Page 16 of Scoring Chances
“Raging would require him to show actual emotion. What he’s doing is going numb. And somehow that’s scarier. He’s not like my brothers. They wear their emotions on their sleeves.”
He looks over at me. “Yeah I heard you had a lot of siblings.”
“Too many if you ask me. Four of them are around his age.” I motion toward where Cole just exited.
“No shit?” Keelan says, leaning against the door and watching me.
“That’s a bad word,” Maddie says to him between bites.
He shrugs. “We used to have a swear jar when Fergie was here. So sorry kid,” he ruffles her wet hair. “Guess you missed the boat on that one?”
Maddie smiles. “So, I can't get money when you say a bad word?”
“Nope,” Keelan says, popping the p. “But we do have a cringe jar. See it sitting over there next to the coffee maker?”
He points and Maddie and I both look. “But it’s empty,” she says.
“Yeah… because I’m the only one around here paying up. But if you want to be the cringe police–I’ll let you keep half the profits.”
“Really?”
Keelan nods.
“What qualifies as cringey?” I ask him.
“That shirt,” Joshua says, coming down the stairs.
Keelan looks down at his bright Hawaiian shirt. “That’s not fair. The theme of the baby shower is tropical oasis.”
“Nobody should own a shirt like that, Lando. I say it's jar-worthy.”
Keelan rolls his eyes, but takes out his wallet anyways. He stuffs a few bills into the near-empty jar, and Maddie’s eyes widen.
“I get half of that?”
“Yep! And I suggest you be on the lookout with this one,” Keelan hooks his thumb toward Joshua. “Don’t let him fool you with the whole daddy routine. He’s definitely cringey. Maybe the cringiest.”
I can’t help the laugh that escapes me.
“I’m sorry. Do you have something to say?” Joshua looks over at me, holding back a grin.
“Yeah, I catch him talking to himself several times a day.”
“Cringe,” Keelan says, pointing to me. “See? So cringe. Jar, Hicks. You weirdo. He does do that."
Joshua scrunches his brows but digs his wallet out too, eyeing me as he stuffs a few bills into it.
“I like this game!” Maddie announces.
“You should. It’s going to make you rich,” Keelan says with a smile. Then he turns to me, “Are you… going in that?”
I look down at my shorts and t-shirt and then look back up at him. “Uh… I didn’t realize it was a themed baby shower.”
“Yeah, neither did I,” Joshua says.
“Did nobody read the invitation but me?”
“You probably read the fine print since it was Rina who sent it,” Joshua says with a smirk.