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A small squeal erupts from the direction of the construction site, and I expect to see the children who must be around somewhere. Instead, I see three enormous pigs chasing each other around piles of lumber.
"When did she get pigs?"
"I brought them to her," a short, wiry woman, with hair as white as her pale skin says proudly. "As soon as I found out our Dani was building a sanctuary farm, I borrowed a trailer and drove straight to the—"
"Aunt Annette, Grant is a forest ranger. Maybe don't tell him where you got the pigs," George tells the older woman.
"I went with her," another woman, this one a bit younger than Annette, with a pixie cut, a bronze tan, and familiar eyes, says. "Everything was entirely above board." Then she winks, and I know before she sticks out her hand to shake mine, "I'm Henrietta Weston. Dandelion's mother."
Her grip is firm and confident.
"You're much more handsome than Dandelion admitted," Henrietta says with a warm smile. "Are you as anal as she's implied?"
"Yes." I'm definitely in way over my head. "Rules are created for a reason, Ma'am. It's my job to make sure they're enforced."
She grins, her eyes lighting. "Oh, you are adorable. I think we're going to have a lot of fun with you."
Before I can figure out how to respond to that, the first team, all-woman with Dani in the lead, steps up to the small tree, and each take turns tossing it through the air.
What the actual hell have I gotten myself into?
***
Dani stares me down before dipping her head into the barrel of water and apples. Her team came in a close second to mine at the caber toss. Then her team came in first against mine at ax throwing. Then we tied for third in the shot put. I'm having a blast with George and his brothers. It's fun when we win, but it doesn't bother me if we lose.
Dani, however, seems determined to beat us, and her competitive fierceness is sexy as hell.
She pops up from the barrel, her curls plastered to her head, gasps for air, and dives back down, hands tied behind her back.
"Thirty seconds," Keating yells. He's taking this kids' game way too seriously, in my opinion. He's the one who insisted each competitor have our hands tied behind our backs, even while waiting our turn to dive, instead of just holding them in place.
Dani lifts her head with an apple clenched between her teeth and the crowd cheers.
A team mate unties her hands, and she takes a big bite of the apple with a proud grin, her eyes twinkling. She's so damn gorgeous, even with her damp curls plastered to her forehead, and I can't help smiling back.
I've been here for over an hour, participating in competitions I've never even heard of before today. I turned my phone off and I'm probably missing calls and messages, but I don't care.
Bigfoot can run free. Today, I'm having more fun than I've had in months. Maybe years.
"Forty-five seconds," Keating announces and the crowd cheers.
Everyone except Goldy, who is competing on Dani's team, and who marches up to Keating, her own stopwatch in hand. "I have thirty-eight seconds."
"Good for you," Keating says. "I'm the official timekeeper. What I say goes."
"He's right." An elderly man with graying hair and the posture of a soldier holds up his own stopwatch. "I got forty-five seconds and five milliseconds."
"They're both wrong," Henrietta says, two stopwatches around her neck and one in her hand. "I got thirty-nine seconds."
"It doesn't matter," Keating says. "I'm the official timekeeper and, according to the family bylaws, what I say takes precedence over every one of you knuckleheads."
"Send in the next victim," someone yells.
Henrietta and Goldy glare at Keating and their mouths move, but I can't hear what they're saying over the noise of the crowd. I get the impression it's not anything nice.
Keating ignores them. "Reynolds' family team, send in your first contestant."
I blow past Cody, who's supposed to be up next, for the chance to share Dani's space, even for a moment.
