“Good thing my girls are all so observant,” I said, without thinking first.
She raised her eyebrows.
I could have taken it back. But the truth was I didn’t want to. I liked this foursome we had. I liked thinking of them, both of them, as my girls.
I smiled and hoped she got all that.
We ran around to the front of the school to find the scarecrow dressed in overalls and tied around a pillar. With a quick snap, we got our picture. Then we ran back into the gym.
“Are we going to win this, Daddy?” Olive asked as we ran.
I knew my train of thinking would probably have my man card suspended indefinitely, but I didn’t care if we won this game or not. I already felt like a winner. The most beautiful girls in this place were all on my team. I couldn’t lose.
“We might,” I told her.
We were not the first team to arrive back. We received our treasure map just moments after Vanessa’s team. At this point it was anyone’s game.
We unfolded the map the principal handed to us, and our four heads leaned in to look at it together. The hand-drawn, photocopied map showed the school’s layout. The X was near the front of the school, but it didn’t say which floor. It was either in the welcome office, or upstairs in the auditorium. When I saw Vanessa’s team running towards the office, we had no choice but to face the auditorium again to see if our treasure was there. Nobody argued with me as we ran up the staircase. We wanted to win this thing.
The plastic treasure chest was on the stage — right behind the three tormenters of ours who stood guarding it. Instead of hands clasped, they had arms crossed. It was pretty intimidating. Until one of them started laughing. It was an evil feminine laugh. I recognized it as a sound I heard nearly every time I dropped Olive off at school in the morning. The Mean Moms.
They all three started laughing and removed their masks to reveal their constipated faces. It was Shauna, Tabitha, and Melissa. I felt like I was in a real-life episode of Scooby Doo.
“It’s not as scary if you laugh,” I told them.
“I bet you guys were nearly shitting your pants,” Shauna said, her arms crossed against her chest again.
“Potty mouth!” Olive accused, pointing her finger at them.
There was about to be a standoff. I held up my arms in resignation.
“Thanks for the theatrics, ladies,” I told them. “You really added a nice haunting element to our scavenger hunt.”
“No. Thank you,” Shauna said. “Your pity-date gave us more entertainment than all of the games downstairs. It was so kind of you to take her out tonight.”
“The only people I pity around here are the three of you,” I said.
I heard the pounding of footsteps making their way up the stairs, and I knew we needed to get to the prize before Vanessa’s team arrived. It might turn into a bouquet-toss kind of brawl otherwise.
“I mean the four of you,” I said, gesturing behind me. “Now get out of our way.”
“It’s just a bunch of dollar store candy,” Melissa said with a roll of her eyes. “Have at it.”
I took a girl’s hand in each of mine and we approached the stage.
The Mean Moms scowled in the most exaggerated ways as they scooted over to let us by. I hoped their faces would get stuck that way. Or maybe they already were.
“Does this mean we won?” Lucie asked.
I shrugged. “I guess so,” I said. “Go on,” I told the girls. “Open it up.”
They opened it to find, as I expected, a bunch of candy. They also pulled out some things I wasn’t expecting: a restaurant gift card and a movie theatre gift card. When Olive handed me the cards, I stuck them in my back pocket.
“Should we take this to the car?” I asked.
“Yes!” the girls answered.
I carried the treasure chest as the four of us held our heads high and marched our way past the snotty faces of the Mean Moms. Their cat-eyes turned into angry slits.
“Boots with fringe? That’s funny. Didn’t fringe go out of style like two decades ago?”
“Those poor girls. Someone should seriously introduce them to Etsy before they are forced to wear store-bought costumes another year.”
“Nah. I just donated a bunch of my shoes to the Salvation Army last week. I think that’s enough charity for this year.”
“Oh, snap.”
Speaking of things that were out of style, I was pretty sure no one said, “Oh snap,” anymore.
I looked at Cora to see if she’d heard them. I knew by the expression on her face that she had. I would have taken her hand then, or touched her in some way to comfort her, but both hands were carrying the treasure chest. I did the next best thing and hip-checked her.
9:06 P.M.
The girls insisted that the treasure chest be strapped into the back seat of the SUV with a seatbelt. Once it was secure, I looked at my watch. It was after nine, late for six-year-olds. We should probably call it a night. But I didn’t want to be away from Cora yet. And wasn’t it okay for kids to stay up a little later on special occasions?
I didn’t want to mention it in front of the kids in case she said no. I pulled out my phone and texted her.
BEN: Pizza?
She checked the phone and nodded. “Sounds great. I’m starving. We forgot to stop by the snack booths inside.”
“Let’s pick up a pizza and then head to my house to eat and divide up our treasure.”
“YAY!” Lucie yelled.
“PIZZA!” I heard from Olive.
“All right girls,” Cora said, “get in and buckle up if you want pizza.”
When I sat down in the passenger seat, I scrolled through the numbers in my phone to find my favorite pizzeria. Yes, I had it saved in my phone. I was a single dad who only knew how to cook about three meals. I had more restaurants than people in my phone’s contacts.
I leaned my head back on the headrest and turned to face Cora. “I have to ask you an important question.”
“Yes?”
“Do you like pineapple on your pizza?”
“Of course.”
“Does Lucie?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
9:45 P.M.
The four of us sat at my dining room table to eat and sort the candy. The pizza disappeared quickly. We’d all been so hungry after our treasure hunt.
We divided all of the candy into two even piles. When we had an odd number, we compromised with no arguing. We took an extra KitKat, but they got an extra Almond Joy. Everyone was happy and full, and probably pretty candied out since we’d been eating some as we sorted.
When the candy was in order, Olive asked Lucie if she wanted to watch Frozen. Of course she did. The two girls went into the living room. My guess was they’d both be asleep in less than ten minutes.
We were alone. Sort of. But Cora couldn’t seem to look at me. She’d been acting really shy since we’d gotten to my house.
“So,” I asked cautiously, “is there a reason you‘re having a hard time looking at me?”
She looked alarmed at first. Then she just laughed. “No reason,” she answered with a slight smirk.
“You sure?”
She shrugged. “It’s possible that I had a dream about your dining room table once.”
Okay. I wasn’t expecting something that good. But I wasn’t going to complain about it. “Did you want to tell me more about this dream?”
She shook her head and pursed her lips together tightly, probably to keep them from blurting anything out. It was probably for the best. If she said anything naughty I was going to want to bend her over the table. Who was I kidding? I already wanted to. Oh shit. Change of subject needed immediately if I ever wanted to be able to stand up from this table.