Page 49 of Boots, Bucket Lists & Bad Ideas
The table erupts in laughter and debate about my drawings. My book has become a group project. Maybe leaving now wouldn’t be so bad. We could outrun the bikers to the truck. We’ve outrun cattle. Except we have a slow-moving pregnant Hope to consider. I’d be willing to leave her here if she weren’t our designated driver.
Dean examines the page Josie left open. “It’s too bad you’re not coming with us to the rodeo, Jade, because this looks like a Ferris wheel, and there’s one at the carnival.”
“Is this a Ferris wheel?” Josie traces the diagram in the book.
“That one is obvious, but there’s more to it than just a ride on a Ferris wheel.” Things I would never admit to them in a thousand years. And things they’d never expect.
“Like what?” Dean shrugs, sitting back. “Making out at the top? A little light petting? Or straight out orgasm?”
My breath rushes out of me at his accuracy.
But luckily for me, everyone else throws something at him, hits him, or calls him a pervert.
They have no idea how spot on he is.
“I think we can guess them.” Does Josie ever lack confidence?
“Do you, now?” I chuckle as the remnants of the fight begin to leave my body.
“Yes,” Hope chimes in. “And if we guess one, you have to come to the rodeo with us and finish this list.”
Everyone gasps.
So hard.
So long.
So dramatic that I end up laughing.
“You’ll never guess one.”
“Then make the deal.” Hope sits up the best she can with her protruding belly and holds out her hand.
“I love this,” Josie snickers.
I know they’ll never guess it.
Never.
And we have half an hour to kill, so what can it hurt?
“Fine.” I shake Hope’s hand.
Levi’s fingers thrum on the book page. “And we all get to help you finish it.”
“Why would you all want to help?”
He leans back and grins, dragging Hope into the nook of his shoulder. “‘Cause it sounds fun and we’re all going to be stuck together anyhow.”
I sigh. “Alright, but when you don’t guess it, because you won’t, y’all have to do the presentation to the town hall when you return:”
The looks of disgust across their faces are priceless, and still, they grudgingly agree. This is the easiest bet I’ve ever won in my life.
“Y’all have until Peggy-Ann spins herself fuzzy on the dance floor.”
Josie whistles low. “High stakes.”
I walk backward toward the bar. I can’t watch them dissect my book, and I need a second to myself.
