Page 49 of Playing Flirty

On the opposite end, Neema and Lincoln flourished where Neema’s creativity complemented Lincoln’s engineering brain.

While they were busy, I walked to the kitchen and opened a cupboard high above my head. Eyeing a box of cookies far outside my reach, I raised my arms and shouted, “Come!”

Unsurprisingly, the cookies didn’t heed my command.

From across the room, William’s eyes met mine. Grinning, he dragged himself away from the game and joined me in the kitchen, where he grabbed the cookies with ease.

He opened the box and held it out to me. His voice dipped low. “If you want something, you could ask.”

“It’s polite to offer.” I took a cookie and popped it into my mouth.

“I am not polite.”

And I nearly choked.

“You two, stop conspiring,” Neema called. “It’s your turn.”

Final round.

It was William’s turn to describe, and mine to guess. We returned to the game, and he rolled a two.

He cursed.

We needed five correct answers to win.

William blew out a breath and turned to me. “Ready?”

I nodded.

Bouncing from one foot to the other, he geared up for his first hint.

Shaun touched the timer, and William rounded on him. “Hey, hey, fast fingers! I haven’t looked at the card yet.”

“Sorry!” Shaun threw both hands up in surrender.

No one smiled. Once upon a time, this game had nearly caused trouble between Shaun and Neema, and Claire and me. There were a few months where we’d banned it from game night.

William glanced at the card as Shaun flipped the timer.

“The capital of Turkey,” William stated.

“Next!” I shouted.

He frowned.

“Next! Next!” I shouted again.

“She’s the actress in that movie you love about the blond doctor with the pink—”

“Ray Loffel!”

“Correct.” He grinned. “You have like three concert ticket stubs from this band.”

He’d noticed.

Not now, brain.

“Lime Park!” I shouted.

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