Chapter 39

Sam had hold of the reel as we headed toward the checkouts. There were two in operation. The first had two people in the queue, and the second, staffed by Alex, had three people waiting. Sam joined Alex’s queue. I winked at Mark, who smiled back.

Although I had enough cash, I chose to pay by credit card knowing Alex would have to turn around to use the card-reading machine. Sam and Billy could barely suppress their giggles.

Back in the car, Mark asked, “Well, what’s the verdict? Who has the cutest bum?”

We all laughed, but poor Billy went red. As the windows were steamed up, and no one could see in, Sam leaned over and gave Billy a kiss. “You have.”

“Stop teasing the poor kid,” I said once I’d got the giggles under control. I started the car and drove home.

When we were all back inside and had taken off our wet coats, Mark said, “I don’t know what you want to do this morning, but it’ll have to be something indoors.”

“Monopoly!” Sam went to the drawer and pulled out the box.