“Ellen,” she corrected him, and then snapped her mouth shut, cheeks flaming.
Holy. Shit!
She not only remembered the content of the interview, she remembered which show it was from.
Interesting. Very, very interesting.
Gen spoke up. “Just to recap the score really quickly, we have Abby winning by a landslide with three points. Gavin has scored zero points, but two really sick burns. So who’s the real winner here?”
Abby’s hand shot into the air and Jet had to laugh.
“Abby’s a little competitive, in case you couldn’t tell,” Gen teased. “All right, now. Next question. What is Jet allergic to?”
Abby’s eyes narrowed as she shot a glance at Gavin. Clearly she thought the question provided him a real chance to put some numbers on the board, and she didn’t like it.
“Cards up!”
Abby got the question right. Her card read, “Penicillin.”
Jet had to shake his head when he looked at Gavin’s card. He knew for a fact that his brother was aware of his penicillin allergy, but apparently he was just going to finish off the night by getting as many little smart ass digs in at Jet as he could, because his card said, “Hard Work.”
“Good one, babe,” Gen said.
Jet called out, “Hey. No bias from the moderator!” and the crowd laughed.
Gen grinned. “I make no promises. Now, moving on to the fourth and final question. This was going to be where I explained what would happen if there was a tie, but apparently that won’t be necessary.”
Abby mumbled, “Yes!” under her breath and pulled a victory fist down to her waist.
Jet gave her a friendly nudge with his elbow. “Easy there, killer. You’ve got it in the bag.”
She shook her head and her eyes sparked. “Nope. Never relax until you’ve actually won. That’s my motto.”
“I think you stole it from The Great Santini.”
“Hey. He might’ve been a crappy father, but I bet he had a pretty decent record with board games.”
Gen continued and Abby’s attention snapped forward. “The final question is this: with what honor did Jet graduate high school?”
“Yes!” Abby cried, pumping her fists up into the air. The effect of the gesture was even more dramatic because of the fact that one hand still held the white poster board, while the other held the fat marking pen.
Jet dropped his forehead into his palm and shook his head. Would nobody ever forget that freaking tenth of a grade point?
“Cards up!”
Abby’s card, predictably, read, “Salutatorian– and I was the valedictorian,” followed– excessively, Jet thought– by about ten exclamation marks.
Gavin’s card said simply, “He graduated?” When Jet looked at him and rolled his eyes, he saw that Gavin was wearing a small smirk. Jet was impressed. For Gavin, that was the equivalent of doubling over with laughter.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. Abby Baxter!”
Abby looked at him and sighed. “I do believe those are the most beautiful words in the English language. Promise me you’ll have them carved on my tombstone, will you?”
He slung his arm around her. “I’ll do you one better. I’ll have it made up into a wall hanging and you can put it up opposite your bed so it can be the first thing you see when you wake up every morning.”
She looked up and met his eyes, and her voice softened. “I’d like that. As long as it can be the second thing. I’d rather the first thing was you.”