Page 42 of The Falcon and the Foe

“The rules for a sweepstakes.”

Ah, yes. The legal loophole ofwe have to tell you the rules and liabilities, but we’ll just say them really fast so you can’t understand.

“Why don’t you give it a try?” Cal asked me.

“No, I couldn’t.”

“Yeah, do it!” The other kids cheered.

A wave of pre-embarrassment came over me. I could give presentations on digital transformation procedures and data analysis all day, but this? I was, by Cal’s definition, not a fun person; thus, I had no funny voices in me. But here went nothing: “By day, he works at the market. But by night, he’s Scout Leader Cal. Dun dun dun.”

“Eh, it’s a start.”

I hit his elbow with mine. “What do you mean it’s a start? Do I have a real future in this?”

“Does he have a future in this? Or will his voiceover career go down in the flames of his perfectly assembled campfire?” Cal asked in a cliffhanger tone. “Find out this fall on The Story of Russ. Wednesdays on NBC. Check your local listings.”

“What are local listings?” Aiden asked.

I rolled my eyes. Kids today. Shielded from the torture of missing an episode of television and never seeing it again until summer reruns.

I waited for Cal to chime in, but he was focused elsewhere. I followed his eyes down to my arm. Flush against his. As natural as could be.

13

CAL

Was it possible to orgasm through one’s forearm? Asking for a friend.

Before I could process the rush of endorphins spreading from my arm to the outer reaches of my body, Russ pulled away.

It wasn’t anything. A consequence of sitting next to each other in a moving vehicle with a narrow center console. Just like the kiss from Russ—four words I never imagined stringing together—it was a mistake. It had to be.

The man could barely tolerate me, and the feeling was very much mutual.

And yet he kissed me.

And despite my initial shock, I touched my fingers to my lips and thought about it constantly, thought Russ and I might not be the worst idea in history.

Russ did not agree, though. He acted like nothing happened, aka it was a huge mistake in his eyes, while I was letting my mind go into crazy tangents. One kiss from a guy, and I nearly reverted to my old ways of becoming obsessed with him.

“Let’s play a game,” I said to the van, releasing some of the awkward tension which might have been my fault. “Story Time. Each of us will go around and say one word and try to tell an actual story. I’ll go first. There.”

“Once,” Quentin said.

“Fart!” Chase yelled out. The other kids yelled out laughter. I held back a giggle because I was nine at heart.

“Chase,” Russ said sternly. “Pick another word.”

“Don’t,” I said. “It’s part of the game. We have to roll with it, Scout Leader Russ. This was a game. Games have rules, and youloverules. Okay, so we have There once fart. Could we change to farted to be grammatically correct?”

Chase nodded.

“There once farted…”

Emmaline: “A”

Josh: “Terrible”

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