Page 49 of He's The Reason Why

“Stakes?” Piper asked. “Is this some kind of bet?”

“We have to play for something, right?” Blake said. He looked around, then held up a finger. “Wait a sec.”

He strode into the kitchen and fished a box of what looked like gourmet chocolate out of a drawer and carried it back. “The last one standing wins this very special box—”

“Half-eaten box,” Marshall filled in.

“Not-quite-full box,” Blake amended, “of fantastically delicious delicacies from—”

“Valentine’s Day,” Marshall interrupted.

Blake gave his friend an irritated look. “From John Kelly’s very fine chocolate shop.”

“You never told me who sent those. Was it Melanie?” Marshall asked. He snapped his fingers. “Rachel?”

“No.” Blake looked as if he were summoning every ounce of patience.

“Who, then? Surely it wasn’t Roxane,” Marshall said. “Or Beverly. Oh, tell me it wasn’t Gretchen.”

Piper snickered. These two pushed each other’s buttons like brothers.

Blake put the box down and gestured at Marshall. “You start. Winner gets to find out who sent them.”

“Fine, I’ll play,” Marshall said. “Any theme I want?”

Blake glanced at Piper. “Within reason.”

Marshall’s grin would have put Loki to shame. “Whose reason?”

“Hers,” Blake said. “So, the other rule to this game is to keep the narrative going. You can’t say anything negative. Think of your sentence as yes, and.”

“Yes, and?” Piper glanced back and forth between them. “Yes, and…what?”

“Exactly,” Marshall said.

She gave Blake what she hoped was an I’m-running-out-of-patience stare.

Blake relented. “I’ll say something like ‘another crazy thing happened at the office today.’ Then Marshall would have to continue that story, starting withb. He’s not allowed to say ‘but you don’t have an office.’ Because that would kill the story, so he’d say something like ‘Brenda dumped an entire pot of coffee on Marshall’s head.’ Got it?”

“Sound simple enough. I think,” Piper said. “How is this going to help?”

“You’ll see.” Blake nodded at Marshall. “Go for it.”

“Hmm. What theme shall I pick.” Marshall rubbed his hands together. His face brightened. “After today, I’ll have to take a cold shower.”

Piper’s thoughts instantly went somewhere they shouldn’t, as she knew he’d intended, the rat.

“Because I spent all day playing basketball,” Blake said.

Both men looked at her with expectation. She was supposed to say something that started withcnow.

Everything she thought of started with other letters. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Marshall made a loud buzzer noise. “Fail! That, ladies and gentlemen, is called a freeze.”

Piper laughed. She couldn’t help it. “I literally can’t think of anything to say. Everything I thought of started with the word and.”

“I blame him.” Marshall pointed at Blake. “He told you that yes, and rule right before we started.”

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