Page 91 of Delay of Game
I grinned. “He’s afraid that he’s too old for me and he has a kid.”
“You’re a teacher. You love kids. What could be more perfect? And as for age, it’s just a number. Or at least, that’s what Walterkeeps telling me. The man’s almost one hundred. Who wants to date at one hundred?”
“Are you dating someone, Aunt Mercy?”
She batted my hand. “I’m just talking to some old fool, is all.”
THIRTY-TWO
ROB
The sun shoneonto my face, blinding me as I helped a lineman scrabble up a wood wall.
“For fuck’s sake, this is worse than practice,” I groaned, glancing back at the other team. They’d all scaled their wall except for Trent, who took a running start at the wall and clambered up like a squirrel.
I hadn’t seen the promised ropes course, but so far, we’d taken part in a scavenger hunt, unwound ourselves from giant human knot, and balanced the entire team on a two-foot platform. Now, we’d split into two teams to run an obstacle course. The smaller players on the first team flew over the ten-foot wooden wall while Fieste and I struggled to lob our bigger players up.
Finally, everyone was at the top except for us.
“I’ll toss you up and then you can pull me up after.” Fieste braced himself against the wall, hands extended.
I shrugged, fitting my foot in his cupped hand and hauling myself up. Isaiah Cooper grabbed me, hefting me up with ease. Bracing myself, I reached a hand down for Fieste. He stepped back, running at the wall but jumping inches from my outstretched hand.
“Let me try.” Cooper took my spot and reached down. Same results.
“Fuck it.” I raked a hand over my face. “I’m going back down. I can jump higher.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Fieste wheezed, face beet red and cheeks puffed. He doubled over, holding up a finger. “Just give me another shot.”
The other team took off toward the next obstacle, and annoyance prickled at me, but I leaned further down, waiting for him to reattempt the jump.
He backed up farther this time, sprinting to the wall and propelling up the side.
Our fingers brushed this time. He fell back down to the ground with a determined frown.
“Jump down there, Rob,” Noa muttered in my ear as he watched the other team break away.
“Give him another shot,” I said, before yelling to Fieste. “You got this. One more time.”
He grit his teeth, rubbing his hands together as he backed up. His gaze stayed on the wall as he ran, picking up speed into the wall and then propelling himself up. This time, I caught his wrist. He scurried up the wall until he could throw his leg over the top.
I moved out of the way as he collapsed on the platform. The rest of the team took off toward the next obstacle.
“Good job,” I said, waiting for him to catch his breath.
“Don’t belittle me.”
“I mean it. This shit is hard.” I held out a hand.
He eyed it, as if he expected me to pull it back any second, and then took it, letting me lift the bulk of his weight.
“I swear, if there’s another wall, I’m quitting,” he panted, doubling over to rest his hands on his knees.
I peered over the wall at the next obstacle and grimaced. “Well, good news. There’s no wall. Bad news, we’re crawling.”
“Are you serious?” He straightened up in time to watch Cooper belly flop onto the ground and army crawl under a rope net. “Can’t we just hop over it?”
“Not if we want to win.” My eyes traveled to the other side of the course as the other team finished crawling, standing up to run to the next activity. “Which might not be a possibility at this point. But fuck it, we gotta try.”
