Twisted Up (Taking Chances #1) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,57

contraption of chicken wire, tissue paper, and twinkle lights.

Twinkle lights.

“I don’t remember it being so sparkly,” Jake said near her ear.

She laughed, maybe a little hysterically. “Me neither.”

If it had ended with chicken wire and twinkle lights, things might have been okay. Or at least mildly crazy instead of completely crazy. But there was more.

On the walls of the party room were huge blown-up pictures from The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy standing on her farm in Kansas adorned one wall, opposite the wall that boasted the floor-to-ceiling photo of Munchkinland. Straight ahead as you stepped into the room, in all its sparkly green glory, was, of course, the Emerald City.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Avery muttered.

“We’re definitely not in Kansas.” Jake nudged her forward, and not having a better idea, she started after Shelby and one of the booths in Munchkinland.

There were sparkly red shoes in the middle of each table. As Avery drew closer, she realized they were plastic and held twisted pretzel sticks, green fruit candies, and square gold-foil-wrapped chocolates.

Shelby slid into the booth next to Frank. She picked up a pretzel, a green candy, and a piece of chocolate. “Tornadoes, emeralds from the Emerald City, and bricks from the Yellow Brick Road.”

Jake took a seat across from Shelby and Frank.

“What is all this?” Avery asked, looking around the room.

“They had a party for the kids today. A lot of the people doing cleanup have young kids who are getting in the way or who are having a hard time dealing with going through their ruined stuff. Kit suggested we have some of the high school kids entertain the young ones today, and she was here to lead some activities and talk to the kids one-on-one. They played games, had snacks, and watched The Wizard of Oz and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

“Storm themes?” Avery asked. Was it too soon for the kids? But she shouldn’t worry. Kit was handling it.

Then Jake reached out, grabbed her hand, and pulled her into the booth next to him. He put his arm over the back of the booth behind her, and Avery kind of lost her train of thought.

Shelby nodded. “Movies with fun, kid-appropriate plots and a happily ever after.”

“They made their own meatballs for spaghetti at lunchtime, and everyone made a scarecrow or a tin man to take home,” Jake said.

“You knew about this?” she asked.

His thigh pressed against hers, and she tried to scoot away, but there was nowhere to go without ending up on her butt on the floor next to the booth.

Which he knew, judging by the grin he gave her. She was surrounded by him—his body, his heat, his scent.

She needed a drink. She started to take a pull on the straw in the Twisted Sister she still held but was surprised to find her glass was empty.

That wasn’t good. But she lifted her hand to signal the waitress, anyway.

“They decided to leave all the decorations up?” Avery asked.

Shelby looked around with a smile. “Everyone’s getting a kick out of it. Kit’s making it a weeklong event. The kids will come every day, which will help out their parents a ton, and she can work with them, help them through their emotions about all of it.”

Avery looked at the humongous tornado sparkly and twinkling in the middle of the dance floor. It was the centerpiece, for sure. And when they only had to walk out the door to see the results of the real tornado front and center, it seemed like a bit much.

But, then again, there was no ignoring or denying that all this was the focus right now. Maybe making it sparkly and twinkly, adding chocolate, and associating it with fun was a good thing. For the kids and adults alike. Adding the liquor for the grown-ups was absolutely a good idea.

The waitress set Avery’s drink down, and she immediately sipped.

Yep, a really good idea.

Jake chuckled and squeezed her shoulder. “Nobody’s thinking about the cleanup outside or the fact that their electricity is still out or that they may never find their grandmother’s jewelry box or their wedding album or their daughter’s stuffed duck.”

She pressed her lips together. He was right. This was ridiculous and over the top and gaudy and loud and . . . everyone was having a great time. Ridiculous seemed to be what they all needed.

Frank and Shelby were distracted for a moment by a couple of city-council members, and Avery wiggled in her seat. She needed to