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“First up, we haveFive Fingers, a game where each player is only the palm of a hand and must collect all five fingers first to win the game.”

I snort out a laugh. “Excuse me. What?”

“That one’s actually pretty fun,” Tina says. “I’m really good at it.”

“Next, we haveAdoption.It’s like a weird mashup ofLifeandMonopolywhere you have to adopt as many children as you can, and you can even adopt the other players if they land on the wrong square at the wrong time.”

“No one has ever figured out how to win this game,” Oliver says.

“The rules aren’t clear,” Tina agrees.

“Last up, we haveTruth or Stare.”

“This one’s fun,” Tina says. “Let’s play this one.”

She sits down on the rug next to Ryan. I look at Oliver before I lower myself down across from them. Oliver sits down next to me. He scoots in close so that we’re touching. He rests one hand on my knee. It sends a tingle up my thigh, just another reminder that I wish I was upstairs alone with him.

“What is it?” I ask Tina.

Ryan sets the box on the floor between everyone and opens it, revealing a tile path that twists and turns around a map. Every few paces, there’s a red square with a flag.

“When you get to a flag, you have to draw one of these cards first,” Tina says, picking up a short stack of red cards. She shows me the first one, which has a picture of a green game piece on the other side. “This card will tell you which of the other players you have to answer a question about.”

“This sounds juicy,” I say with a laugh. “What are the questions?”

“The questions are in this stack,” Tina says, grabbing a blue deck of cards. “You draw one of these, and you have to either answer the question, or choose to do a stare.”

“What is a stare?”

“You and the player you chose on the red card have to stare at each other until the hourglass runs out without breaking eye contact.”

“No blinking, smiling, or laughing either,” Ryan adds.

“What happens if I do any of those things?”

“Then you pick up a black card,” Tina says. She holds up a black deck. “And find out what your punishment is.”

“Okay. This sounds like fun. When do you want to play it?” I’m hoping she’ll say that we can play it in an hour or two so I can sneak back upstairs with Oliver.

“Let’s play it right now,” she says.

I look at Oliver. He smiles slightly, telling me with his eyes that it’s okay and what we both want to do can wait until later. His hand squeezes my knee. Even though inside I’m groaning, I smile back. I look back at Tina. She’s already taking out all the game pieces and setting up the board.

She hands us each a colored piece to play with. “Red for Ryan,” she says. “Orange for Oliver, purple for Priscilla, and teal for Tina.”

“That’s blue,” I correct her.

“We’re calling it teal tonight,” she says, sticking her tongue out at me.

We put all of our pieces in the start area, then take turns rolling the dice and moving our pieces along the path. Oliver gets to a flag space first. Tina and Ryan both cheer while Oliver groans. I laugh, unsure of what to expect. He draws a red card, then turns it around.

“Green,” he says. “No one is using the green piece.”

“Draw another,” Tina says.

He draws the next card. “Red,” he says. “I got Ryan.” He draws a blue card and reads the question: “Have you ever crop-dusted this person?”

I snort out a laugh. “Seriously? A question about farting?”