AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mae shot Fallon a pointed stare. “You do realize you and Ryder haven’t come up for a breath since we got here, right?”
Fallon ducked her head, but not before Ryder rubbed his hand across it, messing up her hair.
Luna grabbed a small stack of papers off the stump beside her. “Everyone gets the same list. First pair to find everything on their list wins.”
Ryder raised his hand. “Is there a prize for winning?”
Mae and Luna exchanged a mischievous look. “There is! And it’s going to be amazing!”
“Do we get to choose who we’re with?” Miller sat with his knees spread wide as he wrung his hands in front of him. I wanted to go to him and give him a hug. To take away the anxiety I could see so clearly in every roll of his shoulders or bounce of his foot. I knew it was killing him to be here. To be under the watchful eye of our friends, unable to do what he really wanted.
It was killing me too.
“Nope!” Luna punctuated the word with a loud pop, her smile looking downright sinister as she rubbed her hands and nearly danced in her place. “We’re pulling names from a hat.”
Mae pulled a wide-brimmed hat from the tent behind her and held it out to Luna. Luna waved her hands over the opening, like it was some magic trick, then reached inside and pulled out a slip of paper. “Ryder and…” She grabbed another slip. “Mysti!”
Ryder nudged Fallon off his lap and turned to me, stretching out his fist for me to bump. Trenton hugged me closer as Luna read off more names. “Mae and Carson! Miller and Trenton! And that leaves Fallon with me!”
Everyone stood and crossed the circle to their partners. But Trenton sat still, his wide smile absent from his face.
“You going to be okay?” I asked as Miller came over.
He looked up at the two of us, his attention on the point where Miller’s shoulder touched mine. He shook his head before his face melted into a half-hearted smile. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
Before I could respond, Ryder swooped in and grabbed me, throwing me over his shoulder as he yelled, “Come on, chicky! We’ve got a scavenger hunt to win!”
As my shoulders shook and my body was jostled as Ryder stomped off into the woods, I took heart in the smiles on both Miller and Trenton’s face.
