Brad scowls at me, but his mood probably has more to do with Shark chittering noisily in his ear than me reporting for duty.
“Alright,” he says, “Port Royal gals, you know where to go. Don’t interact with any judges along the way, okay?”
“Aye, aye,” Fi says as the three of us push past.
“Avast,” Fi adds.
I burst out laughing. “Hey, you guys took all the good ones. Oh, hey. How about booty?”
“What?” Brad asks, his jaw hanging open.
“Pirate booty,” I clarify before catching up to my friends, who are laughing now.
We get to the Hammerhead and even though it’s starting to get dark, there’s still plenty of time to admire its beauty.
“You outdid yourself, Kaylee,” I tell her.
We sit down in the sand behind it to wait for the ceremony.
“I told you guys it was a team effort.”
“And I told you, bringing sand and water is not the same as sculpting a piece of art,” I counter. Then I pull out my phone and take a bunch of pictures of the finished product before we lose the light. I want to remember this.
“Oh yeah,” Kaylee and Fi do the same.
“Hey, Angie, you okay?” Kaylee asks.
“Why?” I ask, seeing a smirk appear on her face.
“Because we’ve been here, like five minutes and not once have you looked over at Tortuga or suggested a plan of attack.”
“Tonight’s Kaylee’s night.”
“Okay,” Fi says and then coughs, “bullshit,” before turning to Kaylee. “I give her ten minutes.”
I laugh along. And then we settle in because there’s movement over at the judge’s stand.
It hits me that they’re right. I’m not looking over to see what Jake’s doing and not suggesting any kind of war or sabotage because I’m happy and not angry.
Okay, I’m more than happy when I think about that night on the parade float. I remember the sight of his crystal blue eyes and tall, muscled frame and I’m practically drooling on the beach sand. It’s hard to be angry when you have that many orgasms.
“Angie?” It’s Fi again, breaking me out of my inner monologue. I’m getting too much attention to be able to keep my secret for very long.
“What?”
“I know that look,” Fi scoots closer to me.
“What look?”
Kaylee squints at me too in the fading light. “Mmmm hmmm.”
“No, seriously, what?”
“She’s getting some,” Fi laughs.
Damn it. And I have no idea what to say to that.
Luckily, that’s when the Mayor annoyingly taps on the microphone. “Hello? Yes? You can hear me? Okay.”
The stage he’s on is lit and the volunteers pass out lanterns for the rest of us, casting a warm glow on the proceedings.
Whew, that was a close one. I’m not sure how much longer I can or should hold out on my friends. They deserve to know the truth. But it’s Jake, and like everything else in my life that involves Jake, it’s usually complicated.
Fifth place in the contest goes to Tortuga. I chance a small smile seeing Jake go up on the stage to get his sand crab medal and trophy.
He smiles and waves, and I swear he’s looking for me, but it’s too dark. And I’m sure that only Kaylee is visible from far away and that’s because she’s the one holding the lantern.
I hold my breath as they announce the other places between fifth and first, because I’ll be mad as hell if Kaylee gets screwed. And then the big announcement comes.
“And the first-place trophy goes to,” the Mayor pauses for an irritatingly dramatic amount of time in an effort to create faux drama and extend his own fifteen minutes in the literal limelight. I feel my teeth gritting as I wait.
“Port Royal!”
I scream first, but Kaylee and Fi join in. We all jump up from where we’re sitting in the sand and hug. Then we go up to the stage together, trailing behind Kaylee.
Kaylee accepts her medal. It’s a bronze sand crab with a big number one engraved on it along with the words Team Port Royal and the year.
Chapter 28
Jake
It’s a beautiful night with a light sea breeze. I’m wearing my pirate captain hat, best ripped jeans, and an eye patch because Angie said she likes it.
I feel like a kid again. Everything is more fun. Just thinking of her makes me smile.
I sit with the rest of my Tortuga volunteers around our sand sculpture. It’s a sand dollar, and although it’s not the most difficult shape to make, it has beautiful accents. I’m proud of my team.
I also know for a fact that Angie’s team has first place all sewn up. Kaylee’s Hammerhead shark looks like it just swam out of the ocean to show off.
My team wins fifth place. Bonus! We snake across the beach and up to the stage. I accept the bronze medal on the black lanyard from the Mayor and try to step toward the microphone to thank everybody, but he blocks my path.
“Not today, pretty boy,” he mutters.
I laugh out loud and hand the medal to Bryce. He’s the one who did all the sculpting on our sand dollar. Then we walk back to our area to wait for the other winners to be announced.
As I sit in the dark waiting, my thoughts wander to tomorrow’s workout. My ankle should be better by now, that’s what all of the tests say. But now it’s time to see how it performs under game-time conditions. I’m a little nervous.
I hear the mayor announce that Port Royal, to the surprise of no one, has won first place. I stand, clap, and cheer before sitting back down.
Almost lost in my thoughts again, I hear a familiar voice nearby.
“Hey, bro.”
I turn. “Stu? Hey, man.”
“You didn’t show up last night. We were worried.”
Oh yeah. I forgot all about it and had dinner with Angie. “Sorry about that, Stu. Something came up.”
Stu sits down next to me. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean? Hey, did you hear? We got fifth place,” I say excitedly.
“Yeah,” Stu deadpans, “out of like ten teams.”
He’s just razzing me, but nothing
