“Well, new cousin Ren, you’re just in time for my humiliation.” She slapped her hand down on the bench. “I threw up. Justbang. Didn’t even make it to a garbage can. I had nocontrol over it. How can I be a doctor if every time someone upchucks, I do, too?” She shook her head miserably. “It’s not going to happen.”
I stifled my laugh by biting the tip of my tongue, but everyone else howled like jackasses. I was sitting beside her, so I was within striking distance.
She glared around the fire.
“Maybe it will get better with time?” I leaned over and hugged her, but she was stiff in my arms.
“I tried,” she wailed. “It happens every time. I can’t see being a doctor now. So, what the hell am I going to do?”
KC came over and stood near Ren. “Do they have therapy for that or something?”
She pouted at him. “Maybe? But can you imagine what they would do to me? How many times I would have to see it happen to become desensitized?” She was green around the gills just talking about her misery.
“Maybe this isn’t the best dinnertime conversation,” Quain said with a kind smile.
“I have a game for you all. Come on,” Errol called, waving with both hands. He wasn’t shy about completely grabbing everyone’s attention.
“So help me, if this is anything like the game where you try to show me video clips of people throwing up the way you did earlier, you’re dead to me, Dad! I already told you, videos don’t bother me. It’s someone doing it in real life.” She shook her head and that middle finger came out again.
“How did you survive elementary school without seeing someone barf? I swear, in first grade, Bobby Thompson threw up every single Friday for a year straight.” Barber grinned at her. “Turned out he was mildly allergic to seafood and Friday was?—”
“Stoptalking about it.” She stood and looked like she was going to claw his eyes out.
Errol bellowed out a laugh. “Naw, that isn’t it. Come on!” He started walking out toward a small slope that led down into a large expanse of his yard. There was a pole light nearby that cast a glow all around. I got up and followed him. Anything to get me away from people who were in the mood to ask questions.
“Lookie there!” He pointed at three dilapidated old cars spaced about fifteen feet apart. “All three are rigged to blow, but one has fireworks wired into the explosion.” He puffed out his chest in pride. “Whoever guesses which one has the fireworks gets to push the detonator button for all three.”
A cheer went up. The only thing this crew liked more than eating good food was blowing shit up. Even I threw my arms in the air and did a little dance, some of my bad mood slipping away.
“Ren, you’re not surprised?” I asked him.
He wrapped an arm around me, and I snuggled against him because I hadn’t thought to bring a hoodie and it was chilly away from the fire. “Anyone who would take in Luke has to be nuts. It’s nothing less than I expected.” He pressed a kiss to my temple, and I shivered.
“Plus, I told him Errol blows shit up on the way here. Weren’t you paying any attention to us talking?” KC asked, then came over to brush a kiss onto my cheek.
My face scalded as I shrugged. How could I feel bad when I had men like this surrounding me? Loving me? What the hell was wrong with me?
Quain cleared his throat. “More than one of us could guess correctly. With Luke, you must have clear rules or you’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Hey!”
Quain took Barber’s hand and reeled him close.
Errol stroked his beard, and I winced. There was grease on his fingers that definitely went into the long mess. “You can arm wrestle for the win!”
Sophie grinned up at KC. “I concede if it’s down to the two of us.”
I snickered, and Ren grinned while he squeezed the back of my neck.
Sophie stuck her hand out toward Ren, who seemed to be caught between smiling and acting aloof as he shook with her. KC gave me a squeeze and rubbed my back.
“I’m all right,” I whispered to him, but he didn’t look convinced.
“Sorry you come from the California Booths. I’ve heard they’re terrible from Luke.” Sophie smiled at Ren.
“You heard right.”
I studied the cars and tried to think like Errol, but that was a losing battle. “I bet it’s the red Acura.”