Page 53 of Miss Humbug
“Sure, sure.” Marlowe flit a hand in the air. “A physical competition is great. We have an edge. The main thing I do for fun outside of work is working out.”
“That still has the wordworkin it.”
“Okay, exercising. Fitness.”
“Fitness for fun?” I scrunched my face to get a reaction out of her. She swatted me.Score.
“You’re fit. You’re telling me you don’t work out?” She pressed her gloved hand against my upper arm. She made a low murmur as she ran her hand along the muscle. “You’re sturdy, Sawyer.”
She had no idea what she was doing to me. My body ran hot already, and I’d be steaming before too long. “I do farm work. I don’t exactly need a bicycling class to stay in shape.” Never mind the part where I lifted free weights in my apartment living room.
“You mean spinning class?” She grinned at me. “Regardless, it’s impressive.”
Me—impressive. Marlowe Holly thought me—my body—was impressive. If high school me could time travel and see this moment, maybe I wouldn’t have been so mopey over her junior and senior year.
This was pure torture, in the best way. It took everything I had not to kiss her again. Heck,she’d kissed me. But I wasn’t stupid. In her own time, she’d let me know if she was ready for more. And in my own time, I’d tell her about our unofficial land use.
At the moment, I needed to focus. We needed to score big points today. Points, land, farm. Those were my goals.
A team could mean any arrangement of contestants, so ours included two friends I’d recruited for the weekend. Here they were now, right on time.
“Marlowe, this is Megan and you know Nick already. Nick Bennington. They’re visiting from Chicago.”
Nick, tall like me but more broad shouldered, looked like the lead in one of those holiday romance movies. He’d be the one cast to work at the tree farm in the movie version of my life. And he’d already won over the city girl too. He just became a city guy instead of sticking around the small town.
Nick gestured to Marlowe. “Marlowe Holly? I haven’t seen you since high school graduation.”
“Hey, Nick. Nice to see you.” Her cheeks colored at the attention. Or maybe it was the brisk air. “To be clear, we’re here to beat the stuffing out of my family.”
He nodded. “Understood.”
“Oh, you’re a Holly?” Megan asked. She wore a knit cap with a fuzzy ball on top and winter clothes fresh from an outdoor gear store. Her pale skin looked like she stayed away from harsh weather elements. “My parents talk about the Holly family like they run this town.” She jabbed Nick with her elbow. “The Hollys might even be more popular than the Benningtons.”
“Don’t remind me.” Marlowe laughed, but the sound came strained.
“We all have family identities to outgrow, right?” I offered.
Marlowe winced. Megan bit her lip, looking between us. Nick jogged in place, oblivious or ignoring the tension. I admired his commitment.
“Nick’s mom is the mayor,” I filled in for Marlowe’s sake.
Her eyes lit with understanding. “Oh. I didn’t realize. Or remember. I mean, she wasn’t mayor when I last lived here.”
“I managed to offend Nick’s mom and half the town at a charity event last year.” Megan tugged down the sides of her knit cap. “I had my own family stuff going on and blurted out something so clueless. Anyway, I’m here to rock this competition.” She held up her fist for a bump and Marlowe met the request.
The tense vibe disappeared. “Awesome. Same.”
A whistle blew and we were directed to the obstacle course, which included physical challenges like a tire run and a short climbing wall.
Marlowe squinted into the distance. “Is that a Christmas tree? On an obstacle course?”
“It’s Holly Days,” I reminded her. “Everything has a holiday twist.”
She growled.
“It’s cute,” Megan said. “It looks like there’s a box of decorations next to each tree. So we have to decorate it before we move on to the next obstacle.”
“Listen up,” a bald Black man wearing a Holly Days Family Fest Crew vest announced. “The team splits for each obstacle run. Tag off when you complete your leg of the race.”
