Heartbeats in Moonlight

Chapter 32

When they got to the area, they found that they were three short. So, much to Amelia's delight, and Ella's disgust, Amelia and Ella were drafted in.

"Do I look like I'm dressed to do tug of war?" Ella grouched as she began to remove her espadrilles. David watched as she tugged off the laces and began to shuck off the shoe. No, she wasn't dressed to participate, just to observe.

Ella complained long and hard about not being suitably dressed to take part, but she was shot down by Amelia who reminded her, "I told you to wear old jeans, not some designer label linen trousers. And what's with the shoes, you knew they forecast rain today." Amelia threw in as they sauntered toward the line, "Come on, come on, or they'll start without us." Amelia ordered Ella to roll up the sleeves of her tunic style shirt.

"I wish." Muttered Ella as she followed reluctantly, while rolling up her sleeves. Ella liked the feel of the grass beneath her feet.

Amelia whined at Ella to hurry up, as she dragged the barefooted Ella toward the rope. David banked his grin. This could be interesting. The icicle getting dirty. Down and dirty. It might be worth letting the other side win just to see Ella slide through the mud.

Ben was trying to figure out whether they could persuade a passer by into picking up the rope to make up their numbers when Greg bounded over. He, David, Ben and Jack had all been at school together, in the same year group.

"Sorry guys. I got a bit side tracked." Greg pulled his sweatshirt off, and dropped it by the small pile of gear left by Amelia and Ella.

"Better late than never." Grumbled Ben. "Have you met Ella, and Amelia?" He gestured vaguely at the two women.

Greg looked at the two women, and his eyes flicked to Jack, then Ben, then David, "Cheer leaders?" Seeing that one was dressed in high maintenance clothes, and the other was a slender clearly eager bunny!

Amelia's eyes rounded in amazement. Her a cheerleader? Wow. Ella feigned annoyance. Her a cheerleader? Was he mad?

"Er, no, making up our numbers." Jack corrected and wasn't at all surprised to see Greg's reaction.

Greg's eyebrows shot to his hairline. "Oh, right." Well, ok, that clearly meant this wasn't a serious tug team. "Well, ladies, I'm sure this will be a pleasure."

"Ames used to go to school with us, you may not remember her, she kind of skipped classes and finished years before us." Ben reminded Greg.

"Amelia Peters?" Of course he knew of her, couldn't actually remember her at school, but she had practically sailed through and left secondary school four years early, when he was fifteen she was fourteen and already sitting her school exit exams. He'd left a year later.

Amelia nodded. "Hi." She held out her hand. He shook it. "This is my friend Ella. Gabriella Jones. She's been in town a couple of years."

Greg looked at the woman in speculation. She was a stunner. A figure most men would kill to hold, a face most women would kill to have. No wonder he thought she was here to do cheerleading duties. "Pleasure to meet you." Greg took hold of her hand and was about to start to flirt, when David coughed.

"Are we going to hold hands all day or get on with this debacle?"

Jack got Ella and Amelia into position and showed them how to hold onto the rope. Ella and Amelia took up the rope on either side at the front, as the men figured they might distract the opposition.

"What are the tactics?" Amelia asked as Jack stationed her in front of him and took his time before letting her waist go.

"Hold on tight and pull!" He grinned at her. She scowled at him. That wouldn't work. The opposition looked more than capable of holding on tight and pulling harder at their end.

Amelia was right. They lasted barely a minute before they were tugged over the mid line.

"That won't do." Amelia muttered dejectedly as her team of ten trudged round to the other side. "Let's get some order here." Amelia demanded, then looked at the rag tag group. "Right." She said having got everyone into the sequence she wanted in her mind. She'd watched the opposition carefully. They worked well, as a team. Plus they seemed to have some sort of routine going. Unlike her team. "We dig our left foot in, and lean back, we move together, only when I call." The rest of the group looked at her in complete bemusement before they glanced across at Jack. "None of this disjointed stuff with everyone pulling whenever they feel like it." She told them when none of them had said a word. Best of three, she mulled as she carried on instructing the bewildered guys, moving by pushing and shoving, until she got them into a different line order on the rope. "Working with the laws of Physics, this should work better. We want our total work output together. So wait for my call. And sit low!" Ella banked her grin as she studied the bemused men. She waited to be told where to go in the line-up. Ben rolled his eyes when Jack looked at him in complete astonishment as Amelia pushed Jack toward the middle of the rope line. David grinned and waited for her to get to him. Amelia looked the team over with a critical eye, then began to check the order against the order she had sorted in her brain. "Right." They needed to win the next tug. Amelia looked down the line. Ella was on the same side of the rope as David, with only one pair of hands separating them, as Ben stood on the other side of the rope between them. Ella did her best to ignore David, though, his presence made her very self-conscious. "Remember! Dig in, sit low. But don't budge until I say!" Amelia glared at them all then glanced at Ella who was on the other side of the rope to her. "You, put your back into it this time!" And she wasn't joking. She wanted to win, and if that meant her friend was going to have to muck in, so be it. She scanned the line. Jack was grinning broadly as Amelia finished reprimanding her friend.

"I'm not the puny one." Ella grinned back, taking not the least bit of notice of Amelia's demands. She reached for the rope at the same time as David, threw him a cursory look and locked her hands around the thick cord of rope.

They won. Synchronised their combined pull had the opposition over within minutes. Amelia beamed at them just before Jack grabbed her by the shoulders, spun her around and kissed her. The rest of the team teased them and trekked back to take up their positions for the third and final haul. David followed Ella, without a word. Once again they took their positions.

It was tougher, but Amelia's calls seemed to have them working together and after some shifting to and fro they eventually hauled the other team over. Anyone would have thought that Amelia had won the lottery.

"Sweetheart, that's only the first round." Jack told her as he walked her back to the picnic blanket.

"Who cares?" Amelia was delighted and much to Jack's amusement she danced around him as they made their way back toward their rug. "We won. We won. We won."

"I didn't notice this competitive streak before."

"Jack, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that's what you were looking at before." Ella told him dryly as she sank onto the rug, and reached for the hamper of food.