21. Jake

Frosty Harbor is a town that knows how to throw a celebration. Jesse and Caroline's family have been part of a long tradition of bringing the town together for events, going back since the town's founding, butI'm always a little surprised by the huge turnout.

We're near the center of town and the clearing of grass is covered with picnic tables, portable grills, boxes of game items, and covered plates of all shapes and sizes. People always bring food to Frosty Harbor events, and it might be my favorite part of them. Today, Nolan and Mia's restaurant catered for the event, so the quality of food is off-the-charts. On top of the catered food, people brought their own tinfoil dishes of stuff from home, too, creating a practical feast.

I've only been here for a few minutes, and I'm already half-stuffed with homemade mac" n' cheese, peach cobbler, pigs in a blanket, steak bites, and several other delicious bites.

I'm chewing as I look out over the town and take in the sight of the snow-topped mountains. There's snow on the peaks almost year-round, even when it's pleasant and warm on the ground. There really aren't many places more beautiful than here.

Every person who passes stops to squeeze my shoulder, shake my hand, or make some old-timer joke about "the old ball and chain" or some other good-natured jab at married life. I do have to admit the general tone of people in town has been different than I initially expected. Instead of seeming happy and congratulatory, it feels like they all enjoy teasing me about married life. That, or they will joke about how head-over-heels we must be to get married so quickly.

Caroline finds me in the middle of her frenzy of planning. She puts one hand on the small of my back and moves in front of me. "Hey. Doing okay?"

"Yeah?" I say around a mouthful of pulled pork.

"You sure? Because Carter told me you're eating like you're training to be a competitive hot dog eater in your retired life. He thinks you're nervous.'

I pop a roll in my mouth, puffing out one cheek with food. "I'm not nervous."

Her smile is soft and sweet. She touches my forearm. "Maybe take a little break from the free food. We've got a game in five minutes."

Mia gestures for Caroline, who rushes off and helps pull more chairs into position. People are gathering in a ring around the chairs and the girls are blowing up balloons. Doesn't look too bad, I think.

I grab another hotdog, sigh, and head over.

"Here he is!" Paisley shouts, fist-pumping. From the looks of it, she already had too much to drink. Then again, when it comes to Paisley, half a beer is probably too much to drink.

The crowd of onlookers continues to grow as I'm ushered into one of the chairs. Nolan and Jesse are beside me, and then a handful of other married guys from town are filling out the remaining chairs. The wives, girlfriends, and fake fiancée assemble on the other side of the clearing. Paisley is busy with a few other women handing out huge balloons.

"Okay!" Paisley shouts, swaying a little as if the next stiff breeze might knock her off her feet. "Welcome to the wedpocolypse!"

"Nope!" Mia shouts, rushing over from her place in front of Nolan's chair. She puts an arm around Paisley, still holding her oversized balloon. "We decided to just call these the wedding games. And thank you all for coming. Frosty Harbor's imminent newlyweds will compete against six lucky couples for the grand prize. There will be seven games in total, and the winning team from each game earns one point. We'll have one main event per day, and then anybody else from town who wants to play is welcome to join in and play for fun. At the end of the week, the couple with the most points from our six parties here takes home the prize!"

"What's the prize?" somebody shouts from the crowd.

"Oh!" Mia smiles. "The winner gets a romantic dinner for two at Taste after hours. Me and Nolan will personally cook for you and serve you the meal. And if me and Nolan win, we don't have to stay late and cook for you slobs!"

That earns a round of laughter from everybody.

"Okay, good job, Paisley!" Mia pats Paisley on the back, which makes her sway forward, eyes bulging a little. She shoots two thumbs up kind of in Mia's retreating direction.

"So the rules are simple," Paisley says. "You have to pop the balloon between your body and your partner's body. The balloon gets smaller every time. The first couple to pop all the balloons wins! No biting the balloon or poking it with your fingers. Cheaters will be shamed."

"Nobody is going to get shamed," Mia says cheerily. "But we did buy a shame bell to ring, just in case."

"Shamed," Paisley repeats as she backs away from the field of play.

Mia walks over to a spot with the other women.

"Three, two, four, begin!"

I'm caught off guard by the sudden start as I see Caroline sprinting toward me with a look of deadly intent in her eyes. I only have time to raise an eyebrow before she jumps, turns mid-air, and positions the balloon between me and her rapidly approaching ass.

Pop.

The balloon gives way, and then my balls do because Caroline's ass hits me like a freight train between the legs.

I bend over, groaning and laughing as she's already running to grab the next balloon. To my right, I see all the other couples going at it. There's a chorus of popping balloons, telling me that it's still anybody's game.

I'm barely recovered when I see Caroline coming again. The balloon is significantly smaller this time. She tries the same move. The balloon croaks with a rubbery groan and doesn't pop. I cup myself as Caroline grips my hips and slams her ass down on my lap again and again. She's looking back over her shoulder at me with barbarian-like rage in her eyes.

Finally, the balloon pops. This time, it's significantly faster than anybody else's. There's a blur of moving bodies in the other chairs and squeaking balloons refusing to pop.

I hear the first pop from Andi and Jesse just as Caroline comes at me with a balloon hardly bigger than her fist.

She does the same flying ass move to start, but her aim is off. I take a full helping of ass to the chest instead of the lap. The chair tips over and Caroline is sitting on my face. It's a little too painful to enjoy, but Caroline has already positioned the balloon between her legs and sets it on my crotch. She starts pumping up and down on me, hands on my chest like she's riding me for all her worth.

In front of the entire town.

I hear the laughter and cheers as people whoop and whistle. I even see several parents covering their children's eyes.

Caroline is either oblivious or too determined to win to care.

Bam. Bam. Bam. She slams herself down on me and the tiny balloon again and again.

"You take me from behind," she says with all the seriousness of a soldier asking her comrade for cover fire. She hops off me, gets on her hands and knees, and puts the balloon right between her ass cheeks.

She's wearing black biker shorts and I can see the faint outline of her thong as she points her ample ass my way.

I've played in front of thousands with everything on the line. I've spoken at press conferences while dozens of cameras were pointed at me. But this?

I blow out a breath, taking her hips in my hands, and give a lackluster pump of my hips.

"Hump me like you mean it!" She shouts.

More laughter.

I give a nervous smile and press my hips into her a little harder. Now that our chair fell over, I'm a little behind the others and I can see all the other groups have moved on to the final, tiny balloon, too.

Somehow, we've found ourselves in the most ridiculous and obviously sexual position.

"There's no way," I say, watching the small balloon stretch easily as I press it against her ass with my crotch.

"Just rail me, Jake," she says. Again, there's no touch of awareness or humor in her voice. Caroline just wants to win.

That earns another round of cheers and whistles. Apparently, we're the stars of this show.

I give her a harder thrust this time, knocking her forward and making her ponytail flop from her back to hang by her cheek.

"Like that! Harder!" she screams.

Jesus. If she keeps saying shit like this, I'm going to get hard.

I take a tighter hold of her hips and push into her, pulling her ass into me as I thrust.

"Yes!"

I clear my throat, watching the balloon squirm.

Soon, I'm pounding against her with a rhythmic pap pap pap sound that feels far too dirty to be doing in front of other people. But it's still not working.

"Give me your ass!" Caroline says, gesturing for me to turn around.

By this point, I'm all in and mostly just ready for this to be over with. So I obey, getting on my hands and knees and turning around so we're ass to ass.

We start pushing our asses together in the world's oddest rhythm. The worst part is I'm absolutely hard by now and trying to position myself so it's not too obvious. Thankfully, I'm wearing blue jeans that do a pretty good job of holding everything in place. If I'd been wearing my jogging shorts from earlier… best not to think about that.

All the food I shoveled down a few minutes ago starts to churn with the rhythm of my body. I suppress a gurgle and then a gag.

"Come on, Jake! Give me that ass!" Caroline shouts.

Alright. That one had to be on purpose.

To my surprise, every other couple is still struggling with their tiny balloons

Caroline stops suddenly, grabbing the balloon as her face grows dark. "It's time."

"Time for what?" I ask, feeling a little scared.

"Lay down."

I hesitate but lay myself back on the grass.

She puts the balloon on my stomach, then backs up like she's going for a running start.

"Caroline?" I ask. "Time for what?"

"Ahhhhhhh!" She shouts, fists pumping as she runs full speed toward me, jumping at the last second.

I watch as if it's all in slow motion as she flies toward me, knees pulled up for a cannonball aimed straight at my over-stuffed stomach.

I'm too shocked to react.

The crowd hushes.

The other teams look over, eyes wide as gravity pulls her inevitably closer to my doom.

And then she makes contact. First, the balloon pops from the sheer force of impact. Next, her ass pushes the contents of my stomach the only way they can go.

Up.

It's not pretty. My poor stomach didn't even have time to digest what comes spraying out of me as I roll to my side.

There's a collective "oooh" of sympathy, but I barely hear it.

I'm seeing stars and tasting things that aren't nearly as delicious the second time around.

Caroline kneels beside me, rubbing my back as Paisley happily awards us one point.

"We won, though," Caroline says.

All I can do is groan and lay back down.