Page 35 of Stops Along the Way
Iris:I might be very mistaken, but I think he maybe likes me?
Peyton:Obviously
Iris:Not obviously!!
Declan nudges my foot underneath the table, and I nearly drop my phone on the floor. “Are you going to eat?” he asks.
I’d forgotten about my French toast. It still looks delicious and warm, waiting for me to pour syrup all over it. “Yeah, yeah. One second, just texting my parents.”
Amelia raises her eyebrows, since her phone and the family chat hasn’t been receiving any of the texts I’ve been sending.
Then, to my surprise, Amelia suggests, “I feel like we should play a game or something.”
“Like the picnic game?” I ask.
“I don’t know that one,” she says. The guys shake their heads.
I smile, shoving my phone away and taking a quick bite of my meal while thinking for a second to set the category for our game. “Oh, it’s easy. I’m going on a picnic, and I’ll bring corn.” The others look at me blankly. “Okay, Lee, now you say that you’re going on a picnic and what you’ll bring. And I’ll tell you if you can go; otherwise you have to keep guessing.”
She takes another bite of her melty grilled cheese. “All right, well, I’m going on a picnic, and I’ll bring pizza.”
I shake my head. “Nope, sorry, you can’t come.”
“Why not?” she asks.
“It has to fit a certain requirement,” I explain, chopping another piece of my French toast to have a bite ready to eat. “So keep guessing!”
“What about an empanada?” Grady asks.
Declan points toward his brother. “You gotta say the whole phrase.” He turns toward me. “Right?”
“Yeah, that’s how I’ve always played it.”
“Okay,” Grady says, and proceeds to repeat his request in full.
I shake my head again, glancing out the diner window at another car arriving in the parking lot. “Sorry, you can’t.”
Declan thinks for a second, grabbing a napkin to dry his fingers from the burger grease before taking a drink of his soda. “I’m going on a picnic, and I’ll bring rice.”
I give a wide grin. “Yes, you can come!”
Declan narrows his eyes in surprise. “Really? But why?”
With a playful shrug, I turn back to my sister, who says, “I’m going on a picnic, and I’ll bring chips.”
“Nope!” I give a hint: “You can bringachip but not chips.”
Grady tries again. “I’m going on a picnic, and I’ll bringapotato.”
“Sorry!”
I worry for a second that Grady might be the type to get frustrated with this game, and that would really ruin the fun vibes we’ve got going here, but he gives a good-natured grin and jokes, “You know, I might start to take this personally.”
“Oh,” Declan says, his face lighting up. “I get it now.”
“You think?” I say, shaking my head as I eat another bite.
“I’m going on a picnic…” Declan looks me right in the eye, pausing for effect, before saying, “and I’ll bring Iris.”
