Page 63 of Merry Mayhem
“Sorry about that,” Thea says from beside me as we watch Patty and Muriel walk away, already bickering about how Patty should have definitely been able to play that song on the xylophone and how Patty hasn’t played a xylophone in forty years, so how was she supposed to do that, and how neither has Muriel, but she did it.
“Don’t be,” I say. “Muriel’s great.”
Thea lifts a brow. “Now Iknowyou’re too good a guy to be real.”
I move closer to her. “I’mveryreal, Thea. Want me to prove it?”
She takes a deep breath. “Yes.”
I lean in.
But she steps back. “But you can’t.”
Right.
Fuck.
This shouldn’t be so hard to remember.
“Come on!” Bruce calls us. “Lunch at our place!”
Thea looks relieved.
“You don’t have to seem so happy not to be alone with me,” I say with a chuckle.
“We just can’t be late for the next challenge,” she says as she starts walking.
“Would we be?” I ask.
She looks back over her shoulder. “Oh, yes.”
Two and a half more days. I just have tonotgrab her and kiss her in front of this entire town for two and a half more days.
They’re going to be the longest of my life.
Lunch is nearly as chaotic as everything else has been today.
Bruce has a buffet of sandwich fixings, a few sides like chips, pasta salad, and fruit, along with various Christmas treats—fudge, cookies, and chocolate-dipped pretzels—laid out. But he and Harley are getting ready to leave.
Bebe and Eli have returned from visiting Violet at the hospital. Now Harley and Bruce are going to sit with her.
I feel a stab of guilt as they fill us in on the doctor’s report.
“She’s doing great. They’re going to wake her up soon,” Bebe says with a wide smile. “All of her vitals are strong and stable.”
That’s great to hear, of course. I knew she’d be fine, but it’s great to hear her progress. But I have to force a little extra enthusiasm into my tone. “That’s amazing,” I say. “I’ll go up later after the ornament hunt.”
I have to, right?
“Oh no, you need to stay here,” Bebe says. “They might have a surprise challenge.”
“Another?” I ask. “We just did one this morning.”
Bebe and Bruce both nod. “You never know. You really should stay just in case.”
I look at Thea. She looks confused, too. “There’s never more than one surprise challenge a day,” she says.
“Oh, sure. They did that three years ago,” Bruce says, looking to Harley for confirmation.
