fancy like Em’s fancy.”
“Huh.” Tig did not think Em was especially fancy if you did not count the fact that she usually had glitter somewhere on her. Em, as far as he knew, lived in jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers.
“Bailey and Tig, what are you two up to?” Speak of the devil.
Tig turned around to face Bailey’s sister-in-law and coworker. “Nothin’ much. We were just spying on the car that’s parked in front of the house.
Em stretched up on her tiptoes. “Oh. That’s Charlotte. How long has she been out there?”
“A good fifteen or twenty minutes.”
Em huffed. “I better go out there and get her before she completely chickens out and drives off. Excuse me.”
Bailey heaved a dramatic sigh. “Charlotte’s in trouble now.”
Tig snickered as he watched Em stalk off. “Go get her, girl.”
“Something exciting over here?” Rory poked his head in between the two of them. “Is that Charlotte?”
“Yep. Em’s gone to round her up.”
“Jaysus. Poor girl,” Rory chuckled. “Tig, your presence is requested at the playscape. Something about flips? I don’t know. . . .”
Tig grinned. “Always happy to oblige.”
He wandered across the yard until he saw that he had the attention of the two little girls, then he trotted a few steps and turned an aerial, making sure he held on to his hat. The little girls cheered, calling, “More, more.”
Not one to disappoint, Tig executed a few more moves before stopping in front of Colin.
“You’re up, big man,” he said with a grin.
“Oh, no,” Colin laughed. “I’m too old for that sh . . . crap.”
Tig wiggled his eyebrows at Colin, daring him. “Come on, C. I know you can do it; I’ve seen it.”
The bigger of the two girls’ eyes grew wide. “ You can do a cartwheel with no hands ?”
Colin scoffed at his niece’s disbelief. “Of course.”
And, of course, the two girls immediately started clamoring for a demonstration.
Colin stood up and pointed at Tig. “You are in a mess of trouble, Tig. You’re going to regret this come Monday morning workout.” Tig just grinned at him and wiggled his fingers.
“Watch, girls. See how a master does it.”
Colin ran a few steps, did the aerial, landed, and then promptly slipped and landed on his backside.
“The grass is slick,” he said with a laugh.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Tig said and immediately launched into his own aerial, landing neatly on his feet, right next to Colin. He held his hands up, wiggling his fingers and goading Colin.
“Oh, man, it is on, Kicker. It. Is. On.”
The two men continued to roll, and flip, and tumble across the lawn while the little girls cheered.
“Okay, now for some serious tumbling.” Tig took off his boots, socks, and hat and went to the far end of the backyard.
And he took off running, doing a tumbling pass that had the girls cheering, Bailey and Rory goggling, and Colin rolling his eyes.
“And that is how you tumble,” Tig called from across the yard.
Okay, Charlotte. You can do this. They invited you here. They want you here. Just get out of the car, walk up that driveway, and ring the doorbell. You can do this.
Charlotte sucked in a deep breath.
Oh God, I cannot do this.
She was just getting ready to shift the car into drive when she heard a tap-tap-tap on her window and turned to see Em’s sympathetic smile.
Charlotte sheepishly grinned and rolled down the window. “Hi, Em.”
“Where do you think you’re going, Charlotte?”
“Um, inside the house?”
Em grinned. “Nope. We’re going directly into the backyard. Turn off this car and hop out, sugar.”
Charlotte smiled back and turned off the motor but made no move to get out of the car.
Em’s face softened. “It’s just us, the kids, and a few other people. It’s going to be fine. Totally low-key. And real low-key, not Rory’s version of low-key.”
Charlotte laughed. Rory was anything but low-key.
“Come on, Charlotte. Come in and have a drink and