Southern Heart (Southern 5)

Quinn and Casey now come back out with us, each of them carrying two shotguns. "Ready to play a little game?" Quinn walks over to the table, putting down both of the guns he is carrying. "You each get five shots." He smiles. "Most hit targets wins. Easy as that."

The young kids fight over who will win, and Ethan and I just share a look, smirking at each other. I walk over, grabbing one of the folding chairs, and sit down. Ethan follows my lead as we sit down side by side.

Toby and Keith both hit five targets. Reed misses one. I’m sitting back in my chair, making a plan in my head. Quinn comes over now and takes a seat next to me. I look over at him; in the past three weeks, he’s been coming around more. I mean, we aren’t best friends, that is for sure, but at least we aren’t at each other’s throat. "I’m telling Chelsea," Quinn says, looking at me. "That you are out here shooting, and you didn’t bring her."

I laugh now. "Are you trying to get into my head?" I look over at him, shaking my head, then turn back to look at Ethan as he shoots.

"Is it working?" he asks me.

“You know I went to war, right?” I say, and he rolls his eyes.

I laugh at him when Ethan calls my name. "Mayson, you’re up."

I get up now, smiling at Quinn. "Watch and learn, grasshopper.” Walking over to the wooden table, I try out the guns to see which one I like more. I find the one I want and look over at Ethan. "What did you get?"

"I got all of them." He holds up his whole hand. "Think you still got it?"

I laugh. "Only one way to find out." I walk over to the shooting pad. I hold up the gun now, looking through the barrel. "I’m getting ready to shoot!” I shout to make sure everyone is in the back of the line.

"Just so you know," Casey says now from beside me. "I have your file in my office."

"What does that mean?" I ask, not looking over at him.

"It means I know if you are going to throw this, just to be nice to your girlfriend’s family." He chuckles.

"You obviously don’t have the right file,” I say, firing off a shot and hitting the first target. "Because it would tell you that I don’t give a shit who I’m up against." I aim again for another target and pull the trigger. "I’II win."

I wait until my last shot to make the shot I’ve been thinking about. If you look over to the right, there is one target at an angle, and if you hit it in the right spot, you can hit two targets at one time. I hit it at the right spot, and the bullet goes through one and then straight into the one behind it.

"Ooohhhh!” the guys behind me all yell out.

"I knew he was going to do that," Ethan says, getting up when his phone rings. "Hey, Sunrise," he says and walks away to talk to her.

"Nice shot," Jacob says, holding up his hand to give me a high five.

I walk over to Casey, who looks at me, and smirk. "If you want…" I put the gun down on the table. "You can add that to my file."

He shakes his head. "How?" Beau says, leaning back in his chair and looking over at where I took the shot. Ethan comes back over now, sitting down in one of the empty chairs.

Walking over to the chair I was just sitting in, I lean over to Beau. "There are four other targets that you can do that with."

"No, there isn’t." He shakes his head, and all the other men are looking at me, even Ethan.

I point at Ethan now. "You are getting soft." I shake my head and then hold up my hand. "Right there." I point at the two on the far left. "Right down the middle. See how they are one in front of the other, but the other is far behind?"

Quinn gets up, grabbing the guns now. "He wins." Everyone gets up, getting ready to head back to the barbecue.

"What does he win?" Gabriel asks and comes over to me. "Will you share it with me?"

"I can do better than that,” I say. "You can have it."

His eyes open wide. "Thank you, Uncle Mayson," he says and runs after Quinn. "What did he win?” He hops up and down beside him.

“He won a sticker,” Quinn says, looking around. "A sticker that Grandma has at the house."

"A sticker," he says, defeated.

"And the biggest piece of pie." Quinn tries to think of another cool prize.

"That sucks," he says, and we all laugh.

"Let’s head back before the girls freak out," Jacob says, walking back into the barn and grabbing his horse. "I’m going to head back with the kids," Jacob says, and I look up, seeing most of the kids on their horses.