Page 32 of Accidentally Amy

Just after midnight, the game reached an epic climax where there was a three-way tie.

“Physical challenge decides all,” Josh said, grinning at his friends. “The way the game was intended.”

Applause broke out, though most of it came from the peoplenotin the game.

“I won’t let you down this time,” I quietly said to Blake, leaning close enough to breathe in his cologne.

His eyes were teasing when he leaned in even closer. “See that you don’t.”

Um, damn.

After everyone drew numbers, Josh and Kyle were first up. Their physical challenge was for one person to run down to the stop sign at the corner in under ten seconds—while piggybacking their teammate.

“Impossible,” Blake said, looking out the big bay window. “That’s impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible if you want it badly enough,” Kyle replied, looking like he truly believed that.

Blake looked at me then, in a way that made my stomach flip over.

But the moment disappeared when everyone got up and headed for the door. Blake went with them, and I followed close behind.

The rain had let up and it was only sprinkling now, and the whole group cheered as Kyle climbed onto Josh’s back. Their strategy was for Josh to focus only on sprinting, not on holding Kyle, and Kyle was going to focus on doing his best to hang on.

“It’s a decent strategy,” Blake said while he watched the contestants.

“For sure,” I said, allowing myself to drink him in while hewatched my idiot cousin get ready to race down the block. I’d realized while we’d been playing trivia that it wasn’t just his good looks that made me a little swoony around him. No, it was the one-two-three punch of intelligence, confidence, and charm. I was certain if someone screamed,Help, it’s the zombie apocalypse, Blake would know exactly what to do to keep everyone safe and would delegate appropriately.

While being polite.

Of course, in my mind, he’d also have to do a lot of shirtless wood chopping. There was no end to the amount of wood we’d need if zombies were afoot.

“GO!”

Josh took off running, looking hilarious as he swung his arms as hard as he could. Kyle struggled to find purchase, choking Josh for a brief moment before grasping at his back and then slowly falling off. He tackled Josh as he fell, with the endgame being both of them face-planting on the pavementhard.

After a solid minute of groaning, they sat up and checked to see just how badly they’d scraped their knees.

“Are you ready?”

I looked away from them and at Blake, who was watching me from his spot to my right. His voice was quiet and deep, and it had to be the beer that made it sound suggestive to me.

Had to be.

I took a deep breath and said, “Oh, yeah—I ambeyondready.”

Then I looked at a spot somewhere over his shoulder and added, “As ready as I can be. Um, when faced with a Billboard Assholes physical challenge, that is.”

It felt like his gaze sharpened when I said that, like my words showed him exactly what was happening in my perverted little mind. He gave a terse nod and muttered something that sounded like “Fucking A right,” but I couldn’t be sure, because he turned and walked toward the building the minute the words had left his mouth.

Oh-kay.

“So what happens if we all lose the physical challenge?” Ella asked as the group went back to the apartment.

“Rock, paper, scissors,” Josh replied.

“You’re kidding me,” I said, touching my tender forehead with my index finger. “After all the madness, it boils down to a playground game of rock, paper, scissors?”

He laughed and looked pleased with himself. “Well, our version includes an actual rock, a sharp pair of scissors, and a wall-size sheet of flypaper.”

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