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“Sounds like it’s on.” I hope my flushed face doesn’t betray anything.
Beatrix raises her eyebrows when she looks my way, but then she turns toward the kitchen.
“Daddy, I don’t need a bedtime. I’m not tired.”
“That may be, but if you’re in bed before eight, I bet Ruby will read you an extra story.”
Fiona turns to Ruby, who nods. “It’s a deal.”
Beatrix rolls an easel with a large pad of paper onto the deck. She juggles a handful of pens and a box of Pictionary words.
Dash follows her out with another open bottle of white wine and a pitcher of water. “Okay people, be prepared to get trounced.”
“Ha. You might want to save your trash-talking since we already know you can’t draw.” Beatrix, the only one of us with any artistic skill at all, bumps her hip into Dash, sending him off balance.
“I can draw.” He sounds less convincing, but my youngest brother hardly lacks for confidence. Ask any woman he’s ever dated. And there are many.
Everyone drops onto the picnic table bench or into the chairs that surround a firepit on the deck. Dash turns the gas on, and orange flames dance up through the piled volcanic stones.
Colin takes a seat in one of the Adirondacks with an empty chair next to it, and his eyes dart to mine. I shake my head and take a seat on the bench. His mere proximity sends fire throughmy veins, and there’s no way I can play that off in front of my siblings.
Dash pulls the first card and tells us the rules of the game. He starts drawing something that looks like a baseball bat. The guesses start flying. “Casey at the Bat.” “Batman.” “Bad News Bears.”
“No. You’re not looking at it right,” Dash grumps, drawing tiny circles around the bat.
“Spaceballs?” Colin guesses.
“Yes! Thank you! This is why we need people outside the damn family at these things.”
Jackson rolls his eyes. “I’ve never even heard of that movie.”
“Mel Brooks. It’s a classic,” Colin says, somehow not sounding like he’s bragging that he got it right.
Dash walks over and high-fives Colin. “Damn straight it is.” He hands over the blue marker he used to draw it and rips the page from the easel, revealing a clean sheet.
Colin looks down at the marker in his hand as though he’s never seen a pen before and has no idea what it does.
“You’re next,” Dash says helpfully. He holds out the box of cards, but Colin looks like he’s glued to his chair.
“C’mon, man. You’re up.” Archer’s encouragement sounds like a dare.
Expression grim, Colin pushes his body from the slanted seat of the chair like a man headed for an execution rather than a friendly game. He really doesn’t like to do things if he doesn’t know he’s good at them. It softens his otherwise brilliant capability in nearly everything and makes me like him even more. I feel a warm twinge of protectiveness over him. But I also want to see what he’ll draw.
Colin picks a card from the deck and studies it, his face stoic. He tips his head to Beatrix to start the timer and puts the blue marker against the white sheet. For a second, he does nothing.Then he sweeps a long motion across the page and draws what looks like a wing. Then he draws an arrow pointing on top of it. The guesses start flying. “On Wings of Eagles,” Beatrix guesses.
Jackson points at the board. “Wingman.”
He doesn’t react, just stares calmly at the page, thinking. Then he draws a small image of what looks like a tall triangle divided in two with twigs sticking out at the bottom on opposite sides. The guesses keep coming, and Colin stands there, shaking his head at each one.
“What the hell is that?” Archer grumbles.
“Swear jar!” Fiona’s delight at catching grownups makes it worth all the money we put in her jar.
Colin clasps his hands in front of him and waits for us to guess. No attempts to fix the drawing or embellish it. I stare at the tall triangle, which could be anything from an odd skyscraper to a rocket ship. He does spend a lot of time thinking about space, after all, but I can’t imagine what movie title relates to a rocket and a wing. “Rocketman?” I suggest weakly. Colin looks at me and shakes his head.
“How could it possibly be that?” Beatrix laughs.
“Hey, she didn’t criticize your guesses.” My eyes shoot to Colin’s, shocked that he just defended me in front of my family. No one else seems to notice.
