Page 68 of The Dating Game

“Of course I know that hand clap.”

“Oh perfect! You have to teach it to me. My students and my niece do it all the time, and if I come back from this trip able to do it too I may just be able to steal the coolest aunt ever trophy from my sister Hannah.”

“Okay.” Sammie brightens. “I can totally teach you”

“Awesome! I’d better call your sister first, though,” I tell her, sliding out my phone. “Just to make sure everything’s okay.”

Sammie nods and gives me her sister Alexa’s phone number. Turns out she did just forget she was supposed to pick Sammie up, and after profusely apologizing tells me she’s on her way.

With that taken care of I turn back to Sammie.

“Okay, teach me, Sammie Son,” I say, earning myself a blank stare. “Karate Kid?” I ask, but she shakes her head. “Okay, fine. No more ancient movie references. Just this fancy pants hand clap.” I pretendto dust my hands off then roll my neck like I’m getting ready for some serious business. Sammie giggles.

“It’s actually really easy,” she says before beginning to demonstrate the multi-step hand clap. Luckily I’m a dancer, so it’s not too hard for me to pick up the steps. Within a couple of minutes we’re playing the game that goes with it. Basically the players pick a category and have to name something in that category in time with the beat of the hand clap.

We’re in the middle of a rather intense round of the“Disney Princess” category when the church doors open, and I spot Will coming toward us.

“Moana,” Sammie says.

It’s my turn now, but I’m flustered by his sudden appearance and almost mess up, barely managing to eke out, “Ansa,” before realizing that is definitely not a princess. “Shoot!” I exclaim with a groan.

“Ha!” Sammie cries triumphantly over my protests about having meant to say Anna or Elsa but then accidentally combining them. “Too bad! I still win!” she crows. She’s got her back to the church and consequently hasn’t seen Will yet, so she does a little victory dance without shame. But of course she pulls to an abrupt stop as soon as she does catch sight of him. “Oh, hello,” she squeaks, arms falling to her sides.

“Don’t stop your victory dance on my account,” Will tells her with an easy grin. “I’d dance too if I beat Brooke at something. She’s such a ruthless competitor.”

“Ha! Very funny,” I say with a huff of laughter. It’s annoying the way my body reacts to his presence. My heart picks up speed, my mouth refuses to do anything but smile, and my stomach turns into some sort of butterfly sanctuary.

“She doesn’t seem very ruthless to me,” Sammie informs Will. “I beat her three times in a row.”

“Hey now! In my defense, songs by the Jonas Brothers is a hard category.”

Will throws his head back with a laugh as Sammie protests, “No, it’s not. There’s so many.” She starts checking them off on her fingers. ““What a Man Gotta Do”, “Leave Before You Love Me”, “Sucker”, “Waffle House”—”

“Hey, I said that last one,” I interject, then start humming because that song is actually quite catchy. The sound of a car approaching at a rapid speed cuts off my musical performance, and we all turn to see Sammie’s sister—presumably—pull up.

“Sammie!” she cries, hopping out of the car without even cutting the engine. “I’m so sorry!” She looks at me and Will. “So sorry you had to wait for me,” she adds. “I forgot I was supposed to use my break to come get her.”

“It was no problem,” I assure her. She’s dressed in a McDonald’s work uniform. Clearly she didn’t just forget her sister due to laziness. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sammie.” I give the girl a squeeze, and she hops into the car with her sister, waving goodbye as they drive out of the parking lot.

“You know,” Will says, turning to face me, “young girls really seem to gravitate to you.”

“I don’t know about that,” I say with a little laugh. “I mean, Sammie was kind of stuck with me due to the whole-no-one-coming-to-pick-her-up thing.”

“And what a hardship that appeared to be for her,” he replies with a teasingsmirk.

“It probably was,” I retort. “I panicked and 'Waffle House' really was the only Jonas Brothers song I could name. I lost a lot of credibility in that moment.”

Will’s answering chuckle is warm and rich. “Don’t sell yourself short, Brooke,” he says, then gestures inside. “Are you hungry? They’re serving lunch inside, and when I didn’t see you I wanted to make sure you had a chance to eat.” He came out here to find me? This revelation makes me glow with pleasure.

“I did work up quite the appetite chasing after all of my wayward volleyball passes,” I say, earning another laugh. I fall into step behind him. “How was your morning?”

“It was great,” he says enthusiastically. “The soccer group is a lot of fun. Precocious group. Half of them already memorized all of the memory verses for the week.”

“Wow. Impressive.”

“I’ll say. It was sort of convicting. I read my Bible most days, but I don’t memorize scripture as much as I probably should.” His gaze slides my way. “I guess you could say I’m not hiding His word in my heart.”

“I know what you mean,” I agree. “I don’t do a lot of scripture memorization either. In fact, I used to read the Bible every morning, but lately I haven’t been doing much of even that,” I hear myself admit.

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