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“Exactly!” Sabrina said as if Avery had made her point for her.
In college, if one of them called Yahtzee, the other had to do whatever was asked of them. Avery couldn’t remember the exact origin of Yahtzee, but she did know they’d come up with it during Sophomore year when they were drunk and playing the popular dice game. The only rule in their Yahtzee was it could only be called once a year.
Avery had used it to get Sabrina to go volunteer with her at a retirement home, visit a museum, and attend a Michael Bolton concert.
Sabrina had used it to make Avery do the Underwear Run, get a nose piercing, and go to a midnight screening ofThe Rocky Horror Picture Showdressed as Tim Curry’s character Dr. Frank-N-Furter, garters and all.
Logically, she knew that she was an adult and Sabrina calling Yahtzee didn’t obligate Avery to go to the mud pit challenge. But when Sabrina was around, logic went out the window.
* * *
The sun was beating down on Keaton as he stood behind Zara and waited to hear what the challenge of the day was. Yesterday, the couples had to fight to the “death” in a game of lake jousting. The women, who were on the shoulders of the men, were armed with inflatable flumes. They had to hit each other, and the last woman standing—not in the water—was crowned the winner.
Zara was a beast and the last lady standing. They took home the third consecutive win, which meant they were currently the undefeated champions. The title had definitely put a bullseye on their backs in a few of the other contestant’s eyes. Namely Harlan and Vic. Keaton wasn’t sure if it was because they wanted to win the show, or if they were just used to being top dog.
So far, he hadn’t minded being matched with Zara. She’d played the game exactly how she told him she would. When the cameras were on, or people were around, she laid on the flirting thick and was very affectionate. The few times the cameras were off and they were alone, she’d been all business.
She’d already started a few minor fights and then resolved them within hours. The first time she’d gotten upset had taken him completely by surprise. They’d been at breakfast, and she’d started crying. He’d asked her what was wrong, and she’d asked him if he had anything he needed to tell her. He’d stared at her blankly for several seconds before saying that he didn’t. Then, she’d started crying and told him that she knew that he’d chosen to write Ariel’s name on his card.
He'd just stared at her blankly, not sure where the outburst was coming from since they weren’t even real partners.
She’d cried and demanded, “Just behonestwith me.”
That jogged his memory of the conversation they’d had in the bathroom, and he realized what she was doing.
“Yes, I did,” he’d told her honestly.
“I knew it.” She stood from the table in tears and Piper and Sierra followed behind her to console her.
He had to hand it to her, she really did know what she was doing. And he respected the fact that her reason for doing it was to put her sisters through college. He was pretty sure Zara was going to attain world domination. Using her powers for good and not evil was the only hope for humanity.
Keaton had to admit, he was having more fun on the show than he’d thought he would. The only thing that was bothering him was that he hadn’t seen Avery since the night she’d caught him and Zara coming out of the bathroom together. He wasn’t sure if she was keeping her distance on purpose, or if she’d just been busy and hadn’t been out of her office much.
He had been worried that she might have left town, but earlier that morning he’d seen Jacob and Avery’s mom picking flowers in front of the carriage house, so he knew that she was still there.
It was driving him crazy that he couldn’t just go and see her, to talk to her. He’d tried, several times, to sneak away and go to her office. But he’d gotten caught. Since being matched up, the schedule had gotten a lot busier. The only time he had alone was when the guys were all waiting for the women to get ready for the day or for cocktail hour. But Heather had been camped outside the holding area and hadn’t fallen for it when he said he needed to go get air. She’d gone with him.
He'd thought about writing Avery a note to give to Ivy or Iris to pass to her. But he didn’t want what he had to tell her, which was that he and Zara weren’t really a couple and she’d only chosen him because hewasn’tinterested in her, written down anywhere.Hedidn’t care about getting in trouble. He just didn’t want to fuck up Zara’s chances for winning.
So he’d just been biding his time and waiting for the moment when he could slip away unnoticed. He didn’t even know if Avery would care that his and Zara’s relationship was fake, but he had to tell her. He needed her to know.
Marcus, one of the PAs walked in front of a mud pit and lifted a bull horn to his mouth, which was overkill since they were all standing ten feet away from him.
“Okay, today’s challenge is going to be tug-of-war bracket elimination. Keaton and Zara since you won yesterday’s jousting challenge you have the advantage. The four other couples will compete in the first heat. Then the two couples who win that heat will move on to the second round. The winner of that heat will then face Keaton and Zara. The couple not in the mud when the whistle blows will be crowned Couple of the Day.”
The first round was over fairly quickly. Vic and Piper easily defeated Elijah and Sienna. Luca and Ariel put up a little bit more of a fight against Harlan and Freya but ended up taking a mud bath after about five minutes.
Before the whistle blew on the Vic and Piper, Harlan and Freya faceoff, Zara turned to Keaton and under her breath said, “Ido notwant to go in that mud.”
He wished he could assure her that wasn’t going to happen but there was no way he could promise her a win. As far as he could see it, the best-case scenario was that Vic and Harlan would wear themselves out in the battle against each other and then whoever the victor was wouldn’t have time to regain their strength before they were on the other side of the rope from him. Otherwise, Keaton was sure that they would in fact end up in the mud.
Both men had a few inches and about twenty pounds on him. And Zara might be a fierce competitor, but both Freya and Piper had more upper body strength than her. He’d found that out during the first competition they’d done called Picnic Games. During the wheelbarrow races Zara’s arms kept collapsing. Thankfully, that was only the first leg of the race. Team Zeaton, as he and Zara had been nicknamed, made up time in the egg-spoon relay and cornhole, so they’d still brought home the W.
Keaton watched Harlan and Vic grunt and strain as they fought with everything they had to hold their ground. He wasn’t sure who he was rooting for, just that the tug-of-war lasted as long as possible.
It was almost ten minutes before Vic’s feet started to slip and Harlan went in for the kill. The country boy leaned back and let out a warrior cry as he jerked the rope sending both Vic and Piper sliding into the mud.
The whistle was blown, and Keaton and Zara moved into place. Harlan and Freya both looked worse for wear as both teams took their starting positions.
