Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Andi and Jesse do even better. Andi navigates, and their strategy is for Jesse to run straight and Andi to tell him what’s in front of him. We all laugh when we realize he’s just bulldozing his way through, kicking obstacles aside, and throwing cardboard boxes instead of trying to move around them. It earns him an even better time than Mia and Nolan.
The rest of the couples try to imitate Andi and Jesse’s strategy, but it doesn’t go quite as well for anybody else.
We’re last. Andi and Jesse’s time is still the time to beat. Jake grips my shoulders. “I have a plan.”
“Okay. What’s the plan?” I ask.
“They all jogged. If I sprint, I can make it from here to the finish in probably ten or fifteen seconds, I think.”
“If you don’t eat shit,” I add.
“That’s where my lovely navigator comes in.”
I take a deep breath. “That’s a lot of trust. Promise me you won’t get hurt.”
“I’m made of steel, Caroline. Do I ever get hurt?”
I give the number of visible scars on his arms, face, and legs a once over. He brushes me off. “Flesh wounds,” he says.
“Alright, Superman. Let’s do this.”
Paisley gives the signal that it’s time for me to look. I turn around and try to memorize the location of all the obstacles. It’s harder than I thought it would be, and my ten seconds feel like they’re over in two. I turn around, already feeling the visual I had of the course jumbling up in my brain. Oh, no.
“They’re all over the place,” I say as I’m blindfolded, along with Jake, who didn’t get to look at the course.
“That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know if I can remember it all. Just kinda start right and then go left a little after that, I guess?”
“I got this.”
“Go!” Paisley shouts.
My brain goes blank, and panic fills me at the sound of Jake’s huge body taking off at full speed. I can feel the ground shake and hear the rapid thumping of his shoes on the grass.
“Watch out for the first one!” I shout unhelpfully.
I hear an ooh from the crowd and the sound of Jake grunting and falling. He’s back up again, though, feet pounding.
I give up any hope of navigating and lift my blindfold to watch.
Paisley points. “Navigator has her blindfold off! If she speaks now, the team is disqualified!”
Jake is hauling ass. Obstacles occasionally trip him up or send him rolling, but he gets back to his feet with impressive speed and keeps a sense of which way is forward. After tripping a few times, he’s got a clear patch of grass ahead with nothing but the finish line and the icy harbor ahead.
Oh, no.
Jake doesn’t slow down. In fact, he’s picking up speed.
I put my hands over my mouth to stop from shouting out and warning him. I don’t want to get us disqualified.
Jake crosses the finish line and then takes two long strides before he’s shin-deep in the harbor. He loses his balance, his arms pinwheeling as he flies forward, his fists clenched, and his body straight like an arrow.
He really does look like Superman.
He lands with a huge splash.
I run over to help him, but he’s already getting out, clothes clinging to his v-shaped torso and thickly muscled legs as he pulls himself from the water. He flicks his hair back, pulling up the blindfold with a triumphant smile. “How was my time?”
I laugh. “Pretty sure we won. Resoundingly.”
“Hell yeah.” Jake fist-bumps me. “You’re a terrible navigator, by the way.”
25
JAKE
The week of wedding games ends today, and we’re neck and neck with Jesse and Andi. Of course, my sister and her husband had to be the ones trying to steal the win from us. We’re all positioned in the harbor, shoved into little row boats with our partners. I’m in the back, and Caroline is in front of me. She’s got on a sweater and has her hair pulled up in a ponytail.
She looks back at me over her shoulder, the setting sun flashing on her green-rimmed classes. “Those muscles aren’t just for show, right?”
“I rowed in college for a while,” I say. “Jesse tried it and hated it. They’re screwed.”
“Good. Because my idea of cardio is when I have to walk up the stairs at the B&B. If this involves much more exercise than that? Well, you’re on your own.”
“I got this,” I say, eyes focused on the far end of the harbor. “It’s maybe 2,000 meters. In college, I could’ve crushed this in about six minutes.”
“Did you have a beautiful dead weight in your boat back in those college days?” Caroline asks.
“Well… no. But you’re not a dead weight. You’re going to be awesome.” I have a few minutes while Paisley bumbles around, trying to find the “official starting gun thingie” she ordered online and has misplaced. I guide her through the proper stroke technique. I don’t point out that Andi briefly got into rowing when she heard I was competing. For a while, she was getting pretty good. I look over and see she’s rolling out her shoulders and cracking her neck like she’s preparing to kick ass.