“Anyway,” Miles said, rubbing his hands together like he was gearing up. “If this game involves parenting skills, I think we’ll let you two take the lead. But if it has anything to do with athletic ability, Nora and I have it covered.”
Theo scoffed and lifted a brow. “You don’t think I’m athletic?”
“I’m not saying you’renot,” Miles said quickly. “Especially for someone who spends most of his time in a courtroom. It’s just that Nora and I kind of train physically for a living, so… odds are we might have a slight edge.”
“Trained.” I coughed. “As in past tense, since my gymnastics career ended about two months ago.”
Miles’s gaze flicked over me. “You still look just as strong as ever to me,” he said with a flirtatious wink.
Heat crept up my neck, and I felt slightly less bad about the way he’d been looking at Amanda a second ago.
“Fine.” Theo waved his hand. “Say whatever you want about me and my athletic abilities since yes, I’m lucky if I hit my home gym more than once a week. But for all we know, Amanda here could be running marathons every weekend.”
“Very true,” Miles said quickly, turning to Amanda. “My apologies for assuming. You do look great for having what… two kids?” The second the words left his mouth, his eyes widened. “Um… I mean… you look very strong. Athletic.” He shook his head, groaning softly. “Sorry. I remembered a little too late that I’m not supposed to comment on women’s bodies. You’re beautiful. Just—” He sighed. “Wow. I’m making this worse.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, trying not to laugh.
“You’re fine.” Amanda laughed lightly, clearly unfazed. “I definitely don’t mind a compliment or two these days. Especially coming fromtheMiles Hawthorne.”
“Oh good,” Miles said, his shoulders sagging with relief.
“And as for running marathons, I’d like to say I enjoy running, but that would be a huge lie.” She laughed. “Pretty sure if you ever saw me running, you’d need to look for who was chasing me with a knife. But I will say,” she said, raising a finger, “that carrying a toddler around for the last few years has helped me win a few arm-wrestling matches at family holiday parties.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You actually have arm wrestling matches at your family parties?”
“Oh yeah.” Her smile widened. “Leg wrestling, too. And just so you know, you’re looking at the reigning leg wrestling champion. Flipped my six-foot-one brother over in about five seconds flat last year.”
“I stand corrected.” Miles held up his hands in surrender. “If this competition turns into leg wrestling, you’re our MVP.”
“All right!” Lia called, clapping again to pull everyone’s attention back. “Let’s go over the first station.”
We followed her toward the lawn, where a blindfold and a stack of oversized wood blocks sat waiting.
“This one’s calledBlindfold Builder,” Lia said, gesturing to the setup. “Two people from each team will be blindfolded and work together to build a tower ten blocks high without knocking it over. The other two teammates will watch and give instructions.”
Miles immediately snatched up the blindfold. “I’ll be a builder.”
“You think you’re up for being bossed around by me?” I asked, hoping it landed as flirtatious and not weird.
“I don’t know.”He flashed me an easy grin. “I kind of like being told what to do.” And when he winked, my cheeks immediately burned.
Yeah, flirting with Miles was always fun.
“I’ll build, too,” Amanda said, lifting her hand. “I’m basically a professional at building things with blocks at this point, thanks to my kids.”
“Sounds perfect,” Theo said, smiling at Amanda in a way that said he understood the parenting grind. “You two can be our blindfolded builders, and Nora and I will try to guide you.”
“Yay for getting to boss someone around for once,” I said, lifting my hand for a high five.
Theo met it, our palms connecting for a brief second before he smiled at me. The contact sent an entirely unwarranted little flutter through my chest, which I promptly ignored because having butterflies around both of my male teammates tonight would definitely not bode well for my concentration.
“Anyway,” Lia continued, completely unfazed by the strategic whispering breaking out across her yard. “Once your tower stands for ten seconds, you’ll head to the second station… the wheelbarrow relay.”
“A wheelbarrow relay without wheelbarrows?” I murmured to Miles as Lia gestured toward the open stretch of grass with two long lines of caution tape about twenty feet apart.
“I thinkwe’rethe wheelbarrows,” he murmured back.
“Each team member will take a turn walking on their hands from one line of caution tape to the other while a teammate holds their legs,” Lia continued. “When you reach the line, you’ll switch out with the next pair. First team to get everyone across moves on.”