Straddling the Line(82)
“Okay, what do you think that means,” Trevor asked.
“You got me.” Warrell looked around. “I don’t see any barrels around here.”
They started walking along the marina, both of them searching opposite sides of the road. “Keep your eyes open for a barrel. There has to be one—”
Of course. He didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him right away. “We have to get back to the house. There’s a barrel at the end of my dock.”
They made a run for it. When they got back to the house, Trevor stopped Warrell. “Play it cool. We don’t want anyone to notice where we’re going.”
Warrell nodded. They grabbed a beer, then went out onto the deck. Trevor motioned with his head toward the barrel, and Warrell went over there, stuck his hand inside, and, grinning at Trevor, fished out a team bobblehead.
Yes.
By then Allison and Elvin had made their way back. “Find anything?”
Trevor produced the bobblehead.
“Awesome,” Allison said. “We had no luck at all with our clue.”
“But we have five,” Trevor said. “That’s pretty good.”
“But is it good enough? There are forty items in total.”
“And a lot of teams,” Trevor added. “So we’ll see.”
They hung out and waited, watching as the rest of the teams showed up. Trevor had no idea who would win.
“What do you think?” he asked as he and Warrell hung out, drinking beers.
“I dunno. No one looks like they have a bag stuffed full. I think we got a shot.”
“Me, too.”
“Okay, everyone,” Haven said. “Time’s up. Turn your bags in.”
Allison turned in their tote bag. Trevor watched as Haven gathered all the bags and started counting up items. He had to admit, he’d had fun. He went back to his group and finished his beer.
“We did good. No matter what happens, we did good. We’re a great team.”
“You’re right,” Elvin said. “We killed it. And from the looks of some of those bags Haven is emptying, we did better than a lot of the other teams.”
Trevor clinked his beer against theirs, then looked over at Warrell, who finally seemed relaxed. He even grinned.
Everyone mingled and had snacks and drinks while Haven tallied up the winners. When she announced that she was ready, people started gathering around.
“Third-place winners of gift cards to some of Tampa’s finest restaurants are Vivian and Louis Trammell, and Sue and JW.”
Rounds of applause went up.
“Second-place winners of gift cards are Trevor, Elvin and Allison, and Warrell.”
“Hey, that’s us,” Trevor said.
“Dammit, I wanted to win,” Elvin said.
Warrell laughed at that. “Don’t we all.”
But they took their gift cards. “Thanks,” Trevor said as Haven handed him the gift card.
“You’re welcome. You all did very well.”
“And the winning team, with ten items found, is Coach George and his wife, Amanda, along with Barrett and Grant Cassidy.”
“I didn’t know the Cassidys could run that fast,” someone shouted amid the applause.
“I will kick your ass in practice next week,” Barrett said, pointing a finger and glaring at one of the guys.
Trevor laughed. Everyone gave the winning teams cheers. And Coach was grinning.
It was a good win, because Trevor knew how much Coach loved deep-sea fishing. So did the Cassidy brothers.
“Thanks for this, Trevor,” George said, waving the gift certificate. “I’m going to enjoy it.”
“So will I,” Amanda said, sliding the certificate into her purse. “While he’s off fishing for the day, I’ll be at the spa.”
Haven had moved in next to Trevor. “Sounds like a win-win for everyone, then.”
“More so for me, I think,” Amanda said with a wide smile. “I do love my spa days.”
“I don’t know. I do love my fishing.” George put his arm around Amanda. “But yeah, spa day for you, babe.”
The party started to wind down. Trevor saw everyone out, surprised when Warrell came up to him.
“I actually had a good time. Thanks for inviting me.”
“Thanks for coming. I think our team did good.”
Warrell nodded. “We did. And I’m still planning to beat your ass on the field.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Warrell grinned. “See you on Monday at practice.”
After the caterers and bartenders cleaned up and left, Trevor locked the door and grabbed a bottle of water. Haven was busily putting away all of the scavenger hunt stuff.
“My cleaning staff is coming tomorrow. They can take care of that.”