Page 107 of Somewhere You Belong

Dallas drops his lips to my ear. “Why don’t you join us and find out?”

With wide eyes, I twist to face him. “What?”

Before he can respond, a whistle blows, signaling the start of the competition. But my mind is reeling with what he just said.

He wants me to have dinner with his family? Did I hear that right?

Suddenly, the desire to throw up grows as I follow the crew over to the setup in the sand for the human wheelbarrow race.

Everyone pairs off as partners, Dallas choosing me.

“Are you sure you want to be my partner?” I ask him, growing more nervous by the minute.

“I’m sure, Willow. Now, do you want to be the wheelbarrow, or do you want to be the one pushing?”

“Uh, my upper body strength isn’t exactly something to brag about.”

Dallas chuckles. “Well, let’s see if you can support my legs then.” He gets down on the sand, putting himself in a push-up position as I grab his feet from the ground.

Dear lord, he is not a small man.

“I’m gonna start to crawl,” he says, slowly moving his arms out in front of him. I rest his feet on my shoulders, holding his ankles steady as he moves.

“This isn’t too bad.”

“Yeah, I think we can handle this. Let go of my feet.” I do as he says and then he stands up, brushing the sand from his body. “We’ve got this, babe.”

“I’m glad you have confidence in us.”

He pulls me into his arms. “I do.” His lips meet mine. “I’m holding onto that faith enough for the both of us.”

Somehow, I feel like he’s talking about more than just the games, but I don’t have time to contemplate it.

We all line up, Penn and Astrid ahead of us, volunteering to go first, and when the whistle blows, the games begin.

***

“Oh my God!” I scream, letting the rope go from my hands so I can jump up and down to celebrate our win in Tug of War. Grady, Astrid’s older brother, starts cursing from the other side, chastising his team after their loss. But the Catch & Release crew is hollering and hugging one another in celebration.

“Hell yeah!” Dallas scoops me up in his arms, covering my lips with his own, kissing me deeply. “You did great, Goose!”

“I don’t know that I did that much.”

“Hey, this was a team effort, and we couldn’t have done it without you.”

Shit, I can’t start crying again.

After we won the human wheelbarrow race, I shed a few tears. Astrid pulled me aside and asked me what was wrong, but it felt silly to tell her that I was emotional because I’d never won a wheelbarrow race before, let alone been on a team besides within my company. So I told her that I got sand in my eyes, and I think she bought it.

But honestly, I’m not sure that she did.

I continue to hold onto Dallas, my arms wrapped around his neck as he spins me around. When he sets me on the ground, he releases me and then I find Astrid.

“We did it!” She turns and screams to her brother, “Sorry, big bro! Sucks to suck!”

My jaw falls open. “You were just giving Dallas and Penn shit earlier about ganging up on Parker, but here you are, rubbing our win in your brother’s face.”

She winks. “It’s all part of the games, Willow. Besides, my brother’s ego can stand to be taken down a peg or two.”

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