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Rae looks at me excitedly. “Maybe we’ll be one of the winners!” she whispers.
“Maybe! But, listen, even if our cupcake didn’t make it, it’s still the best one to me. We win inmyopinion, okay?”
Eyes shining, she nods. “Okay. We win to me, too.”
I give her a thumbs-up. We tune in to instructions for the winners to go to the judge’s table when their names are called so they can have a special picture taken.
Momentarily, the names start hitting the air.
Fifth place: Lily Bennington and her daddy, Mike.
Fourth place: Elena Martinez and her Papaw.
Third place: Ruthie Alexander and her daddy, Logan.
Second place: Rae McKellar and her Uncle Landon.
I don’t hear who gets first place because holyshit!I look at Rae with wide, ecstatic eyes. She’s muffling her shrieks with both hands.
“Second place, Rae!” I exclaim as I get to my feet. “Second place!”
“Oh my gosh!” she squeaks, standing and grabbing my hand. “Oh my gosh!”
While gift certificates of some sort are passed out to everyone else, we hurry to where the other winners are congregating. When it’s time to get our picture taken, Rae wants to be held, so I pick her up, settle her on one arm, and display the cupcake on my other palm. She wraps her arms around my neck in a happy hug, and we both say, “Cheese!” for the camera.
“Congratulations, you two!” one of the judges says with a kind smile. “If you’ll leave your cupcake here again, we’ll box it up and put it with a ribbon and a ten-dollar gift card you get to take with you! We’ve got about three more songs lined up and then it’ll be time to go, so how about you finish the night off with a little more dancing?”
We go for it because sore feet and being tired can’t keep us from celebrating our win.
The last few songs pass quickly. I feel disappointed once again that the night is over, but we’ve had a great time, which is what we set out to do. Rae is eager to get home and tell Liv all about it anyway.
I can’t act like I’m not ready to see her, too, although I don’t know how long it’ll be before I wear out my welcome.
We say our goodbyes to Rae’s friends and graciously accept some congratulations on our win. I worry Abby and Bill will have hurt feelings that they only got a participation award (I’m really not sure why it was a competition, honestly), but he insists they’re in good spirits, and she’s too busy devouring her cupcake to dispute it.
“She’s my number one sweetheart no matter what,” he says with a genuine smile.
I know that feel.
Rae and I make sure we have everything from our photo booth pictures to our gift card, and then we head for the car.
After I strap her in, I get in my seat and hear her sweet voice softly say my name.
“Yeah, darlin’?” I turn to look at her and am surprised to find her eyes are shut and she looks like she’s about to doze off. She was high on joy, what, ten seconds ago?
“I love you so, so, so much.” Her words are definitely sleepy.
I smile even though she’s not looking. “I loveyouso, so, so much. Can you stay awake until we get home? Annie’s going to want to hear all about our fun night.”
She says, “Uh huh,” but five seconds don’t pass before she’s snoring lightly.
Wow. How can someone go from a hundred to zero so fast?
Chuckling to myself, I turn back around and get us going.
I, for one, am wide awake at the thought of seeing Liv again.
|| 19 || Liv-Andria
