AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tiebreak!” calls Sophie, drawing a question card. “Okay, ready?” She reads over it and grins. “Chloe, this is one for you. What series features a green dog and his trusty train set?”
“Oh,Driver Dog!” she yells, slapping down three of her number cards to discard them, leaving me blinking stupidly.
“It’s not fair to ask questions I can’t answer,” I sulk.
But Sophie shows no sympathy, rolling her eyes at me. “Fair’s what’s on the card. I’m just the messenger.”
I make a face back at her, and she escalates it to sticking out her tongue. For just a moment, I’m so swept up in the game that I forget I’m meant to be her employer and roll my eyes back at her, like I would at a friend.
In a way, I guess she is my friend. She’s probably the person who knows me best in the world, anyway. She’s definitely the person I spend most time talking to. Truthfully, I can’t imagine what my life would be like without her.
Then cold reality snaps back to us and we sit up, shaking off the informality. I know we’re sat here playing games on the floor with kids, and I would almost call it fun, but there’s still a line that shouldn’t be crossed with regards to professionalism.
“Your roll, Chloe,” says Sophie, directing attention back to the game. Chloe picks up the dice and flings them at the board. She lands on a doozy kind of square, and I can’t help but smile.
Her luck is finally changing.
The aim of the game, as far as I can see, is to get all four of your colored pieces “home,” but along the way you get stopped by trivia questions and trap squares, plus you can sabotage your opponents too. It’s the kind of game that could easily last three and a half hours, and before I know it, I glance at my watch and realize it’s been two.
I only meant to stay for a few minutes to tell them to keep it down. Instead, here I am, screeching along with them, groaning in disappointment when Noah blasts all my pieces back to the start, and howling with the joy of revenge when I freeze all his pieces for three rounds.
As we head towards hour three, I’m on my way to victory. I don’t believe in being soft on kids to let them win; they need to learn to play smarter. I’ve got three pieces home and the last on the final stretch. I roll the dice with a flourish, certain that I only have two or three more rounds before I secure the win. I’m starting to change my mind — board gamescanbe fun.
And that’s when Chloe pulls a card, answers the question, and uses a swap to launch herself into the lead. And to rub salt into the wound, she gets another roll and slides her fourth piecehome with a flourish of the wrist. The smile she gives me is the smuggest thing I have ever, ever seen.
“You did good, Uncle Lucas. You tried really hard.” She bats her eyelashes sweetly, and I frown.
There’s no way I just lost to a child.
“Well, I have to go and do important stuff now,” I say, heaving myself to my feet and trying not to hobble too much despite the pins and needles that race up my leg.
“Aren’t you going to finish the game?” Sophie asks, bouncing Ava gently on her knee.
I shake my head. “It is finished. We got a winner. That’s the whole point.”
“You’re supposed to keep going until everyone’s home,” she explains, her eyebrows furrowing as she stares at me. I have no idea what there is to be confused by.
“Whatever. I’m busy,” I say, turning to go.
“If you leave, you automatically come last.”
I look back over my shoulder. “Whatever,” I grumble. Second and last are basically the same thing anyway. Neither one is winning.
As I go, I hear them all giggling and a strange, sickly feeling bubbles in my stomach that they’re laughing about me.
CHAPTER 11
SOPHIE
Ihad almost forgotten how nice lying down can be. An hour of uninterrupted bliss and I feel like a new person. It’s amazing what rest and a long, hot shower can do to make you feel human again.
It’s tempting to lie there all day, even if I am just on my laptop doing the work that Lucas thinks I’m supposed to be doing on top of childcare. But childcare must be done and so I force myself out of the wonderfully plush bathroom towel and into some casual clothes. I run a brush through my hair, stick my tongue out at myself in the mirror, and head back out into the living room.
It's suspiciously quiet in there but I can hear the TV, so I assume that no one has died. Not that the TV being on really does mean that, but I guess at least it makes me feel secure that the children are occupied.
As I get closer, I can hear them having a conversation in hushed tones.
“It’s obvious,” Chloe is saying, “that Uncle Lucas is really lonely. It’s like he’s got no one to play with. He’s sad and it makes him super grumpy. I think we can cheer him up if we can persuade him.”
