Dempsey POV
Carly gently holds my hand as I tell her the bare minimum about losing my father when suddenly she's waving someone over with her opposite hand. She drops mine before moving her glass between her hands and again waves at the person.
I take the moment to drop my head to my chest and blink back the tears that have been threatening to fall ever since I admitted mine and my dad's shared love over Cap. But, I do hear her husband whisper out, "Seriously?" Carly shushes him just as I notice a new pair of feet join our small group, brown boots to be exact.
I keep my gaze lowered and fidget with the shield on my arm, the feeling of being completely out of place more prevalent than I felt earlier. I hear a deep voice speak up in greeting. "Hey again, sis."
I feel Carly's hand on my shoulder, causing me to lift my head again looking straight at her. "You didn't get to meet this meatball at the game but, Dempsey this is my brother Chris." She motions over to him, which I allow myself to finally look over at him.
"Nice costume," he says in which I can hear a cross between smugness and teasing wrapped into one.
But yet beyond his words, what I see is a stunningly tall brunette trying to imitate Crocodile Dundee, causing me to not pay much attention to his so called compliment. I notice Ryan trying to hold back a laugh when Chris holds his hand out to me. I accept and shake, eyeing him with curiosity. "Is it dead?" I ask him.
He grins back at me with perfectly pearl teeth shining. "Well, if he isn't I'm gonna have a hell of a job skinning the bastard."
Carly and Ryan both look back and forth between us, oddly concerned by the interaction. "At least you know the movie," I tease when he finally releases my hand.
"Of course! 80s movies are in a whole category of their own," he tells me, still with the perfectly straight smile behind an even more perfect beard. "How do you know each other?"
"Oh, right! Dempsey is Ethan's teacher. I would've introduced you at the game but Scott said you were on a 'work call,'" she continues with our introduction, putting quotes around the work call. "She was the pitcher that night for the elementary teachers."
Chris nods his head in approval of this information while pulling a bit at the necklace that's hanging around his neck adorned with fake alligator teeth. Immediately I now notice the hint of tattoos peaking out from under the vest.
I speak up before he can. "So you're the Disney loving uncle Ethan told me about today."
He scrunches up his nose and points to himself, "That would be me."
"So then you are also the one who steals his jellybeans?" I cock my head to the side, attempting to cross my arms as much as I can while the shield is still attached to my wrist. He looks slightly panicked when I mention it. "So whose idea was the 'Parent Tax?'" I ask, looking back and forth between all three family members.
I chuckle lightly as Chris ducks his head behind his hand which is pulling his hat down a little further, while Carly and Ryan both look very pointedly at him. "You aren't even the parent!" I joke aloud.
"But I reaaalllly like jellybeans," he tells me with a wide toothy grin and boisterous laugh. I can't help but roll my eyes at the boyish look that has taken over this grown man's face. He takes a pull from his drink, licking the excess left on his lip. "What else has the little heathen said about me?"
I think back, trying to remember if there was anything else other than Disney and jellybeans. "That's it, I think." Suddenly I remember and snap my fingers. "He said you like vintage Disney. How vintage are we talking? Like Snow White era or Little Mermaid era?"
His eyes go wide as if I just asked him the most difficult question in the world. "Is there a wrong way to answer that question? I mean, I like Fox and the Hound which was earlier than Little Mermaid, but I also really love Little Mermaid." He sucks air between his teeth, really thinking about how to fully answer this question. He rubs his lips together as his empty hand rubs down his beard giving very serious thought to my random question.
"Are you solving long division or answering a question about a movie?" I tease, forgetting the fact that I've just met this man and I am already questioning his ability to answer a simple question.
Chris' brow lifts, along with the corner of his mouth revealing a cute little smirk. "Same question to you. That is if you think you can answer something as important as this as quickly as you're asking."
"Easy," I start to tell him but am interrupted by someone announcing that it's time to play a game. Carly grabs Ryan's hand and walks away leaving me alone with her brother who obviously knows way more people here considering the amount of random high fives and little waves he's administered throughout our meeting.
"Chris! You too!" I hear shouted over the music.
"Looks like you're being summoned," I step out of the way for him to join everyone in the other room.
"Aren't you joining?" he asks with a flick of his thumb towards the commotion.
My phone buzzes from my pocket. "Actually I need to get this," I mention, stepping further away from both him and the noise. He walks away but as I'm unlocking my phone I notice him glance back over his shoulder.
"Hey! Where are you?" I ask Sawyer who is on the other line.
"Not coming," I hear the disdain in her voice. Before I can question her and let her hear the panic in my voice she speaks up again. "Traffic jam turned into me being rear ended by an idiot!" she yells into my ear.
"Where are you? I'll come get you," I offer, already starting to fish my key from another pocket.
"No reason to. Cops are taking my statement and then I'm free to go. I just don't feel like partying anymore. I hadn't even made the first payment yet!" she groaned, slapping her hand against the steering wheel.
I offer to grab a pizza and meet her at her house but she turns me down again. By the time we hang up I decide I'm just gonna head out myself and end this somewhat awkward experience. I creep towards the room where the games are going, noticing that it looks like a game of beer pong has started. One side of the table has Chris and if I remember correctly from the night of the game, his brother Scott. The other side looks to be Tara and another female I haven't met.
I wind my way through the crowd until I locate Carly's blonde hair. I place my hand lightly on her shoulder. "I'm gonna head out."
"Really? It's still early, is everything alright?" she asks, genuinely concerned. "I'm sorry if I pried too much about your father earlier."
I wave her off. "No, it's not that. A friend was going to join me but she was in a minor fender bender so she's not coming." I pause as there's a loud cheer coming from the crowd and a loud double high five taking place between the brothers. "It's also a little weird being here, I mean I'm your son's teacher for crying out loud," I laugh out.
"If you're worried about judgement, please don't! My family and I, we're all a judgement free zone," she assures me, her eyes filled with sympathy. "Teaching is hard, and then you toss in personal lives, and well, sometimes you just need to live a little."
A small smile finds me. "I can tell where Ethan gets his smarts from." She laughs while her husband scowls at the both of us.
I stand with them for a few more rounds of Pong, noticing that her brothers are beating the pants off of everyone that challenges them. Before I know it, Chris catches my line of sight, pointing at me and then at the table. I shake my head and mouth "No," adamantly. He raises his hands, palms up, asking why not. I just shake my head again, planting my feet.
"Come on!" he calls out, his accent a little stronger than earlier when Carly introduced us.
I shake my head again to only be met with a very persistent nod of his own. This goes back and forth two times before I'm finally flat out telling him, "No thanks, I'm good!" I answer.
"Alright then," he says, turning his attention to the two guys that now stand on the other side of the table.
Another round later and Tara is clapping her hands, informing us it's time to move onto something else. She explains a different form of Bobbing for Apples, making it a bit more grown up like.
"If you're not interested in getting all up in each other's business, then you may want to sit this one out," she warns playfully. She goes on to tell us that each team will have someone bobbing for an apple. Once they latch onto the apple they have to pass it to the person behind them using only their mouth, no hands allowed. "So not only are you up close and personal with each other, but it's a bit germy," Scott laughs out. The process will go this way until each person on the team has bobbed.
I was still not interested in participating, yet again having known no one here really, but suddenly I'm pushed from behind and into a teams line. As I try to step out of the line Scott pulls me back to get in line in front of him. "Yeah, no I think I'll sit this one out too," I plead, noticing that Dundee is in front of me.
"Live a little!" Scott yells out at me as the game starts and people begin cheering loudly.
"Is that your family's motto or something?" He just laughs back at me before nudging me to turn back around and prepare for the pass.
Chris grabs the apple from the person in front of him easily since they're the same height and then turns leaning down a bit for me to clamp onto the other side. Considering it's already been bitten by several ahead of me, it's definitely getting hard to grip by the time it gets to us down the line. Scott easily takes it from me, drops it in a bucket and runs to the front to bob for the next apple.
The next apple comes my way and I'm dropping it in the bucket before racing to bob for my own apple, thankful that I won't be sinking my teeth into something that about five others have before me. In no time at all, thanks to Chris' long legs, he's in front of me again fishing for his own apple. He apparently grabs one because as he turns to me quickly there's a spray of water coming along with it, flying at my face. I do my best to control my laughter and bite into the apple, but it doesn't help that Chris is laughing along with me which means the apple is not staying in one spot.
"Be still," I squeal out, still finding the grabbing of the apple difficult. He's almost making it harder than actually bobbing for the thing.
I finally have to just reach out and put my hands on his forearms to keep him in place. Just as I'm noticing the feeling of thick veins underneath my hands, I feel his large hands grasp against my arms as well, holding me in place. This method seems to work as I can finally grasp the apple, turning away from him and passing it back to Scott.
"So, what's your answer, Dempsey?" I hear asked over my shoulder, causing me to turn away from the action going on behind me.
"Oh! Sorry, I figured we were done with that conversation." I look back behind me to see a couple start to struggle, the apple dropping down the the persons chin, being caught between their neck and jaw.
"A serious conversation like Disney cinema? Never."
Ethan was apparently quite correct on the analysis of his uncle, not giving up on the Disney topic. "Give me all the REAL vintage," I answer him. "I'm talking OG princesses, no HD quality. The real nitty gritty beginnings of Disney."
"Impressive," he commends me before I'm beckoning him to turn back around as there's a new person in front of him grapping their apple. Again it's an easy pass to Chris before he turns around to me.
My eyes go straight to the apple as lean in to take it from him. What should be an easy grab is made harder as he starts playfully dodging my mouth. With mock irritation I stomp my foot and yell at him. "Stop it!" I dart side to side trying to match his hilarious method while his eyebrows are dancing around. A slap against his chest with the back of my hand finally gets him to stop moving.
"Why would you do that?" I ask, laughing once the apple is passed on to Scott.
"Trying to get you to smile a little more," he admits. His lips turn up a bit more with a playful smirk. "Mission accomplished."
His words cause a heat to build into my cheeks, making me focus on the ground below me. I notice his boot nudging the toe of my own. "Come on, Cap. Life can't be so bad that you can't take a minute to live in the moment." Now I know I'm blushing as he calls me Cap. I tentatively lift my head and notice he's dipped his down a little more to be closer to eye to eye. "That suit was my favorite of his too."
"What?"
"The stealth suit from Winter Soldier. I always thought it was sleeker than the others," he tells me as the team next to us starts cheering as their last player runs to the front of their line for one more round.
A tiny smile starts to grow on my lips. "You follow Captain America?" I ask somewhat timidly. I don't hear an answer if he gives one, but I do notice his head kind of jerks back like he's been surprised.
"Come on! Last one, last one!" Scott is yelling behind me, right into my ear. "Chris!" His brother glances at us over his shoulder. "No funny business this time," he warns him, causing Chris to ask a "who me?"
I whistle at him to turn back around as the apple is getting closer to us. "You heard your brother," I call out and with a certain unprecedented level of confidence even poke him in the back with my finger.
"Alright, Capsicle, let's see if you can get it on the first try then," he teases back with a smile.
As soon as I see that Chris has the apple in between his teeth I shoot straight onto my tip toes. He turns towards me, leaning down just a bit at the same time. Just as I lean in closer, the apple falls.
And his lips are on mine.