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Eva flashed a smile at me as she picked up a compliant duck for one of the runners to hold. “You’re not a failure.”
“I’m not a winner either. Unlike D, who is good at everything. College was supposed to be my chance to separate from his sphere of influence, but it turns out I make bad decisions when left to my own devices.”
Eva returned the duck and thanked the guy for his donation before responding. “From where I’m standing, you make great decisions. After the dorm incident—” I was grateful for her restraint in describing the fire. “You chose to take the best option given you and continue college. You’re making an active effort to befriend us even though I know it has to be hard to come in after the fact. Just so you know, none of us see you as the second-string Asher.”
Tears pricked my eyes, but I blinked them away. Eva saw a lot more than I gave her credit for. “Thanks, though I think you’re a little biased. As for college, I’m drifting because I’m not sure what I want to do with my life. Not everyone has a clear path like all of you do. A communications degree may seem generic, but it gives me a broad starting point in finding a career. As for staying in school, I’m not interested in throwing my future away because of a stupid mistake, which is why my new life plan involves avoiding future mistakes.”
She raised a brow. “How’s that going for you?”
I shrugged. “Not bad. Ninety-three days fire free.”
“On the plus side, if youdolight something on fire, we have a whole ass pond right here to put it out.” She gestured at the duck pen, setting off another round of quacking.
The ringleader duck waddled right up to the edge of the pen where Eva stood and tried to knock it over with his face. I had no idea how to determine a duck’s sex, but Eva tended to have this effect on males. Probably a boy.
I tilted my head at the little duck trying his hardest to get to Eva. “We should name him.”
She used her leg to keep the pen upright, and he promptly cuddled up next to her ankle through the mesh. “Weshould notname him.”
I grinned. “He looks like a Henry.”
“I didn’t sign up for this,” she cursed under her breath, shoring up the sagging side.
Neither did I, but here we were—working through my issues on a sunny morning surrounded by besotted waterfowl.
9
“Dammit, Henry, get back here.”
I nearly tripped on my own feet as Chloe’s voice reached me. Mac, Shaw, RJ, and I were working on some dynamic stretches in the warm-up area, but I hadn’t seen her. I’d looked.
“Anyone seen Eva and Chloe?”
Mac nudged my arm and jerked his chin toward a rowdy crowd gathered around one of the booths. Something told me Chloe would be in the center of all that attention.
“How did you get involved in this again?” I asked him.
“Class project. My group decided to run a charity event.”
I frowned. “You helped organize this whole thing?”
He laughed and pulled his leg up behind him in a quad stretch, making his eye-searing neon pink shorts ride up to indecent levels. “Nah, we’re doing a fictional event based on this one. The Lucky Duck people were nice enough to let us sit in on their planning.”
I stopped scanning the crowd for ten seconds to stare at him. “Classes just started. When did you have time to sit in on event planning?”
“Well, not me specifically. Madison sat in on the meetings and took notes. You know how group projects work. Everyone takes a part of the project.”
“What part did you do?”
He switched legs, reminding me of a flamingo. “I suggested the 5K. That way I could show off what I do best while also helping animals.”
I shook my head at him and started toward the chaos. “I’m going to check on the girls.”
“Tell Eva I said lunch is on her if I win.” Mac saluted me and hopped over to harass RJ.
I definitely was not passing along Mac’s message. Eva had no problem taking out the messenger if she didn’t like the message.
One of the benefits of being bigger than everyone else was people tended to move out of the way without being asked. I waded through the crowd with little effort and finally found Chloe, laying on her stomach in the grass as she glared into the gap between the cloth tent walls.
