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When Kate accepted the invite to the little fundraiser, none of what she’d found was what she’d imagined. She hadn’t really spent a great deal of social time, who was she kidding, any time at all with the ultra wealthy, and as soon as she’d turned onto the road that led to the driveway that led to the most beautiful massive white house she’d ever seen, her palms began to sweat and a nest of fledgling birds began flapping around in her stomach. She was most likely seriously very much in over her head. And yet, inside, everyone was as casual and friendly as if she’d walked into a sorority house. From the house to the outdoor games to the barn, every interaction with the Baron family surprised her.
Understanding why people used the expression cow eyes, she gave the little calf one last scratch under her chin and followed Craig to the horse’s stall. When he pulled the door open to expose a large reddish horse and the cutest little mirrored image of her, she almost squealed with delight. “Isn’t she pretty.”
“Yes. They both are.”
Craig attached some contraption to the small horse’s head with a rope to help lead her by. The walk to the petting zoo area was a short one. Briefly, they made the rounds to the different animals. There were little pigs that were beyond precious when they squealed, the baby cow and horse, a few rabbits, goats, and the sweetest looking lambs. “Are these all from the ranch?”
“No. We’re limited to cattle and a few horses. The rest are on loan.”
As they walked along from booth to booth, Kate was quickly educated in the size of the Baron clan. So far every single booth was manned by a sibling or a cousin. The odd thing was, by the time she was done meeting everybody, she could tell which siblings were from which clan. Craig and his family all had similar features with varying shades of chestnut hair. On the other hand, his cousin Devlin and his sister Leah along with other siblings, Rachel, Cooper and Claire all had sandy blond hair and mostly green eyes.
From what she could tell as the crowds grew, the Baron family were either manning the booths, or spending the money. The ticket price to play corn hole was only a dollar, but Craig and his cousin Porter had each slapped $100 bill on the counter. She made a good living, but dropping $100 bill on a carnival game was a bit outside her budget.
For their next stop they wandered over to the horseshoes. Instead of his cousin Porter, it was Craig and another cousin, Porter’s brother Colton, competing, and once again a hundred dollars was at stake. After a few tosses she’d finally understood the expression close only counts in horseshoes. She had no idea which one of the two men was the more competitive, but when Craig’s cousin made the game-winning toss, he crowed like a preening peacock.
“You pick next.” Craig stopped walking and waited for Kate’s response.
She took a minute to survey the grounds and truthfully she was always the one who held the handbags, balloons, and snacks while her friends rode the roller coaster or played the arcade games. Judging by the obvious competitive history that ran in the Baron family, she wasn’t all that sure she wanted to play against Craig or any of his family. “Too bad y’all didn’t put up a bowling alley. That I could probably do.”
“You like to bowl?”
“Used to love it. In high school my friends and I would hit the alley every Sunday afternoon. I wasn’t headed to the pros, but I really enjoyed it. And for the most part, kept the ball out of the gutter, too.” Still scanning the horizon, she wasn’t sure what to choose, and then she saw it. A dunking booth. Whenever she’d seen a watery tank in a movie or TV show, she’d thought it looked like fun. Maybe it was a deep down need to get out her frustrations with the crazy rules in the world, but she really wanted to try. And who knows, maybe her corn hole tossing skills would roll over into ball pitching skills. “Is that a relative in the dunking booth?”
Craig followed the direction her hand was pointing and slowly his eyes lit up and his smile brightened. “Oh, yeah. That’s Adam. I can’t believe someone talked my straight laced actuary cousin into sitting in the dunking booth.” He turned back to face her. “You any good?”
She shrugged. “Don’t know. I’ve never tried.”
“If you’re half as good at the dunking booth as you are with corn hole, this is going to be epic.”
Quickly linking his arm with hers, he practically dragged her across the way to where his cousin sat on the bench over a still pool of water. “Hundred dollars for the fundraiser and another hundred to your favorite charity if you can drop Adam into the water.”
She had a feeling this was a little more of that friendly, loving, teasing, or at least she hoped so. Craig paid his sister Eve, who was collecting the money and handing out the softballs. Kate had thought the balls would be something designed to be a little heavier, but at least with the larger ball she stood a better chance of hitting the bull’s-eye.
Holding the ball in her right hand to get a feel for it, she concentrated on the metal tab. In school, the PE coaches always told the students whether playing tennis or baseball or field hockey to keep their eyes on the ball. Hopefully, the same held true for the dunking booth tab. Staring intently, she pressed her lips together, raised the ball high behind her and let it fly. Even though she’d missed it by a mile, Craig had grinned and cheered. “Great throw. You got this.”
Clearly, she wasn’t as convinced of her skill sets as he was. Shifting her weight onto her right leg, once again she stared down the bull’s-eye, refused to blink, and heaved the ball across the booth. Another miss.
“That’s okay. You’re just finding your groove.” Craig smiled at her. “You’ve got this.”
She wished she had as much confidence in herself as he seemed to have. At least she had three more balls to toss. Lord, how embarrassed was she going to be to have missed the tank five times by a mile.
Leaning over the counter, Eve curled her finger at Kate and lowered her voice. “You might want to shift a little to your right. You seem to have a bit of a hook.”
“A hook.” She nodded. “Got it. Thanks.”
Eve glanced over her shoulder at her cousin and then turning back to Kate, flashed a bright smile. “You got this.”
She really wished everyone would stop saying that. Moving a few short steps to her right, she tossed the ball slightly in the air and caught it a couple of times, pretending to get a feel for the weapon of choice, but really praying for inspiration, or a sudden gift of a professional pitching arm. Muttering to herself,here goes nothing, she once again let the ball fly from her fingertips.
Only this time, the ball appeared to be sailing straight toward the bull’s-eye. Curving slightly to the left, she found herself leaning with the ball, her hands clasped as if in prayer, when the large white orb connected with the metal tab. A bell clanged. The boards dropped out from under Craig’s cousin and the cocky grin slid from Adam’s face at the same time he collapsed into the water.
“I did it!” Gushing with excitement at her unexpected accomplishment, she spun around and threw her arms around Craig. Repeating her triumphant cry, “I really did it!”
Slowly, Craig’s arms wrapped around her waist as he muttered softly near her ear, “Yes. You. Did.”
Chapter Seven
Kate had no idea why she’d bothered going to bed early last night. She might as well have sat up watching infomercials. Maybe then the boredom would have knocked her out. Instead she rolled out of bed at the first sign of morning light and spent the next hour sipping coffee and staring into her closet.
