Page 34 of My Knight

Simple enough so far.

“Each round,” she continued, “the minnows will have to get to the other side of the yard without a shark catching them.”

“I’m a shark,” Dice immediately called out.

“Nope,” Dove said and shook her head, her smile downright evil. “Your ass—and the rest of the guys—are the minnows.”

The girls collectively burst out laughing.

“Bullshit,” Throttle groaned. “The minnows are gonna annihilate the sharks.”

Dove shrugged innocently. “I guess we’ll just have to see about that.”

Pirate leaned in close to me, a mischievous smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You up for this?” he asked, and nodded toward the yard like it wasn’t about to become an all-out war zone.

I gave him a lopsided smile. “Uh, sure. I mean… I am a shark after all. I’ll just swim in the shadows and let the girls do all the work until we pick off the minnows one by one.”

He chuckled, eyes warm. “Good thinking.”

The men shuffled to the right side of the yard—Dice, Aero, Throttle, Yarder, Compass, Cue Ball, Pirate, Fade, Rocky, and even Drew and Mark. The girls spread out on the left—me, Sloane, Olive, Fallon, Poppy, Mac, Adalee, Dani, and Dove, who looked far too smug to be trusted.

Harley and Davidson were darting back and forth between both sides while barking and panting. Their tails wagged at full throttle. They didn’t care about teams—they were just thrilled everyone was outside and moving.

“Do we tackle them?” Adalee asked and rubbed her palms together.

“Just touch them,” Dove laughed. “Tag counts. But if you want to tackle…”

“I’m tackling Fade’s ass,” Adalee grinned.

“No plotting over there!” Yarder called across the yard.

“We’re not plotting,” Poppy said sweetly. Then she leaned closer to the group and whispered, “I’m tackling Yarder. His ass is grass.”

We all cracked up.

“Ready?” Dove shouted.

The guys whooped and hollered in response.

Dove raised her hands in the air like she was starting a race. “Ready, set… GO!”

We took off running toward the guys, shrieking and laughing as we charged full-speed.

But the guys didn’t move.

Halfway across the yard, we stopped, confused.

“What are you doing?” Olive called out.

“Just waiting, Mom,” Rocky called back innocently.

We all looked at each other.

“Waiting for what?” Dani asked.

The guys exchanged a quick look—then took off, sprinting straight at us.

“Oh shit!” I squealed and pivoted fast.

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