Each team gets a ranking for each event, based on what place they finish in. And then at the end, the five rankings are added together, and the team with the highest overall ranking wins. So unless one team wins them all, you don’t have to win every game in order to come in first place.

As we continue to move farther away from our teammates, the game gets harder, and I expect me and Travis to get knocked out, but we keep hanging in. He has great aim, so that makes it easier for me to catch. But what’s most impressive is how, even with my wild tosses, he manages to keep catching the egg gently enough to keep it intact.

Who knew, under all the gruffness and muscles and flannel, that he was capable of handling things so gently? It makes me want to know what it would feel like if he handled me like that.

Okay, no, not the time for dirty thoughts. No distractions.

As I catch the next toss, I hear an egg crack right beside me, followed by a distressed sound from May. Turning to look, I find my daughter standing there with yellow egg yolk slowly dripping down her neck, and the laughter spills out of me before I can stop it.

“Mean!” she cries.

“Sweetie, I’m so sorry!” Elise yells, stepping out of her line and coming across to meet May.

But May’s smiling now. “Don’t worry about it, Grandma. We did good!”

Elise follows her as she heads off to get cleaned up, while I return my attention to the game. Apparently, the two of them weren’t the only ones to get knocked out on that round, and I’m pleased to realize that it’s just me and Travis and one other team left. But it’s the damn O’Brien twins. They’re too good.

The pressure’s definitely on now as I get ready to make my next toss. But Travis just smiles at me encouragingly like he’s not worried at all. And even though I know encouragement can’t actually make me any better at this, when I toss the egg to him, it seems as if someone far more skilled than me did the tossing, and he catches it with no problem.

I exhale in relief and brace myself for my next catch. Right when Roddy calls for the toss, a bunch of things seem to happen at once. Jimmy O’Brien, from over on Travis’s side, yells out some stupid taunt that’s meant to distract me. Travis turns to him, and though it’s hard to hear from this far away, I swear he growls, making Jimmy jump right as his egg soars out of his hand, which knocks his aim off. As Travis and I make eye contact again, he gives me a nod and tosses to me.