Page 41 of Unlikely to Stay

“Then what else are we going to do?”

“I’m going to get the picnic basket out of my car so we can have an amazingly delicious lunch…or brunch, considering the time.”

“Do you know what’s in it?”

“No clue.”

“I bet I can tell you before you even bring it out.”

Brant raised his eyebrows.“You think your friends know you that well?”

Colleen grinned.“I do.”

“Want to make a bet on it?”

“It depends.What are we betting?”

Brant thought.What could he bet?All of a sudden, his eyes went to the rope swing on one of the maple tree’s branches.“If you guess everything in the basket exactly right, I have to swing across the creek on that rope.”

“And if I don’t?”

“You have to do it.”

Colleen grinned before holding out her hand.“You have a deal.”

Brant walked back to his car to retrieve the basket and blanket.He covered the grass under the tree with the blanket and motioned Colleen to sit.

“Okay, how are we going to do this?”he asked.

“I’m going to name what’s in the basket.If I’m right, pull it out.If I get them all right,whichI will, you get your booty to swinging.”

Brant peeked inside the basket.Her friends’ choices were certainly eclectic.He didn’t think there was any way she was going to guess what was inside.

“First, there’s Meg’s brown sugar bacon,” she said.

With an eye roll, Brant pulled out the bacon.“That’s an easy guess.Bacon would be an obvious choice for food at ten a.m.”

“They also put some of Sadie’s blueberry muffins in it.”

Damn it.She was good.Brant pulled the muffins out and placed them on the blanket.

“Strawberries, cantaloupe, kiwi, and pineapple, already cut.”

It was starting to look like Brant was going to lose this bet…horribly.

“And to drink, mango orange juice in mason jars.”

“What?How in the heck did you knowthatwas going to be in there?”

Colleen laughed.“This was what we always packed when we came to the creek.We’d roll out of bed, grab the muffins we had Sadie make for us the day before, grab the fruit and juice, and be gone until midafternoon.”

“What about the bacon?Megan didn’t even live here when you were little!”

“Annie’s Granny Sophie made us bacon.It wasn’t honey pepper bacon.We improved our menu as we became adults.”

“You mean you three still come out here?”

Colleen nodded.“Absolutely.When we need to talk or de-stress or simply get away from it all for a bit…we know we can text each other and always meet up here.It’s our spot.”