Page 69 of Curtain Call
“Is this your way of trying to distract me so you get the win again this year?” Riley asks.
“I’ve already won,” he whispers and hugs Riley tightly.
“You do know this is where we had our first kiss. Right here in front of this dead dude’s study,” Riley says with a smirk.
“You know damn well that dead dude is Ralph Waldo Emerson,” Colin retorts.
“I know. I just wanted to see you cringe a little.”
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“I do.”
Colin gives Riley another kiss and Riley is so thankful that he gets to kiss Colin any time he wants, or vice versa. His mouth is always warm and casts all of Riley’s cares away. It’s better than one of Colin’s back rubs.
As they make their way through the museum, folding down scavenger hunt tabs and battling out who is going to win, Riley stops them when they reach the last room.
“Have you noticed how quiet it is in here today? Like there are literally no people here except us.”
“I’ve seen like two other people, so we aren’t completely alone. But yeah, it’s awfully quiet today, but I like it.”
Colin takes Riley’s hand and leads him to the last room. There are no trees in the room and Riley’s face scrunches.
“I don’t get it. Did we miss a tree somewhere?”
“We had to have missed one,” Colin confirms.
Reading the clues out loud, Riley smiles.
“YES!”
Colin bites back a smile and squints his eyes toward Riley.
“It’s the elaborate foyer tree. The clues are leading us back to the lobby.”
“The book assigned to that tree is calledA Christmas Wedding.”
“So.”
“So, that’s not a children’s book. All of these books on the scavenger hunt are children’s books,” Colin tries explaining.
“No. It must be it. Come on.”
Riley grabs Colin by the hand and leads him down the back stairs and into the foyer. The woman at the admission counter smiles at them but doesn’t say anything as Riley begins reading through the clues again.
He starts scanning the tree for any objects that could be small and shiny. The first thing that comes to his mind is a ring. Perhaps an ornament shaped like a wedding ring.
“We could work together to find it, call it a tie,” Riley tells Colin.
“We could do that.”
Riley continues to search the tree as fast as his eyes can scan as Colin bends down to tie his shoe. Riley really wants to win to gain his title back, but he’s OK with it being a tie.
“Or I can win again,” Riley calls out as he locates a small present wrapped in iridescent wrapping paper that reflects the tree’s lights. Riley pulls the present out to show Colin to see if he can confirm that this would be the item, and he freezes. The tag hanging from the little box says,Riley.
“What’s this?” Riley asks as the present is removed from the tree’s branch.
