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“Hell yeah!” Presley claps her hands. “What’s next, bitches? Marco Polo or Manhunt?”

“Manhunt?” Judd chuckles. “Are we twelve again?”

“Just for that, Manhunt it is! Sky, tell your man to pull the stick out of his ass,” Presley bosses.Definitely the ‘wild child’ of the bunch.

“Honey, pull the stick outta your ass,” Skylar tells Judd with a quick kiss.

“Okay, who’s hunting?” Presley asks.

I hesitantly raise my hand.

“Yes, Aunt Whitley 2.0, you want to hunt or do you have a question?” Skylar looks at me and laughs, joined by the others.

Brynn leans over and explains. “Our Aunt Whitley has a habit of raising her hand in the middle of conversations.”

“Oh,” I snicker. “Well, I do have a question, several actually. I don’t know how to play Manhunt.”

Everyone looks at me as if I just said I skin puppies for fun.

“What? I don’t have any siblings, or a Squad,” I defend myself. “Please divert your stares away from the one of these things that’s not like the others.”

“Very quippy, nice.” Presley nods in approval and gives me a high five. “You’re gonna fit in just fine. Okay, so how you play, super difficult, is…somebody hunts and the rest of us hide. Got it?”

Maybe it’s the champagne, or perhaps my rising comfort level, but I blurt out, “Why didn’t you just say ‘Hide and Seek’?”

“Thank you!” Judd throws out his arms and shakes his head. “That’s what I’ve been saying since, again, we were twelve.”

“Honey, stick, ass, remember?” Skylar elbow nudges him in the side.

“People, focus!” Presley takes charge with another loud clap. “I did not update the lingo, it just is. So call it whatever the fuck you want, let’s play. The J’s are hunting, that’s Judd and JT for any of you too drunk or dumb to figure it out. The rest of us are hiding. Backyard only, nothing outside the fence. And no grouping up, everyone hides alone.”

I do a quick evaluation in my head. It’s dark out and the Kendrick backyard is enormous. As in, probably at least a couple acres. If someone doesn’t find me, I may very well stay lost until sunrise—no shit.

And why did I have to put on a damn bathing suit on for this?

The Squad—disorganized, spontaneous…or just plain crazy?

 

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