Page 137 of Falling Back to You

A soft blush bloomed in her cheeks. I went to steal a kiss, but she stopped me with a hand to my stomach, and sue me if I flexed just a tiny bit. That blush deepened. Score. “How are you with a map, Romeo?”

“Better than Paisley.” I winked at my sister-in-law.

Paisley adjusted her glasses with a sigh. “Everyone is better than me, but I married a regular Lewis and Clark, so I’d say I have the upper hand now.”

Greyson chuckled. “Let’s go, love.”

“You two competing as a team?” I eyed Brooks and Jamie.

“Yup.” Jamie slung an arm around Brooks’s shoulders. “And we’re gonna win. I can feel it.”

Brooks snorted, giving his best friend a shove. “No, that’s me poking you in the ribs. Unless destiny has bony fingers.”

We took our exits and pulled out our phone timers.

“You ready for this?” I asked Noelle.

“Bring it on.”

“On your mark, get set, go!” Juliet hollered, and we all plunged into the maze.

There was something invigorating about testing your survival skills. True, we were never more than ten minutes away from fresh water and deep-fried snacks, but those tall corn stalks were a veritable jungle. And we were a tall bunch. Even Myles, the tallest of us all at six-six, couldn’t see over the scarecrow wannabes waving in the wind.

“This way.” I tugged Noelle down a path to the left.

“You’re leading us in circles!” a disgruntled Jamie grumbled from somewhere to our right.

“Well, if someone had learned how to read a compass, I wouldn’t be! Did they not teach you geography in Canada?” Brooks retorted.

“All right, Wonder Boy, you try reading the compass.”

Noelle slapped her hand to her mouth, shoulders shaking in laughter. “Can you read a compass? Or are you too chicken to ask for directions?”

“Real men don’t need to ask for directions.”

She groaned. “Not again. You got us lost in Seattle that one time, and we nearly ended up in British Columbia—without passports.”

“It was an adventure, Holiday.” I grinned. “I use GPS when needed.”

“So mature of you.”

“Thanks for noticing. Now”—I urged her forward—“we have a contest to win.”

She ducked under a drooping, top-heavy stalk. “I didn’t catch the prize.”

“Bragging rights.”

“That tracks. Your sibling rivalry is unmatched.” She hip-checked me to the right when we came to a fork. “We’re heading south.”

Rustling steps echoed behind us, and Greyson and Paisley stumbled out on the path we’d just come from.

Greyson scowled at me, his eyes narrowing in concentration. “C’mon, Pais, we got this.”

Paisley scampered after him as they took the opposite path we did.

“You’re on!” I hollered after them, and hurried down the dirt path. We would totally beat them.

“Cal, wait!” Noelle panted behind me. “I can’t—”