Page 163 of Banter & Blushes

Mr. JC nodded solemnly. “She does. And as you might have guessed, she’ll be joining us there.” He grinned.

Hmm. That was interesting.

Hallie rolled her eyes.

Mr. JC laughed. “You look just like your mom when you do that.” He patted her head. “You don’t need to worry. I run this whole resort, remember? How hard can a day at the beach with sixteen kids be?”

“Jordan helps you run the resort,” Harlan clarified.

“And Mommy says he does a way better job at twenty-four years old than you did,” Hallie accused.

“She’s right. But I’m thirty-two now and a grown man.” He bent down, picked her up, and flipped her upside down. Hallie squealed like the baby piggy at the zoo!

“Put me down!” She sounded mad but she was laughing. We all were!

“Say you’re sorry for doubting my awesomeness.”

“I’m sorry!”

“And tell me I’m your favorite uncle.”

“But you’re not myrealuncle!”

“Honorary uncle counts. Say it!”

“You’re my favorite uncle!”

Mr. JC turned her right side up and set her on the ground. “Anyone else have a question?”

We were all quiet, then Archer raised his hand slowly. “Mr. JC?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m a good swimmer. I win all the races.”

“That’s great, Archer! So I know you’ll do a great job helping to keep all the kids within the ropes, and call for me or Noah if you see anyone in trouble.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Awesome.” He adjusted his visor. “If there’s no more questions, let’s go!”

We followed him and Noah on the long walk to the main lodge. It was going to take forever to get to the beach!

When we were finally buckled into the golf carts, I leaned over to whisper to Amelie. “We need to prank him.”

“Why do you want to prank my dad?” Bianca whispered. She was sitting on the other side of Amelie. We were in the back row.

I pointed to Mr. JC. He was singing along to some old song. Hallie and Harlan were riding with him in the front. “Because that’s what you do when someone new joins the team. It’s the official welcome.”

Archer turned around. He and Paisley and Nicki were in the middle row. “I’ve never heard of that. We don’t prank anyone on my teams. It’s against the rules.”

I sighed. “Camp isn’t a kids’ sport, Archer, so don’t worry. My daddy is aprofessional.And he’s the best prankster on his team. We get pranked, too. It’s all just fun.”

Archer didn’t look convinced.

Amelie backed me up. “We won’t break any rules, and we won’t hurt anybody. We can bury him in the sand and give him a mermaid tail. Or change his drinking water for ocean water.”

“Like an April fool!” Paisley shouted.

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