Page 30 of Better Hate than Never

Kate grins wickedly. “IloveO’Reilly family reunions.”

“Someone lost afingerat the last one,” Bea reminds her.

“Eh. They’ve got nine more,” Kate says, plucking a cashew from a nearby dish and tossing it in her mouth. “The fireworks got a little out of hand. It happens.”

Bea laughs disbelievingly, then turns back to Bianca. “You’re not misremembering. Sequence is usually pretty tame. We just tend to get carried away on game night.”

Jamie clears his throat. “I read an article recently about the mental health benefits of play in adulthood. Board games were specifically mentioned.”

“Really?” Margo grumbles, playing a card and setting a chip in no-man’s-land. “Because this feels like the time I drove throughthe car wash and only too late realized my windows were stuck halfway down.”

Sula laughs. “You’re just a sore loser.”

“I’m shit at board games!” Margo protests. “I wanna dophysicalthings, blow off some steam, not sit on my ass and get it whupped at board games. Let’s go ax throwing—”

“No!” Jamie and I yell. Kate would kill me with her first throw and Bea would take off someone’s arm.

“What about paintball?” Bea asks.

Jamie gives her a look I can’t read.

“Not sure you can do that this time of year,” Sula says, “given it’s outdoorsy, but I honestly don’t enjoy anything that involves even a facsimile of a firearm.”

“True that.” Hamza lifts his beer.

A chorus ofsames echoes around the table.

“Ooh,” Toni says, slapping down his cards. “I just remembered, I saw something recently about a new paintball place. It’s supposed to be play focused and nonviolent.”

“Nonviolent?” Hamza sounds skeptical. “But it’s...paintball.”

“Well, relatively nonviolent, at least,” Toni concedes. He pulls out his phone, tapping open a web browser and typing quickly. After a beat, his eyes scanning the screen, he says, “How cool is this? Biodegradable paintballs that you throw freehand or you can use slingshots to launch them. Peace, Love, and Paintball. It’s an indoor-outdoor space, so they run it all year long. We could go anytime.”

“I’m in!” Margo hollers.

Jamie grimaces. “It soundsextremelymessy.”

Bea’s eyes glow. “It soundsamazing.”

“We should do it!” Bianca says.

“I’m in, too,” Nick tells her.

Kate glares death at him.

“Hey.” I knock her knee under the table. “Take it easy. Despite his proximity to me, he’s a good guy.”

Her lip curls, her eyes still on Nick. “I swear to God, if he messes with her, a bad haircut is going to be the least of his worries.”

“Ah, nice. Judging someone’s character by their appearance.”

“I’m not—” Kate’s cut off as a cascade of beer sloshes onto her shirt and mine, too.

“Sorry!” Bea says, picking up an empty pint glass that up until seconds ago was holding Jamie’s beer. “I didn’t even see it there and just knocked it right over.”

Kate and I stand simultaneously, flicking beer off our hands.

“It’s fine, BeeBee,” Kate says.

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