Page 25 of Hard Hitter

“That’s us,” Eva chirped, far too eager. I sent her a suspicious look, and she patted my arm. “I signed you up when I got here.”

Alexis nodded, shoving the clipboard back under her arm. “Great. I gave you the easy one. People love ducks. The baby pool is right over there.” She pointed through the open back part of the tent to a baby-sized blue inflatable pool leaning against the side of a hut. A black hose attached to the hut lay curled in the grass next to it.

I turned to stare in horror at the box, which was jostling on its own and making peeping noises. “Are there live ducks in there?”

Alexis laughed. “Yes, well, ducklings technically. We had a brood that lost the mother, so we’ve been taking care of them. John is somewhere…” She looked around and nodded at a short man walking toward us carrying another box. “There he is. John has the playpen and the other goodies. You set up the pen, put the pool inside and fill it with water, then let the ducklings free.”

I shared a shocked look with Eva. “What’s our goal here?”

Alexis tilted her head at me in confusion as John deposited his box next to the duck box on the table. “You’re taking care of the ducks. Let people hold them—gently—and collect donations in the cash box. If anyone is interested in adopting one, send them over to the main tent.” She pointed to a large purple tent on the far side of the start/finish arch.

Oh my god, I was going to kill Mac, then Eva. “Isn’t it too cold for baby ducks to be out here?”

Her gaze lingered on my coat, and she sent me a reassuring smile, which did not reassure me in the slightest. “They’ll be fine. You’re going to do great.”

With a jaunty wave, she disappeared among the growing throng of runners gathering in the open space. I scanned the crowd, noting the distinct lack of coats or cold weather clothing. Maybe I’d overdressed for the day.

I eyed the box making garbled quacking noises, then turned to Eva. “Who in their right mind would put a stranger in charge of live baby ducks?”

Eva peeked inside the first box and smiled. “They’re not as small as I thought they’d be.”

“Don’t they just look like those marshmallow Peep things?” I joined her at the table, and she moved over to give me space to peer inside.

Five ducks with fuzzy-looking feathers stared back at me. They had different splotches of brown on their yellow bodies, and they looked like miniature versions of full-size ducks. One of them with an almost entirely brown head quacked at Eva, starting a riot with the rest of them.

“How old are they?” I asked her.

Eva shook her head, pulling her long blonde hair back into a high ponytail. “How should I know? I’m not a duck whisperer. Hush, you.”

The last bit was aimed at the duck with the brown head, who seemed to be the leader. His gaze locked on her, and he stopped quacking.

I stood there another few seconds, but they stayed quiet. “Are you sure?”

She flipped me off and walked toward the baby pool. “You set up the pen. I’ll get the pool ready.”

We worked in tandem, and with the help of the internet, we built a serviceable duck habitat with the supplies provided by Alexis and John. I shed my coat in the first two minutes while I wrestled the pen into place on the grass. By the time we were ready to move the ducks into their vacation home, I was sweating and wishing I’d brought a regular T-shirt like everyone else.

“I could organize this event so much better,” I muttered, watching people start to make beelines for us as soon as they realized there were ducklings in the warm-up area.

Eva tilted her head at me while wrangling the baby ducks into the playpen. “Why don’t you?”

My gaze snapped back to her. “What?”

The bossy duckling with the brown head quacked at her imperiously. She turned it to face the other babies, but it promptly spun around to try to follow her.

Eva sighed, reorienting it again. “I know we haven’t talked about your life goals, but I got the impression from D you preferred to drift. Is he wrong?”

I crossed my arms, fully aware of how defensive I looked. “Yes and no.”

She waited for me to explain, crouched in a playpen surrounded by ducks, but I didn’t like the answers I had. I held out as the shame and tension built inside me like the world’s worst heartburn.

Eva turned the duck around again, then quickly stepped out of the pen before it could follow her. “I know it’s easier to hold everything inside, but you might feel better if you talked about it. Especially since I’m already intimately aware of hownotperfect your brother is. I was in the front lines when he stuck his head up his ass with Nadia.”

I snickered. Nadia, my brother’s girlfriend, was my favorite. If they ever broke up, I’d probably keep her and toss D to the side. Not that they ever would. They were disgustingly in love, and D would do anything for her.

Yet another example of D succeeding at life while I flailed around lighting things on fire. I scrunched my nose at the bitter thought. Maybe Ishouldtalk about some of this before it ate me from the inside out.

I bit my lip, unsure where to start. “It’s easier to drift than it is to make a plan and utterly fail at it. Ask me how I know.”

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