Page 47 of Back to Square One

It was obvious it took effort on Claire’s part to participate in the conversation. “It’s a vacation, right? We relaxed.” She headed inside without another word.

There was an awkward beat of silence before Lizzie broke it by saying, “Hey, there’s cornhole stuff down there with all the yard equipment. Who’s up for a tournament? Also, where’s my wife?”

“In that order? Really?” Rowan laughed.

Less than an hour later, Justine and Sara had returned, the cornhole boards had been set up down below in the grass, and teams were being created. Claire stayed inside, saying she was tired and was going to nap, and nobody pointed out that she’d said she’d napped on the boat. The natural team pairings ended up being couples, which meant that Rowan and Evie were the only two uncoupled ones left. Stevie looked to Rowan, momentarily panicked, realizing what had happened, but Rowan shrugged it off.

“Guess it’s you and me,” she said to Evie.

“I mean, we used to make a mean cornhole team,” Evie reminded her.

They did. That fact was outside of the amnesia window. They were an excellent cornhole partnership.

“Let’s show them how we do this.” She held out a fist and Rowan bumped it without hesitation. Then she walked to the other cornhole board to stand next to Stevie.

“You good with this?” Stevie asked quietly, barely moving her lips.

“Stop worrying about me,” Rowan said, not unkindly. “It’s fine. It’s just Evie.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about.”

The game began.

And ended less than twenty minutes later, Stevie clearly flabbergasted about it.

“How? How?” she asked. “Straight points? Every shot? Have you been practicing?”

Rowan was laughing at the indignation. “Maybe amnesia sharpened my cornhole skills.”

Stevie pointed down the lawn at the other board where Evie and Sara stood, also laughing. “That doesn’t explain her.”

Rowan lifted a shoulder. “Maybe she’s got magic.”

Evie met her gaze across the grass and smiled.

“Unbelievable,” Stevie muttered in obvious disgust. “Who’s next?”

It didn’t take long for Rowan and Evie to beat every team. Justine and Lizzie put up a fight but ultimately fell. Becca and Jazz were terrible and scored a whopping four points while laughing their asses off.

“Okay, that’s it,” Stevie said, standing and waving her arms like she was controlling traffic. “We’re mixing up teams. You two need to be separated.”

“I call Rowan as my partner,” Sara shouted before Stevie could. Stevie turned wide eyes of betrayal toward her.

“Excuse me?”

“That’s what you were about to do,” Sara said, a knowing twinkle in her eyes. “So I called it.”

“You called it? What are we, ten?”

Sara just stood there grinning.

“Unbelievable,” Stevie muttered, which seemed to be her word of the afternoon.

Rowan and Sara set up to play against Evie and Jasmine. That meant Sara and Jasmine stood together at one board, Rowan and Evie at the other.

“Hi,” Evie said as she arrived next to Rowan.

“Hey.”