Balls Fore (Ball Games #4) Read Free Page A

tell Beth.
    ‘Mm-mm.’ Gemma waves a hand at me as she can hardly speak with a gob full of biscuit. ‘The anniversary party.’ Crumbs sprinkle over me. ‘Sowwy.’
    ‘Take your blooming biscuit over there. Out of my way, you lopper.’ I shoo her away.
    ‘What anniversary party?’ asks Beth.
    ‘Kid Zone’s. It’s one-year-old on the eighteenth of July. So I thought Saturday sixteenth I’d have a huge celebration. That’s why I was chewing on a pencil before you replaced it with that yummy biscuit. I’m trying to get ideas for making it a bit different. Not too expensive, though.’
    ‘Oh, can I make suggestions?’
    ‘Be my guest.’
    Beth sweeps a hand over the biscuits she’s brought with her. ‘Well, obviously a huge array of my chocolates and biscuits. I have a new chocolate I’m bringing out. It's been successful elsewhere in the country with kids. It came up in one of my business forums.’
    ‘Yeah, what’s that?’
    ‘Chocolate bars done in kids initials. Kids love them apparently.’
    ‘Great idea. You could do kids initial biscuits too.’
    ‘So I could,’ she says.
    I pick my pencil back up from the table. ‘Could you make me two hundred iced biscuits with Kid Zone One Today on them?’
    ‘Sure.’
    I scribble on my pad.
    ‘I’ll ask my mum if she’ll supply the same in cupcakes.’
    ‘Your mum will be ecstatic.’
    ‘I hope I won’t regret this,’ I tell her.
    With Beth gone I spend more time working on the party. Firstly, I book catering to supply sandwiches and other food as I’ll be too busy to be concerned with party sausages. I look down my list. Entertainment-wise, I’ve booked a juggler from a local circus school in Sheffield. My celebration needs something else to draw the crowds in on what could potentially be a sunny Saturday. I stare into space. What could I do? Then I get an idea. What about a celebrity of sorts? But who could I ask? I think of Cole Grant, the ex-professional tennis player. He’s easy on the eye, the mums would like him and I bet my mother could get him to come as she played cupid for him in Center Parcs. I’ll ask her. Juggler for the kids, eye candy for the mothers, cakes and biscuits for the dads. I think we’re sorted.
     
    Saturday 16 July 2016
     
    Kid Zone is heaving at the seams with children and parents. There are balloons being battered around everywhere. The noise volume is high as kids shriek with excitement.
    ‘Congratulations, love, we’re so proud of you,’ says my dad. My mum kisses me on the cheek. Her arm is firmly around my dad’s waist. I hope they’re not going to keep making public displays of affection or I’ll need the sick bucket for myself rather than the children. They’ve been on their best behaviour around each other since a recent falling out. I hope the lovey-dovey stuff wears off soon and I get my usual parents back. It’s not normal.
    Beth wanders over to us, having been supervising the distribution of the biscuits and cupcakes. Trey is with my brother.
    ‘You’ve done an amazing job there, Beth,’ I tell her.
    Mum high-fives her.
    ‘Oh it’s nothing,’ says Beth.
    ‘For goodness sake, Beth, I wish you’d appreciate your talents a bit more. The biscuits are amazing. So are the chocolates. You need to sing your own praises,’ I scold.
    ‘Hey, we’re not all confident like you, Camille. Some of us prefer to blend into the background.’ She lifts an empty paper plate up and hides her face behind it.
    I nudge her. ‘Well, it’s a shame. You’re multi-talented.’
    ‘What about me?’ asks my mother.
    ‘You too.’ I sigh.
    ‘Well naturally you got your confidence from me,’ says my mother, ‘and your understanding of figures from your father.’
    Dad looks at one of the sexier mothers. ‘Yep, I’m pretty good with figures.’
    My mother pinches his bum. ‘Hey. Eyes over here.’
    He winks at her. ‘You’re the only one for me, love, you know it.’
    Vom.
    ‘I’ll be back in a tic, I