Chapter 12 #2
We go to Nora, tell her we want to switch our teams, and point out that there are no rules that prevent us from doing so. She loves the idea that this will allow Muriel and Patty to fully participate in the activities she was concerned about. She calls the judges over, and they all agree.
“What about the points Josh and Thea earned during the first challenge?” Wilson asks.
“We’ll split them between their new teams,” another judge suggests.
Thea and I nod. “That’s fine with us,” she says.
Sam and Ashley still have zero points. That’s all that matters.
“Okay, that’s done,” Nora says. “Everybody up to the starting line.”
“Muriel, how do you feel about eggnog?” I ask as we all take our positions. When the jingle bells jingle, the member of the team who will do the task at station one will stay, while the other runs on to station two, twenty feet down Main Street.
“I’ve had way worse things in my mouth,” Muriel tells me.
I laugh. “Then you’re up first.”
“You haven’t had worse things in your mouth?” she asks, getting into position at the starting line. She only has to go about five feet to the first table.
“Maybe kale,” I say. “But I can’t think of much else.”
“You’re young,” she says. “Promise me you’ll put more things in your mouth before you’re my age.”
I laugh. “I’m not sure that’s solid advice, Muriel.”
“Just don’t be the kind of guy who only sticks with what he knows or assumes that the things he likes are the epitome. I can assure you that you’ll taste more good things than bad if you take chances on new things. And I’m old. So, you have to listen to me.”
“What about poisonous things or things that might make me sick?” I tease.
Her eyes widen. “Well, don’t eat poisonous things, Josh. Lord, do us old people have to tell you everything? I figured that was a given.”
I laugh even louder. “Got it. Put more edible things in my mouth.”
She gets a sly grin on her face. “Well, not necessarily edible. But nothing dangerous.”
“What do you—” I catch on a second before completing the question. “Muriel!” I say, acting scandalized. I’m actually beyond amused.
“My first husband did not like…that…in his mouth. My second thought that he did, but he didn’t really appreciate it. My third…” She sighs. “I still miss that man.”
“Wide-shouldered Russel?” I ask.
“Yep. I only got seven years with him. But he had years to figure things out before I came along. Most things in life just take practice, Josh. Being a good firefighter, being a good friend, being good in bed…you just have to want to be good, and then you have to do it. Over and over again until it’s second nature. ”
I nod. “Got it.”
“Now let’s kick some ass at this relay race.”
We high-five just as the bells ring.
Muriel gulps her cup of eggnog like a champ.
Ashley gags on hers, which I sympathize with.
But Patty swallows hers no problem.
At the next station, I throw all three of my snowballs—made with a snow cone machine—and hit the bullseye on the target with two of them.
Sam only hit one bullseye.
But Thea hits all three.
My long legs are the only thing that puts me a few steps ahead of her.
Muriel wraps the odd-shaped baseball bat like a pro at station three, but so does Patty. Ashley struggles. She covers her poor paper wrapping with extra bows. Interestingly, Max pulls ahead at that station, wrapping the bat perfectly and pulling ahead of Muriel and Patty, getting to station four.
At station four, I dress the stuffed otter in the provided reindeer costume, including antlers, a Santa jacket, and little red and white booties, faster than Thea or Mitchell.
Sam and Thea finish at the same time I do, and again, I’m just slightly faster, getting to station five only two steps ahead of Thea. Mitchell beats us both by a step.
Thank God, Muriel is up on station five, where she has to play “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” on a xylophone.
I never would have been able to pull that off.
It seems that Muriel is the musical of the twins, because Patty hits a few sour notes.
Ashley doesn’t even know where to start.
She simply clinks random keys. Max is perfect note-wise, but not as fast as Muriel.
We’re barely ahead as Muriel sprint-walks to station six.
It’s the last station, and I’m ready. I pull three small gifts out of a stocking and have to unwrap them. That’s all fine. But then I have to figure out which judge each gift goes to.
Considering I don’t know these people at all, I’m stuck.
Every stocking has different gifts inside, so I can’t even watch the other participants.
I’m holding a lipstick—there are three female judges, and all are wearing lipstick this morning. I’ve also got a pack of double A batteries and a fancy chocolate bar.
A chocolate bar? Couldn’t that go to anyone? And batteries? Everyone in the world needs double-A batteries.
So, I guess.
I hand the lipstick to one of the women, the batteries go to Brewser. Just as I’m headed for Wilson with the chocolate bar, Mitchell comes up next to me and whispers, “Sally. The one in yellow.”
Then he’s off, distributing his gifts. But I decide to trust him and hand the chocolate to the woman in the yellow cardigan.
And that was the right match. I was also right about the batteries. Well, actually, it turns out that the gift would have been right no matter who I gave it to. In a fun twist, every team had one gift like that.
But my lipstick choice is wrong, and Thea, Mitchell, and Jesse have already distributed their gifts before I’m finished anyway.
Thea and Patty win.
Max and Mitchell are in second place, and Beckett and Sutton—whom I wasn’t even paying attention to—are third.
“We’ll kick their butts at the ornament hunt,” Muriel tells me.
“The what?”
“The next challenge,” she says. “It’s like an Easter egg hunt, but they’ll hide Christmas tree ornaments around the park. Whoever gathers the most wins.”
I grin. “Sounds good. See you this afternoon.”
“See ya.”
“Sorry about that,” Thea says from beside me as we watch Patty and Muriel walk away, already bickering about how Patty should have definitely been able to play that song on the xylophone and how Patty hasn’t played a xylophone in forty years, so how was she supposed to do that, and how neither has Muriel, but she did it.
“Don’t be,” I say. “Muriel’s great.”
Thea lifts a brow. “Now I know you’re too good a guy to be real.”
I move closer to her. “I’m very real, Thea. Want me to prove it?”
She takes a deep breath. “Yes.”
I lean in.
But she steps back. “But you can’t.”
Right.
Fuck.
This shouldn’t be so hard to remember.
“Come on!” Bruce calls us. “Lunch at our place!”
Thea looks relieved.
“You don’t have to seem so happy not to be alone with me,” I say with a chuckle.
“We just can’t be late for the next challenge,” she says as she starts walking.
“Would we be?” I ask.
She looks back over her shoulder. “Oh, yes.”
Two and a half more days. I just have to not grab her and kiss her in front of this entire town for two and a half more days.
They’re going to be the longest of my life.
Lunch is nearly as chaotic as everything else has been today.
Bruce has a buffet of sandwich fixings, a few sides like chips, pasta salad, and fruit, along with various Christmas treats—fudge, cookies, and chocolate-dipped pretzels—laid out. But he and Harley are getting ready to leave.
Bebe and Eli have returned from visiting Violet at the hospital. Now Harley and Bruce are going to sit with her.
I feel a stab of guilt as they fill us in on the doctor’s report.
“She’s doing great. They’re going to wake her up soon,” Bebe says with a wide smile. “All of her vitals are strong and stable.”
That’s great to hear, of course. I knew she’d be fine, but it’s great to hear her progress. But I have to force a little extra enthusiasm into my tone. “That’s amazing,” I say. “I’ll go up later after the ornament hunt.”
I have to, right?
“Oh no, you need to stay here,” Bebe says. “They might have a surprise challenge.”
“Another?” I ask. “We just did one this morning.”
Bebe and Bruce both nod. “You never know. You really should stay just in case.”
I look at Thea. She looks confused, too. “There’s never more than one surprise challenge a day,” she says.
“Oh, sure. They did that three years ago,” Bruce says, looking to Harley for confirmation.
He nods. “Something like that. It’s definitely happened before. The scoring is close. And now you’ve got Muriel and Patty as partners. You need to be here for them.”
Thea and I exchange a look. She shrugs. “That’s true. We can’t leave them without their partners.” She looks at her mom. “I feel bad that I haven’t been up there, though.”
“Why?” Bebe says. “Violet’s exactly where she needs to be. She might need your help once she’s home, but there’s nothing you can do at the hospital. She’s doing fine.”
“I guess,” Thea says with hesitation.
“We’re going now,” Harley says, heading toward the door with his cane. Bruce is right behind him.
At the door, they have to step back to let Andi in. “Hey, guys,” she greets, giving them each a hug. “Heading to New Orleans?”
“Yep. You need anything?” Bruce asks.
“I’ll text you if I think of anything,” she says. She shuts the door behind them, then joins us in the kitchen. “Hey, what’s up?”
“We need your help,” Thea tells her.
Clearly, Thea texted Andi to join us.
“Hit me.” Andi starts loading a plate at the buffet.
“I need two methods of transportation for Muriel and Patty tomorrow during the obstacle course,” Thea says, sitting at the dining room table with her lunch. “Light weight, easily maneuvered for me and Josh, but sturdy enough to carry them between stations over grass and gravel.”
“Mom!” Ruth suddenly runs into the room. There’s another girl her age with her. “Jordyn wants Anna and me to spend the night tonight. Can I?”
“Your mom is okay with it?” Thea asks the girl.
“Completely. You can text her.”