Page 91 of Implode

I chew my food, while enjoying the conversing and overlapping of topics. Angie is very fortunate to be joining such a wonderful family. They are lovely. When everyone finishes their plates, we do a quick cleanup and put away the leftovers.

“Let the games begin,” Donna announces, her words a bit slurred from her wine. Bottles have been passed around and glasses have been filled. “Honey, get the game board.”

“It’s literally right behind you,” Germain says with a chuckle.

Donna turns around, comes face-to-face with the scoreboard, and bursts out laughing. “So much for utilizing my strategy of getting everyone else drunk so I can take home the trophy.”

“You seriously did not get trophies, did you?” Penny inquires, her eyes dancing with humor.

“You bet your overpriced designer socks we did,” Donna says.

“Hey, half the proceeds go to charity,” Penny huffs.

“They are still overpriced. And that’s a fact.” Donna is teasing. I know just from listening in on conversations that she is big into charities.

“But don’t expect much with the trophies,” Germain chimes in, making Donna smack his arm.

“Fine,” she sighs heavily. “I bought them online, and the description of gold-plated should have been described more likepainted yellow.”

“Way to keep it classy,” Nic razzes.

We all laugh as Germain stands up and rearranges some of the furniture to give us more room. “The first game is called Eyes and Ears,” he says. “Each team needs to select one person to be theeyesand the other person to be theears.”

“We know which person is going to be the ears,” Graham whisper-yells to Angie across the room.

“Oh yeah, who?” she calls back.

“Me,” he says proudly.

“Why?”

“Because you don’t listen to anything I say.”

Angie bursts out laughing. “It’s a scientific fact.”

After we all settle, Germain continues with the rules. “Both members stand back to belly. The person situated at the back is the ears and must place their arms around their partner to conquer a specific task while blindfolded. The team member in front is the eyes and must tell their partner what to do by describing the location of objects and the details needed to get the job done.”

“Who the hell comes up with this stuff?” Nic asks, shaking his head at his parents.

I love the relationship the Hoffmans have with each other. They can share their thoughts without the fear of someone running off in tears from being offended. They can harass each other, but still take a joke themselves. My kind of people.

“What’s the task?” I ask, trying to figure out who should be the eyes and who should be the ears.

“Oh, you will soon find out,” Donna says slyly, “but you have to decide first on your position.”

With a little help from Graham, Collins moves a huge folding table into the center of the room and raises up the legs to allow the teams to stand around it and still have easy access to the surface.

I smell Nic’s manly citrus scent before I see him stand beside me. “Do you have a preference on what you’d like to be?”

I shrug. “Hard to decide when I don’t know what the task is. So, I guess I’ll be the eyes?”

“Sounds good,” he says slowly, moving behind me as Donna and Germain demonstrate the stance. Nic places his arms around mine and lays them flat against the surface of the table. Donna blindfolds all of the members standing in back and then places a baby doll in front of each team on the table, along with a diaper.

“You have one task,” she says with mirth in her tone, fluttering about the room. “Undress the baby, put the diaper on, and then get the baby dressed again. Fastest team wins.”

“Hold up,” Graham interjects. “You’re being serious?”

“Yes, son,” Germain says, pretending to be annoyed. “You should know your mother’s ways by now. Quit being so dramatic.”

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