Page 11 of Crash with Me

“That’s enough, you lovebirds,” Kelly says. “We have more planned this morning.”

Stacey narrows her eyes. “You have more planned?”

“Of course, we do. It is a party.”

“I thought it was bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding,” Stacey says. “And you want to spend more time together.”

“It’s bad luck to be superstitious,” Dad says. “Besides, we want this whole weekend to be a party.”

“And what would a party be without some games?” Kelly asks.

I groan inwardly. “Games?”

“That’s right.” She bats her eyes. “And I can tell the two of you are going to give us a run for our money with what I have planned.”

“This is a terrible idea.”

Heidi rolls her eyes at me. “It’s going to be fine.”

“We’re just asking for trouble.” I shake my head. “We’re going to give ourselves away.”

“You’re worrying about nothing.”

I lean my head toward hers and lower my voice. “We just met last night. Don’t you think that’s going to be pretty obvious when we’re going up against a handful of well-established couples in The Newlywed Game?”

She scoffs. “You’d be surprised how many ‘well-established couple’s’ know next to nothing about each other.”

“They probably know more than we do.”

“Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. Either way, don’t you think it’ll be more suspicious if we back out?”

My shoulders slump. Damn it all, she’s probably right. If we back out now, it’ll only draw attention. Kelly and my dad will want to know why. And considering the way I’ve crashed their wedding weekend, I doubt either of them will let it go until they’ve questioned us to death.

We might as well answer a bunch of random questions instead of being faced with real ones.

I take a deep breath. “Okay. We can do this. But maybe we should have a signal or something.”

Her eyes widen. “You want us to cheat?”

“I didn’t say cheat. Just… you know… Maybe we can give each other a hint or two.”

She clucks her tongue. “And here I was thinking you were an honest kind of guy.”

“I am honest.”

“Says the man who just proposed we play dirty.” Her lips quirk up. “It’s a good thing I’m a play-to-win kind of gal. Just follow my lead.”

We move toward the two rows of chairs lined up at the front of the hotel’s party room. Stacey, who has been drafted into playing the MC, hands each of us a white board and marker.

“Who gave you the questions?” I ask.

“Who do you think?” She rolls her eyes. “But don’t worry. I plan to go off script. Just to keep things fair.”

I smirk. “That’s my baby sister.”

“I try. Now.” She gives a nudge. “Go on and take your seat, Bro. I guess you’re supposed to sit opposite your woman.”

Following my sister’s orders, I take the only remaining seat, to my dad’s right. He gives a grunt in greeting as I make myself comfortable. Or, as comfortable as I can be with my dad still eyeing me suspiciously.

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