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Owen watched them scurry away, and remained motionless in the doorway. I looked back over my shoulder to see my mom and Amelia poking their heads out of the kitchen door with the same sneaky smiles on their faces. I rolled my eyes at them and made my way over to Owen.
“Hey,” he said as soon as I was close enough to hear him whisper. “These are for you guys.”
I took the bottles from his hands and gave him a smile. I wanted to lean in and kiss him, but I was certain there were peering eyes watching us intently, waiting for something to happen.
“Come in,” I said, pushing the door open wider with my foot.
He stepped inside and glanced over at the long table, covered with food, drinks, and decorations.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding about the food.”
“We take our food very seriously around here. I thought you’d know that by now.”
“You know, despite all the holidays we spent together as kids, I don’t think we ever had New Year’s Eve together.”
“Really? That can’t be true.”
“I tried to think of one, but I didn’t come up with anything,” he said.
“How is that possible? I swear, you are in, like, all of my holiday memories growing up.”
“Well, I guess it’s time to make some new memories,” he said with a quick wink.
I felt my cheeks turn pink, but I shouldn’t have been surprised about that. He made me blush constantly. Far more than anyone else ever had. And though it was a little embarrassing, it was also pretty delightful.
“Okay, everyone!” Taylor called from the top of the stairs. “Time for Harris-ball!”
The kids started cheering and everyone began racing around to find their supplies. Laila and Cora acted as if they knew exactly what was going on, but Owen stood in the middle of the living room like a deer in headlights.
“What is Harris-ball?” he asked frantically.
“It’s basically mini golf. But also a little bit like volleyball and monopoly. Oh, it’s also a drinking game for the adults.”
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
“You’re going to be completely lost. It’s okay, you can be on my team.”
I grabbed Owen’s hand and dragged him to the corner of the room where there was a dwindling pile of mini golf clubs on the floor. I handed him the yellow one, and I took the teal one, which wasalwaysmy club.
I made my way to the starting line which was, in this case, a row of toys that one of the kids had lined up. Owen followed and stood timidly next to me behind the line. He glanced around nervously, as if he was preparing for battle, and not for a silly made-up game.
“Just follow my lead,” I instructed.
He gave a short nod and then Taylor announced that the game had begun. On the count of three, the adults all took a shot of their preferred beverage, and the children started running in every direction.
Owen looked at me, clearly horrified and confused, but all I could do was laugh, because he had no idea what he was in for. Somehow Laila and Cora were figuring it out just fine, but Owen appeared to need a little bit more assistance.
“I have absolutely no idea what’s happening," he said.
“It’s a made-up game with made-up rules, “I told him, “so, don’t worry if you don’t catch on right away.”
I grabbed Owen‘s hand and ran across the room to where a stack of golf balls were laying on the floor.
“Okay, so this part is basically like pool,” I told him.
“Pool? You didn’t tell me pool was involved in this game.”
“Just assume that this game involves all the other games,” I said with a laugh.
