“Let’s head down to the lake over there. Maybe we’ll see some ducks,” Allison suggested.
“Okay.” But he didn’t think they’d find anything there.
They ran into a few of the other teams, but no one followed them. They all looked like they were hard at work doing their own thing. He didn’t want to be distracted, though.
They’d been working on the clues, but damn that Haven, these were hard.
When they got down to the lake, they all looked around, even splitting up to wander the area.
They came up with nothing.
“It’s not here,” Elvin said.
Then it hit him. “Duck’s Bar. Just up the street and around the corner.”
Hopefully no one else had come up with the clue. They ran, and Warrell asked the bartender, who pulled out the team football from behind the bar.
“Awesome,” Elvin said. “That’s four items for us.”
“How are we doing for time?” Allison asked.
Warrell pulled out his phone. “Fifteen minutes left.”
“Let’s check out the next clue.” Allison went over the list. “Or maybe we should split up. Elvin and I will do one, and you and Warrell can do another. It’ll double our chances to get more items.”
Trevor nodded. “That works.”
Allison read them their clue—“Find me at the bottom of the barrel.”
“We’ll meet up back at the house with five minutes left,” Allison said. Then they dashed off in another direction.
“Okay, what do you think that means,” Trevor asked.
“You got me.” Warrell looked around. “I don’t see any barrels around here.”
They started walking along the marina, both of them searching opposite sides of the road. “Keep your eyes open for a barrel. There has to be one—”
Of course. He didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him right away. “We have to get back to the house. There’s a barrel at the end of my dock.”
They made a run for it. When they got back to the house, Trevor stopped Warrell. “Play it cool. We don’t want anyone to notice where we’re going.”
Warrell nodded. They grabbed a beer, then went out onto the deck. Trevor motioned with his head toward the barrel, and Warrell went over there, stuck his hand inside, and, grinning at Trevor, fished out a team bobblehead.
Yes.
By then Allison and Elvin had made their way back. “Find anything?”
Trevor produced the bobblehead.
“Awesome,” Allison said. “We had no luck at all with our clue.”
“But we have five,” Trevor said. “That’s pretty good.”
“But is it good enough? There are forty items in total.”
“And a lot of teams,” Trevor added. “So we’ll see.”
They hung out and waited, watching as the rest of the teams showed up. Trevor had no idea who would win.
“What do you think?” he asked as he and Warrell hung out, drinking beers.
“I dunno. No one looks like they have a bag stuffed full. I think we got a shot.”
“Me, too.”
“Okay, everyone,” Haven said. “Time’s up. Turn your bags in.”
Allison turned in their tote bag. Trevor watched as Haven gathered all the bags and started counting up items. He had to admit, he’d had fun. He went back to his group and finished his beer.
“We did good. No matter what happens, we did good. We’re a great team.”
“You’re right,” Elvin said. “We killed it. And from the looks of some of those bags Haven is emptying, we did better than a lot of the other teams.”
Trevor clinked his beer against theirs, then looked over at Warrell, who finally seemed relaxed. He even grinned.
Everyone mingled and had snacks and drinks while Haven tallied up the winners. When she announced that she was ready, people started gathering around.
“Third-place winners of gift cards to some of Tampa’s finest restaurants are Vivian and Louis Trammell, and Sue and JW.”
Rounds of applause went up.
“Second-place winners of gift cards are Trevor, Elvin and Allison, and Warrell.”
“Hey, that’s us,” Trevor said.
“Dammit, I wanted to win,” Elvin said.
Warrell laughed at that. “Don’t we all.”
But they took their gift cards. “Thanks,” Trevor said as Haven handed him the gift card.
“You’re welcome. You all did very well.”