laying Games (Games #2)(7)
Author: Jessica Clare

Brodie was sitting in the center of the group with Tesla at his side, looking for all the world as if she’d always been his partner. His arm was loosely around the back of her chair, and she leaned into him, laughing at everything he said. I rolled my eyes and ignored them. Sitting down, I pulled my legs up into my chair and rested my arms on my knees.

Liam glanced at me, and set his backpack down next to me. Then, he went to chat with Tesla, likely to talk strategy or to bitch about his partner. I didn’t care. This wasn’t fun anymore. If we were the first ones kicked off? I’d be just fine with that. I’d gone from being genuinely excited about being in first place and thinking we had a shot at the money to feeling abandoned.

"Oh, don’t worry about her." Brodie’s voice rose above the crowd, and I could hear it from where I sat. "She’s just in one of her Cranky Katy moods. She’ll get over it soon enough."

The teams around him tittered. I narrowed my eyes as a camera zoomed in on my brother, who didn’t seem to give a shit that I was miserable.

"Maybe she’s cranky because her brother abandoned her to hook up with a hot girl." The voice was deep and smooth and held just a hint of reproach. "I imagine that anyone would be in a bad mood if that happened to them. She got sold out by her partner."

I looked up in surprise. Liam’s back was to me, so I couldn’t see his expression. But that voice had been his. Was he defending me?

The crowd went quiet. Tesla wriggled in her seat, as if uncomfortable, and Brodie scowled at Liam.

I glanced away, pretending not to notice that Liam abandoned their little crowd and came to sit next to me in the empty seat. He didn’t look over, just grabbed his pack, put his headphones on, and began to drum a beat on his backpack, acting as if nothing in the world bothered him.

Me, I was full of confused thoughts. I’d been nothing but nasty to the guy and he’d defended me. Meanwhile, my brother, who was supposed to have my back? Had been calling me by the childhood nickname that he knew drove me crazy – Cranky Katy. Brodie and I argued – that was just how siblings were – but on TV? It was kind of embarrassing.

And yet Liam hadn’t sat around and laughed at Brodie’s words. He hadn’t joined in the little party that was trying to make me feel bad for being unhappy. He’d chided Brodie to his face and then turned and left.

At least someone had my back.

"Blarney Castle, just up ahead," I told Liam, folding up the map I’d been reading. I was in the back seat of the small car with the cameraman, given the task of navigating while he’d drove, since Liam was better with a stick shift than me.

We’d more or less reached an uneasy truce since getting off the flight at Cork. While we weren’t exactly friendly with each other, we’d fallen into a working relationship of a sort. We were polite and efficient as we’d gotten into the car rented for us, bought a map, and found our way to the next location. Liam was a rather quiet sort, so I didn’t know what he was thinking.

Not that it mattered, I supposed, since it was still looking as if we’d be the first ones kicked off of the race anyhow. We’d had the bad luck to have seats in the very back of the airplane since we’d arrived last at the ticket counter, and Liam wasn’t the type to shove his way to the front of the plane in a hurry to get off. He’d simply sat in his seat and waited for his turn, and I’d followed his lead. By the time we’d gotten off the plane and found the rental cars marked for the racers, we were the last ones to leave the airport.

"There," I said quickly, pointing as we drove over a tiny bridge. "Parking is in that direction." The castle was a fair distance away, the tower of it on the horizon. "Looks like we hike it from here."

"Looks like," he agreed, and then gestured at the line of identical silver hatchbacks already in the parking lot. "All the others are already here."

"Not surprising,” I said. We’d known we were in last place and nothing had happened to change that.

We parked our vehicle and grabbed our backpacks out of the trunk. To my surprise, he grabbed my pack and swung it onto his back next to his own, doubling up.

I gave him an odd look. "I can carry my own bag."

"I know," he said easily. "But it’s a long walk to the castle and we can make up time if I carry it."

I hesitated. "I’m not helpless."

Those dark eyes lit on my face. "Never said you were."

Okay, then. I nodded and we sprinted up the winding path toward the castle.

Ireland was really, really green. I’d expected that, but I was still surprised at how brilliantly pretty the grounds of the castle were. Abundant plant-life was everywhere, and flowers were blooming – a wild contrast from the cold snow of Greenland. As we arrived at the front of the castle, The World Races mat and flag came into view. A man in a black jacket and a short green kilt with white socks was there to greet us. He held out a disk as we approached.

Liam gestured that I should take it, so I did, and flipped it over. "Blarney Castle is known for two things – its remarkable gardens and the Blarney Stone,” I read. “As a team, your task is to plant an appropriate item in each of the four main gardens of the Blarney Castle gardens. Only plant in the marked sections. Once you have planted all four items in the correct spots, a gardener will give you your next task." I flipped over the disk to make sure I hadn’t missed anything else, then looked up at my partner. "Ten bucks says that someone has to kiss the Blarney Stone while we’re here."

"I’m not taking that bet," he told me, and his mouth curled on one side in a hint of a smile. He really did look like a rock star just then, especially with the lip piercing.

I found myself smiling back, and I tucked the disk under my arm. "Well, let’s find these gardens, shall we?"

We followed the marked path, and there was a spot with another World Games flag flying overhead. There were rows of potted plants lined up, guarded by a pair of gardeners in the same green kilts that our greeter had worn. We set down our backpacks next to the pile of the others, and I tucked the disk into mine, then we each grabbed a potted plant to start the task.

I stared down at my pot. Mine looked…well, like weed. I giggled and showed it to Liam.

"Pretty sure that’s illegal in most states," he murmured to me as we walked to the nearest garden. His was a plain fern of some kind. "Hope there’s not an Irish cop around to watch us plant that."

There were signs all over the extensive grounds, and from what I could tell, there were four main gardens – the Fern Gardens, the Poison Gardens, the Irish Garden, and the Bog Garden.

"No smoke garden," I joked. "Maybe we should plant yours first. It’s obviously the one that goes in the Fern Gardens."

We headed for the Fern Gardens and found a pair of shovels, the marked area, and two other teams still digging away at their marked plots. I got excited at the sight of that, especially when I realized that one team had no clue what they were doing, since they were planting their cannabis in the Fern Garden.

I set my pot of, well, pot down next to Liam’s fern and grabbed a shovel. "Come on," I told him in a low voice. "We can catch up right here." I pushed ahead and began to shovel dirt. It was soft and loose, not hard packed, and already wet. This wouldn’t be hard to dig at all. I tossed the shovel full of dirt to the side and stuck my shovel in again.

"I should be the one digging," Liam told me.

"Why’s that?" I asked, even as I hopped on the edge of my shovel to dig it into the ground even deeper.

"Because I’m…bigger than you."

"You were going to say ‘because you’re a guy,’ weren’t you?"

He said nothing.

As if sensing an argument, a cameraman zoomed in on us working.

“Admit it,” I told him. “You think I’m weak because I’m a girl and that’s why you’re being all weird.”

“I never said you were weak or girly. You’re just…short.”

I tossed the shovel-full of dirt on Liam’s buckle-covered, expensive boots.

He snorted. "Fair enough. I deserved that."

"You did," I said in a cheerful voice. "And you can dig the next one. Now, hand me your plant."

"Yes, ma’am," he told me, and he sounded almost amused at my bossiness.

We planted our first two quickly, electing the Poison Garden for the cannabis, and then heading back for the last two. We planted something that looked like a water lily in the bog garden, and the last plant, I had no idea what it was, but we just guessed at that point, and then flagged over a gardener.

Apparently we’d guessed right, because the gardener immediately handed over a disk. “Congratulations.”

Whooping with excitement, we quickly flipped over the disk and read it, heads bent. My hand brushed over Liam’s as we flipped, but I didn’t have time to focus on that. We read the next clue together.

"Make your way to the Blarney Stone," the disk read. "One team member will need to volunteer for the kiss, and receive the gift of gab."

He glanced over at me, and I noticed how close our faces were for the first time. "Well, you called it."

"I did," I told him, unable to stop looking at his mouth, so close to my own. "I figured they’d use every opportunity to make someone kiss in this game." Abby’s comment about making good TV was permanently stuck in my head. I began to get flustered as I thought about kissing him. He was tall, and, okay, if I admitted it to myself, good looking. Sure, he had tattoos and piercings, but he was pretty hot if I was paying attention to that sort of thing.

Which I wasn’t. Theoretically.

"Do you know much about the Blarney Stone?" he asked me.

"Just that it involves kissing. Maybe you have to stand on it and kiss someone for this gift of gab thing," I told him, and felt my body get all flushed again. Was I going to have to kiss him for the next clue? Why did that make me feel all weird and kind of excited instead of reluctant and unhappy?

"Only one of us is mentioned, though," he said thoughtfully. "What if we have to kiss a stranger?"

"Oh," I breathed. I hadn’t considered that. I elbowed him in a playful manner. "Well, you’re the one that could use the gift of gab, if you ask me."

He stared at me, eyes narrowing. "Fine. I’ll do it." Then, he turned away, clearly angry.

Guess I’d ruined our easygoing mood. Way to go, Katy, I told myself. We grabbed our bags – though he insisted on carrying mine – and followed the signs back to the castle itself.

I guess when I’d pictured the whole Blarney Stone thing, I thought it would be a big rock in a field that everyone went to and kissed. To my surprise, the Blarney Stone was just a stone set in the middle of one of the castle walls, nothing particularly special about it. I watched as one of guys from another team – Derron – laid on his back and grasped a pair of ropes attached to the wall. Two men held his legs as Derron lowered himself backward and kissed the stone while upside down. As soon as he was done, someone reached down with a scrub brush and cleaned the wall.

Okay, that was…not what I had been picturing. I looked at Liam sheepishly. "I guess I was wrong about the Blarney Stone."

"Guess so," he said in a bland voice, and I frowned. I’d hurt his feelings with my comment about the gift of gab. Now I was the bad guy.