I turned around to see what he was looking at. Or in this case,who.It was a little man in a cropped purple vest and a matching fez. “Is that Nigel?”
“Give me a minute.” Tanner jumped out of the sack and ran over to the guy. He was definitely dressed strangely enough to be Nigel. And was about the same size. But it didn’t completely look like him…
I started to climb out of my sack but part of my sneaker caught on the fabric.
“Need help?” asked Angel. He didn’t wait for an answer. He just picked me up while Diablo pulled the bag free from my sneaker.
“Thanks,” I said. And then I ran over to where Tanner had been. I couldn’t see him anymore, though. They must have gone behind a tree to talk.
I looked around when I got to the spot they’d been in. Sure enough, he and Nigel were standing behind a tree in a very heated discussion.
“Hey,” I called.
They both looked over at me as I ran over.
“What’s going on?” I asked. And then I realized that Nigel was still in his red cotton onesie. Which meant it hadn’t been him in the purple vest and fez. “Who was that guy?”
“What guy?” asked Tanner.
“The one who you ran over to talk to.”
“You mean Nigel?” he asked.
“No. I mean the guy in the purple vest. And the weird fez.”
“Right. Nigel.”
“Did you like my outfit?” asked Nigel.
“Yeah,” said Tanner. “What’d you think? We thought it could be a good distraction for him to wear that during the next event.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “Where’d it go?”
“Over there,” said Tanner. He pointed behind a tree. And Nigel pointed behind a different tree.
“You’re both lying. But I’m more concerned with why you didn’t even try to win the sack race.”
“I did try. But…” Tanner shook his head.
“Do youwantCole to fuck me? Because now if we lose one more event, I’m fucked. Literally.”
Tanner ran his hands through his hair. The only time I’d seen him look this frustrated was when he’d run away from our make-out session at the Odegaard boutique. “I won’t let that happen.”
“With magic?”
“No. I don’t need magic to kick Cole’s ass.”
Please let that be true.“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go win this thing!”
The next event was a tug of war. That was both good and bad. It was good because I was pretty sure our team was stronger. But it was bad because we were only stronger if Diablo was giving it his all. If he didn’t pull his weight, we’d be screwed.
Ocelot and his striped-onesie-clad assistants watered down a patch of dirt to create the biggest, most disgusting mud pit I’d ever seen. I would have rather died than compete and possibly fall into that filth. But luckily, I didn’t have to make that choice. This was a men-only event. And for some wonderful reason, the guys all decided to compete shirtless while us girls just got to sit on the sidelines and enjoy the show.
“Come on, red team!” I yelled.
Tanner looked over and smiled at me. He was at the very front of our line, and Cole was at the front of the other. The two men locked eyes and the tug of war began.
Neither team made much progress at first, but I wasn’t complaining. With them pulling on the rope, all their muscles were fully flexed and shimmering with sweat.
