughter Laurel,” Naomi finished, rejoining us, two slices of pizza on her plate.
I said a brief hello and gave a nod to the rest.
“Thank you for allowing us to crash your family game and pizza night,” I said. “This will be a first for us.”
“First time having pizza, or first time playing games?” Marco asked, swirling his crust in a big puddle of ranch.
“Doing the two things together,” I confirmed. “We’ve had pizza. We’ve played games. Never done them at the same time.”
Marco’s disbelief was adorable. He glanced at Jagger, his mouth open a little. “How?” he mouthed. “I live for these nights.”
Jagger gave the kid a little hair tousle. “Every family is different, kiddo. Yours is big. Theirs might be smaller.”
“Yeah, it’s just Mabes and me,” I said. “But we’re okay with that.”
“Here,” Gabrielle said, handing me a plate with two slices of my pizza on it.
I thanked her, then found a spot on the floor next to my daughter.
“So, what have we decided?” Raina asked. “Cranium or Pictionary? Or charades?”
“Well, we get Pictionary and charades if we play Cranium,” Jagger said. “I vote for that.”
“All in favor of Cranium?” Raina asked, picking up the box for the game.
Most people tossed their hands in the air. Except, of course, for Damon, Mabel, and Austin. They were obviously too cool to be anything but indifferent.
“Majority wins,” Jagger said.
“Could I please see the instructions for the game?” Mabel asked. “I’m not familiar with this game.” She held out her hand and waited for Raina to open the box and pass her the instructions.
“It’s pretty simple actually,” Jagger started. “We split into teams. Then we pull cards, and it’s either something like trivia, or a creative like Pictionary, or active like charades. We can explain it to you as we go along.”
“I’d like to read the instructions first, please,” Mabel said, still holding out her hand.
Everyone in the room, except for Naomi and me, kind of exchanged looks as my kid sat there with her hand outstretched, patiently waiting.
Jagger shrugged and reached into the open box. “Fill your boots.” He handed Mabel the instructions and she proceeded to study them like it was a brand-new book on birds she’d never heard of before.
“Shall we divide into teams?” Raina asked. “We can have as few as two, or as many as four. There are fifteen of us—” She glanced into the kitchen where Sam and Tom still stood with the osprey. “Sam, Tom, you’re playing right?”
“Si, si,” Tom said, urging Sam to bring the bird in the box with her.
She set it next to Mabel. “Can you watch it?”
Mabel nodded, but kept focused on reading the instructions.
Sam went to the table to get some pizza. Tom was there as well.
Once all fifteen of us were in the living room, there wasn’t a ton of room to move.
“I say we have three teams of five,” Raina said. “That way it’s even.”
Mabel’s head bobbed. “Even is good. Even is good.” Then her gaze shot up.
“But the teams still won’t be even. We can’t have three girls and two boys on each team.
One team will have to have two girls and three boys.
That’s not fair. That’s not even.” Her head shook a little more fervently.
“There’s no way we can make it even. There’s no way we can make it perfect. ”
Eyes shifted around the room, locking in on each other and silently questioning what was going on with my kid and why she was being so weird.
Naomi smiled at Mabel. “You’re right, Mabel. We’re an odd number of people, with one more girl than boy. So in order to make it even, I’m happy to sit out. Would that work for you?”
“Mom, you don’t—” Honor started, but Naomi just shook her head at her kid. “It’s okay. We’ll need a referee and someone to keep an eye on the bird, and also to top up refreshments.”
Mabel shook her head. “But then we won’t have three teams of five.
That’s not even either. You’d need two teams of seven for it to be even.
Three teams of five, or two teams of seven.
That’s how it has to work. But three teams of five won’t have an even number of boys and girls. I don’t know how we can fix this.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Laurel said slowly, giving Mabel a weird look.
“Yes, it is,” Mabel growled out. She gave me a pleading look. “Dad, can we go? I’m not having fun anymore.”
“Mabes, let’s, um—”
“Mabel, you’re right,” Naomi said quickly. “It won’t be even. However, I happen to know that we’re all pretty evenly matched. And I don’t know about you, but in this family, it doesn’t really matter if you’re a boy or girl. Boys can do everything girls can do—”
“Besides giving birth and carrying a baby,” Mabel said. “Boys can’t do that. Not people born biologically male, I mean. If you were born with gonads and a penis, but no uterus, ovaries, or fallopian tubes, you are unable to give birth or carry a child.”
Naomi nodded. “That’s true. But this game—nor do any of the games we have—involve carrying a baby or delivering one. Cranium is all skill, knowledge, and hunch based. Now Laurel and Honor are very artistic. Laurel also reads a lot. But if there are any sports questions—”
“I will fail miserably,” Laurel said with an exaggerated pout.
“Exactly,” Naomi went on. “We’re all pretty worldly when we’re together.
Some of us have traveled more than others, but some of us are sportier than others.
I think that as a family, we’re really well-rounded.
And it doesn’t matter if we’re a girl or boy.
It just matters that we play the game by the rules and we do our very best. Would you like to pick the team you’re on first? ”
“I don’t know anybody.” Mabel snapped.
“Mabes,” I said gently. “Tone.”
“Well, I don’t,” she insisted.
“Would you like me to put you on a team that I think you would gel well with?”
Mabel nodded hesitantly. “Okay …”
Naomi grinned. “Perfect. I think you would match well with your dad, Honor, me, and Austin. What do you think?”
Honor offered Mabel a small, encouraging smile.
Mabel’s head bobbed slowly. “Okay.”