AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Daisy lifted a shoulder in a what-can-I-say sort of way.
“Fine,” Noah said. “Bring out the board, and I’ll school her good.”
They set up the board on the porch coffee table and played while his family cheered them on. Thirty minutes later, most of the traitorous Walshes had turned Team Daisy.
She looked almost bored, beating him twice in a row. “Are you cheating?” he asked.
“No!” she said indignantly.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “Are you smart?”
She crooked an eyebrow. “You don’t have to sound so surprised.”
“Noah Lincoln Walsh!” his mother admonished. “You apologize right this instant.”
“Sorry,” Noah said. “That didn’t come out right. I just mean…Oh, never mind.”
“What? You think you’re smarter than me?”
“I didn’t say that,” Noah said defensively.
His mother glared in a way he hadn’t seen since his teens. His entire family had just watched him get his butt whipped by Daisy at chess. And now, they were on the verge of witnessing a different kind of whipping by his mom.
“I said sorry. Is it time to eat yet?” he said, attempting to change the subject. His family laughed.
“Actually, yes,” his mom said, shaking her head and giving him a look that said he would hear about this again later. “I came to ask one of you to start the grill. Everything’s ready but the meat.”
All the men but Noah screamed, “Not it!” before she’d even finished the sentence. In that nanosecond, he’d been saddled with grill duty.
“Fine,” he said, standing and stretching his legs. “Let’s get crackin’ then. I’m starving.”
Between his dad’s help and the industrial-sized grill, they had the meat cooked in under twenty minutes.
Daisy filled a plate and hunkered down at a picnic table with a couple of his sisters. Noah thought that might be dangerous. Who knew what childhood skeletons they were regaling her with. He should probably get ahead of that.
“Mind if I join you?” he asked.
Daisy sat beside Kayla. The cat curled up between them on the bench. She scooted over to make room for him.
“You just don’t want us spillin’ your secrets,” Marcy said, pointing a fork in his direction. “Don’t think we ain’t figured that out.”
“I’m sure you would never,” Noah said.
His sisters grunted their disbelief, but he didn’t move. The price for keeping his reputation intact was having to dine over conversations about canning peaches, baby barf, dog barf, and the latest low-carb diet. Daisy fit in seamlessly.
After dinner, some of his family left. Those who remained watched kids chase fireflies from rocking chairs that lined the long wrap-around porch. Kayla sat on a blanket, petting the kitten.
“She sure loves that cat,” Daisy said to Noah.
“Uh, yeah,” Noah said. “About that. I gave it to her.”
“You gave her Mr. Fluffy Pants?”
“Yes?” Noah gritted his teeth and smiled.
She rolled her eyes. “You owe me a cat,” she said, pointing a finger at his chest. “That’s not because I beat you at chess, is it?”
“Of course not. She’s so happy with it. I didn’t have the heart to tell her we’d be taking it.”
