“Fine!” I say. “But this is for thegame.” I point to everyone. “And I may not be your direct boss, but if anyone records this, you’re fired.”
A few people laugh as Coop takes off his hat and tries to dip me. I smack his arm. “This isn’tGone with the Wind. No dips.”
“No fun is more like it,” Coop mutters, his face next to mine. He holds there, his eyes open, staring into mine with a puckish gleam.
So I press my lips on his in a peck, but Coop parts his, and that hint of heat sends a zip of electricity through my body. I push away fast.
“There. Done,” I say a little too quickly. But it’s because we’re on a deadline. Also because I don’t want to kiss him, obviously.
Coop’s face is half smirk, half … also smirk, actually.
All smirk.
There’s a click, and then a peg board drops from the ceiling. We run over to the board, where a note is dangling from one of the pegs. We all lunge for it, but Coop grabs it first.
“Five golden rings, a festive sight,
But ten rings are needed this glorious night.
Toss them true, but oh, be wise!
And the next clue will be your greatest prize.
What looks like a peg to you and me
Just may be the needed key.”
“Where are the rings?” Candace asks.
“Seriously, Candace? We clearly need to find them!” Todd shouts. “Come on!”
Coop and I both snort behind our hands.
“Come on, Candace!” Coop says to me under his breath in his best Napoleon Dynamite impression. “Gosh!”
I laugh freely as I run to find rings, getting one from around a tube-shaped present and another from an ornament on the tree. Soon, we’ve found all ten rings, and we’re standing in front of the peg board. Todd tries to put a peg directly on the board, but a buzzer sounds, and a voice like it’s from the movie says, “Don’t make me call security.”
“You have to stay behind the line,Todd,” Candace says, pointing to a bright red, sparkly line maybe six feet back from the pegboard. “And we should probably let Coop throw, considering he’s the only person here who actually knows how to throw something.”
“Loving that energy, Candace,” Coop says, making me snicker. “But I just had surgery. I know for a fact, though,that Liesel here can catch a baseball from ten feet away. One-handed.”
“I didn’t know I could hate you more,” I say with a razor-sharp grin.
“Do it!” Todd yells.
Coop gives me his widest eyes yet, and I take the rings from him. “I’ll do half, you do half,” I say. “Left-handed.”
“Don’t make me quoteThe Princess Brideto you,” he says, but he takes five of the rings from me.
And we throw.
We both land our first ones quickly. Right-handed, I’m better than Coop is, but he’s still weirdly good with his left hand.
“Why are you giving me that look?” he asks, tossing a ring. He misses but mine lands. “Nice one,” he says.
“There’s nolook,” I say. “And if there is, it’s a gloating look because I’m better than you.”
He grins and tosses another ring. He’s not threatened by me at all. Not by my baseball knowledge or my intelligence, and not by the fact that I’m beating him in a ring toss game, even if he’s not using his dominant hand.
