Page 45 of Outnumbered

Caleb chose for me, grabbing the nearest dish, a double bacon cheeseburger, and cut it into fifths before giving me one of the pieces. He also divided up the fries and gave me my portion as well.

The others followed suit, dividing everything up into fifths so we could share them equally.

The fries were a bit soggy for my taste, so I divided my portion amongst the others on the plate, allowing them to have more fries.

By the time the plates were empty, my stomach felt like it might explode. Then my eyes landed on the chocolate cake the waiter brought out and I knew I was going to eat that as well.

Once our bill was paid, we headed out to play the games.

The games were definitely tricky and I quickly realized I was not going to win anything. The first game I tried was to toss a ball into a basket, a simple enough task, but the ball kept bouncing out.

Branson got three balls into his basket easily and won a large stuffed bear that reminded me of his animal form.

The next game as a shooting game and my aim was terrible! Triston destroyed us all, winning a picture of a tiger.

We approached the third game and I watched others playing it before I tried. The goal was to toss a plastic ring and get it to land around the neck of a glass bottle. None of us managed to do it, so we moved on to the next game.

This one was easier, you just had to toss a coin into one of the many glasses around the center of the stand and if your coin landed, you won that glass.

There was a short glass with a slightly rounded bottom that would never spill as it just rolled in a circle. I took the three coins from the attendant and focused, ignoring all the sounds around us, and tossed.

My second coin landed inside the glass, spun around, and stayed inside! “Yes!” I shouted. “I got one!”

The attendant grabbed a box from beneath the booth and held it out to me. “Congratulations, Miss! Well done.”

I hugged the glass against my chest, proud of myself. All five of us ended up with glasses and we bought a bag from a vendor with the name of the beach we were at to put the items we’d won inside as we continued down to play more games.

Three hours later, the bag was heavy from the items we’d all won and we had finally played all of the games.

“Are you ready to head home?” Caleb asked. “Or do you want to eat first?”

“I think I’d like to go home and eat together, if that’s okay?” I said, swinging my arms in an exaggerated manner in my happiness.

“Sounds great to me,” Triston said. “We can finish that board game we started last night.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “I need to know who the winner is.”

Flagging down our guards, we went to the SUVs and climbed in, starting the long drive home.

“Did you have fun?” Martin asked.

I nodded vigorously. “So much fun! Those games and the food and the body board were all great.”

“That makes me happy to hear,” he said. “I took the liberty of snapping some pictures and will send them to Caleb. I figured you might like to have them. I know my wife loves the candid pictures of us doing family things.”

“Thank you!” That really was a super nice thing to do.

“I hadn’t even thought about asking you guys to do something like that. Thanks, Uncle Martin,” Caleb said.

Martin winked in the rearview mirror. “I’ve been married long enough to figure out a few things women like.” He chuckled and looked back at the road.

“What do you want for dinner?” Branson asked me.

“Tacos,” I said immediately. “With avocado and tomatoes and?—”

Triston laughed. “We got it, darlin’. We’ll make delicious tasting tacos that you will enjoy.”

“And then I get to defeat you at our game!” I said confidently.

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