Page 62 of Finding You

“Me? No,” she replied with a hearty laugh. “Definitely not.”

“How come? It’s a great game!”

“I have a huge fear of getting hit in the face with the ball. And before you ask, yes, it’s happened before. More times than you think. Plus, I suck at it. When the ball isn’t hitting me directly in the face, I’m usually missing it, so…”

“So…that’s a hard no, then. Good to know.”

“Definitely a hard no.” Letting out a long sigh, she looked toward the house.

“Are you okay?”

Turning her head, she looked at him, but her smile seemed a little sad. “I’m just…I’m not used to all of this–the togetherness all the time. I never had a circle of friends who did everything together. I’ve spent more time with Ashlynn and Avery in the last week than I’ve spent with some friends I’ve had since middle school.”

“I get that, but…it’s not a bad thing, right? Because if you’re not comfortable, we don’t have to stay. Hell, no one really knows we’re here so…”

She looked out the window and shook her head. “Avery’s waving wildly right now, so…”

“So they know we’re here,” he finished for her. “Okay, but that still doesn’t mean we have to stay. We can go out there, stay for an hour, and then go. It’s totally up to you. If you want to stay, we’ll stay, but if you want to go, we’ll go.”

“I guess.”

“How about we come up with a code word?”

The look she gave him was full of confusion. “A code word?”

He nodded. “Yup. A word that doesn’t sound so wildly out of place, but one that if you say it, I’ll know it means you want to leave. Then I’ll make up the excuse and get us out of here.”

“Devin,” she whined. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I’ll be fine. I swear. Let’s just…let’s do this.”

“Pineapple.”

Now she looked at him like he was crazy. “Excuse me?”

“Pineapple,” he repeated. “That’s our codeword. If you say pineapple, I’ll know it’s time to go.”

“I doubt it will come to that.”

Together, they climbed out of his truck and grabbed the food before making their way to where everyone was hanging out. There were easily twenty to thirty people mingling in the massive yard, and it took almost an hour to walk around and chat with everyone before they started serving food.

There were hamburgers and hot dogs, grilled corn on the cob, barbecue chicken and ribs, and about a hundred different side dishes. Everyone had brought something and the tables were overflowing with food. They had made themselves a couple of plates before joining Ashlynn, Reid, Avery, and Leo at one of the many tables.

“I almost feel bad missing out on the festival today,” Avery said. “I know we’ve seen and done everything, but it feels wrong that we’re not there.”

“We’re going back tomorrow,” Leo assured her. “It’s been fun, but this is much better. No traffic, no fighting for a parking space, and no waiting in line for everything.”

“Except the food,” Reid said. “We’ve got enough people here that there were some waits to get a burger.”

“I can’t believe Jade threw all this together on such short notice. When we were all together last night watching the fireworks, she never mentioned anything about this,” MacKenzie commented.

“I think Silas was getting a little overstimulated,” Ashlynn explained. “This was a good compromise where they could still have some fun without dealing with all the noise and the crowds. But like Leo said, we’ll all be back there tomorrow for the big finale.”

“I heard they might have some big-name performer doing a show tomorrow night!” Avery said. “Did anyone else hear that? Who do you think it could be?”

“I can’t imagine it’s anyone really big,” Ashlynn countered. “There’s no way they could pull something like that off. And besides, this is a little mountain town ski resort, not Las Vegas, for crying out loud. It’s not like Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran would want to come here.”

“Hey, you don’t know that,” Reid teased with a wink.

“Whoever it is, I’m sure it will be good,” MacKenzie added. “The sound was phenomenal last night.”

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