"That's it," I growled, launching myself at her and forcing us to stumble back, my best friend still laughing hysterically from the event that she pretty much forced to happen. I held her in a headlock but I was laughing with her, pretending like it didn't bother me, and that I didn't care. Embry was still watching us along with everyone else, his eyes wide.
"Quil!" Claire screamed, but her boyfriend shrugged.
"I think that you set yourself up for that, babe."
"Goddamn you!" she screeched in laughter as I continued to hold her in a headlock, spinning with her as she tried to hop out of my grip. Everyone else looked amused, and not from our banter.
"Go Embry!" Jacob boomed.
"About time," someone coughed, and the pregnant girl punched him in the ribs.
Sam laughed as Emily shook her head fondly, grinning like she expected Claire to pull something like this just as I had. At least I wasn't the only person that could read this dastardly girl for who she is.
"At ease! At ease!" she yelled up to me. "Uncle! Uncle!"
"Yes?" Sam teased, still laughing as he watched them. His two girls were tugging on his arms, asking what was going on, confused. He whispered an explanation down to them and they glanced at each other. They didn't look any more pleased with the answer. I wondered if he had told them I was a serial killer, and that this was only natural.
"Alright," I said, letting her go, "but that was for tricking me into coming."
"You know you love me." She straightened her shirt. "And it's not like you didn't see that coming from a mile away."
"I did, I just didn't think . . ." I glanced over at Embry pointedly, who was still watching us nervously with a grinning Quil at his side, and Claire clapped her hands like a retarded seal and hollered off more laughter.
"It's better this way," she laughed.
I rolled my eyes. "You're a 'ho."
"Farmers love hoes!" she screamed, glancing to the small children. "Earmuffs, young ones."
They looked at her like she was the stupid one.
"True, your parents are probably worse."
The parents: Emily and Sam (the six year old twins), Kim and Jared (the two year old girl), and Paul and Rachel (who were even expecting another along with a three year old boy) all glared at her. She grinned, and, as if they were Quil, she was easily forgiven.
I gave her a look and punched her in the arm. "Be nice."
"You be nice!" She punched me back and we stared each other down before the faux glares dissolved into grins.
"As you can see," Quil said to his gawking friend, "Chris is a strange little person."
"Shut up, Mr. I'm Six Foot Four!"
"I-I'm six foot three," Embry stammered.
I looked over at him and blushed, looking back to my best friend and flicking her in the face for good measure. "You're such a bad person," I told her, laughing as she poked me in the ribs, my weak point. She gave Embry a look before dragging me back to the bonfire, sitting me down close to the cliff and leaning toward me.
"He's a good kid," she whispered to me. "Give him a chance. Please?"
"Uh-uh," I said to her puppy dog eyes. "Not again. The last time that happened you made this happen. I no longer trust you."
"You love me."
"You love me, too."
"Enough of this creepy love fest," Quil announced as he flopped down next to us, grinning like an idiot. "I think Embry just had six heart attacks. In a row."
