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Chapter twenty-eight

Hazel

One Month Later

“This is it.” Gage whispers in my ear. “You ready?”

Astrid jumps up and down next to us. “We’re gonna win! I can feel it.”

I smack her arms, pulling her to a stop. “Don’t jinx it.”

“It’s called visualization, Hazel. Manifestation.” She points to her temple. “You have to say and believe what you want, then the universe will give it to you.”

I roll my eyes. “Fine. Then I want a million dollars and to beat my brother in the Carrington Cove Games.”

Gage laughs beside me. “You’ll have five million dollars in a month from now, remember, Spitfire?”

I turn to look at him. “Oh yeah.”

“How do you keep forgetting about that money?” Cashlynn asks as Timothy MacDonald calls for the teams to line up at the starting line for the final game, a potato sack race that I feel confident we can win.

Howeve r, I underestimated Dallas. He recruited people from losing teams over the years that he knew wanted a taste at being on a winning team for a change.

They’ve definitely put up a fight, but I think this last race is ours.

Gage and I have been practicing potato sack racing in our apartment for the past two weeks since I had a feeling it would be one of the games this year. They rotate from year to year and this one hasn’t appeared for a while.

“Because that’s not my focus right now, Cashlynn,” I say, glaring at her. “My focus is beating my brother, showing him that he isn’t the most badass Sheppard sibling, proving to him that I can outsmart him, and…”

Grady leans over to Gage. “You sure you’re not rethinking marrying into this family now?”

Gage shakes his head, but his smirk tells me that he knows how I feel about this. This win is for bragging rights. “Not at all. In fact, I hope we wipe the floor with Dallas just so I can watch him pout.”

I reach out to high-five him. “That’s my fucking husband.”

Grady tosses his head back in laughter and then rubs his hands together. “Then let’s do this.”

Our team lines up along the starting line. I glance over at my brother, glaring at him to make sure he knows that I’m dialed in.

“You ready for this, Hazelnut? This is for all the marbles.”

“No. This is about pride, Dallas.” I pound a fist to my chest. “Get ready to cry.”

He chuckles. “I have tissues in my pocket ready for you when you lose.”

“The end of this game will be slightly different than normal,” Timothy says, grabbing our attention. “At the end of the race, the last contes tant will have to sink three bean bags into the cornhole boards to seal the deal and clench the title.”

I turn to look at Gage. “Shit.”

“Let me go last,” he suggests, turning behind him to consult the team. Everyone nods in agreement.

“Okay. Yeah, I think that’s our best shot.”

Dallas calls out to us as he makes his way to the back of his line as well. “You sure you don’t want Grady to go last?” Grady flips him off as my brother cackles, holding his stomach.

“You afraid you can’t beat me, Dallas?” Gage calls out to my brother, which makes his laughter stop abruptly.

Dallas glares at Gage. “Get ready to lose, Gage. Don’t worry, I have enough tissues for you and Hazel.”

Timothy calls out to us. “Teams…are you ready?”

I turn back to him and nod, bracing myself to go first. “Ready!”

Sally calls out from Dallas’s line. “Ready!”

And then the whistle blows, spiking my anxiety even more as I struggle to get the sack on and start hopping across the sand.

Person after person on my team makes their way across, neck and neck with Dallas’s team the entire time. When one person gets ahead, someone else trips, making the lead go back and forth as each person takes their turn.

And then before I know it, Gage is the last person hopping into the sack, leaping across the sand, fighting like hell to beat Dallas to the cornhole board.

The two of them arrive within seconds of each other, sprinting to pick up the bean bags in preparation to throw them.

Dallas tosses his first bag and sinks it right through the hole. “Hell yeah!”

Gage sinks his first as well. “Don’t get cocky, Dallas!”

The y both throw their second bag at the same time, but Gage misses as Dallas’s slinks through the hole again. “What was that?” Dallas mocks him. “Who’s behind now?”

But while Dallas is talking, Gage tosses his third bag and makes it through the hole, tying the score at 2-2.

As if someone is filming them in slow motion, both men prepare to launch their last bean bags in the air, leaving their hands at the same time.

All eyes are on them as they sail through the sky, arching toward the boards and aiming toward their target, making the seconds crawl as we find out who is going to be the champion of the Carrington Cove Games this year.

And when the cheers ring out around me, I don’t believe what I just saw.

“Oh my God!”

Timothy bellows out, “Holy moly, folks! The winner of this year’s Carrington Cove Games is…”

***

Want to know the winner of the final Carrington Cove Games? Find out who it is in the sneak peek into Hazel and Gage’s future!

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My new series, Blossom Peak, features Laney, Hazel's friend from this book! She's about to be reunited with her brother's best friend who broke her heart.

Want a sneak peek of what's to come? Keep reading ??