Page 79 of Maybe We Can Fake It

“Sweetie, I’m so sorry!” Elise yells, stepping out of her line and coming across to meet May.

But May’s smiling now. “Don’t worry about it, Grandma. We did good!”

Elise follows her as she heads off to get cleaned up, while I return my attention to the game. Apparently, the two of them weren’t the only ones to get knocked out on that round, and I’m pleased to realize that it’s just me and Travis and one other team left. But it’s the damn O’Brien twins. They’re too good.

The pressure’s definitely on now as I get ready to make my next toss. But Travis just smiles at me encouragingly like he’s not worried at all. And even though I know encouragement can’t actually make me any better at this, when I toss the egg to him, it seems as if someone far more skilled than me did the tossing, and he catches it with no problem.

I exhale in relief and brace myself for my next catch. Right when Roddy calls for the toss, a bunch of things seem to happen at once. Jimmy O’Brien, from over on Travis’s side, yells out some stupid taunt that’s meant to distract me. Travis turns to him, and though it’s hard to hear from this far away, I swear he growls, making Jimmy jump right as his egg soars out of his hand, which knocks his aim off. As Travis and I make eye contact again, he gives me a nod and tosses to me.

Tommy O’Brien lets out a loud curse just moments before I catch my egg, carefully curling my palm around it. Then Roddy shouts into his megaphone, “We have a winner!” And it takes me a few seconds to realize he means me and Travis.

I look over at Tommy, who’s covered in egg yolk, and resist the urge to gloat. I can’t believe we actually won this one. May’s cheering as she runs over to give me a hug, and I don’t even care that she’s still got some egg on her.

I’m still cradling our egg in my hand when I glance over at Travis, who is coming my way with sure, steady strides. He’s only smiling slightly, but it grows when he reaches me.

“Good job,” he says.

“Thanks!” With a grin, I hand him the egg. “Turn this into an omelet for me, would ya?”

May laughs, while I fight to keep a straight face. But there’s no hope for that when Travis takes the egg and smashes it against my chest. May laughs even harder, and I join her. After a few moments of this, I hear Travis laughing too, andwoah.

I kind of feel like I already won this whole thing.

CHAPTER TWENTY

TRAVIS

AfterBrendenandIsomehow win the stupid egg toss, his excitement reaches an all-new height. He’s bouncing around so much, I’m not sure he’ll have any energy left to complete the rest of the events. He’s not even the tiniest bit bothered that I covered him in egg yolk, when he could’ve escaped totally clean.

“What’s next?” I ask, in an effort to get him to focus and calm down a bit. Roddy announced that the second event would be starting in five minutes, and I don’t see them dragging out anything crazy.

“Wheelbarrow race!” he shouts gleefully.

I look around again. “Where are the wheelbarrows?”

He grabs my wrist, giving me a disbelieving look. “Um. Do you really not know what a wheelbarrow race is?”

“Sounds like we push a wheelbarrow.”

His snort of laughter concerns me. “No, Mr. Doesn’t-Like-To-Have-Fun-So-He’s-Never-Heard-Of-Classic-Picnic-Games. A wheelbarrow race is when one person holds the second person’s legs up in the air and runs while the second person uses their hands on the ground.”

Okay, I guess I have heard of that at some point in my life, but I must have tried to erase it from my memory.

“You actually think we can pull that off?” I ask warily.

“Yeah! I mean, normally I’m competing with May, so I’ve always been the one standing up. But you’re obviously way stronger than me, so you should be the one to hold my legs. I even remembered to wear contacts so my glasses don’t go flying off my face.”

Using that last comment as an excuse to examine his face, I reach out and brush my thumb along his cheekbone. His eyes lock on mine. “I noticed you did that,” I tell him. “And it was smart. But I’ve got to admit, I really like you in your glasses.”

“You do?” he breathes out.

“Mmhmm.”

I don’t know what possessed me to say that, only that it’s the truth. Sure, I like being able to look into his eyes without anything in the way, which is something I’ve learned by spending time with him at night after he’s taken his glasses off. But glasses suit his face well.

Thankfully, before I fall under a trance and start confessing all the other things I really like about him, Roddy yells into his stupid megaphone for everyone to get into position. This also leaves me no time to consider how ridiculous the event is going to be and decide to bail out.

I don’t want to bail on Brenden. But fucking hell, I don’t want to do a damn wheelbarrow race either. I know so many people are probably already laughing at me for participating. It’ll be a miracle if no one takes any pictures to send to my dad.

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