Page 55 of Hot Summer

Once the girls were done getting ready, the boys formed a tight circle around Ada so they could escort her into the garden, the four of them talking in code into their earpieces.

“The eagle needs the pool lounger,” Leo said, complete with fake walkie-talkie feedback sounds. “I repeat, the eagle needs the pool lounger stat.”

They spent the afternoon alternating between lounging in the sun, floating in the pool, and playing the new game Reece had invented to pass the time, Beanbag Ball, the rules of which involved the beanbags, a ball launcher made out of two T-shirts Reece and Jayden had tied together, and the bowl of the fire pit. Jayden was keeping a strange distance from Sienna, but neither of them commented on it. Cas kept thinking she should bring it up, but she couldn’t find the words to address it and so decided to leave well enough alone.

She could probably guess what was going on there anyway.

The score was a nail-biting 4–4 when Delilah’s phone pinged.

“Oh god,” Delilah mumbled, feeling around on the grass for her phone. “Guys, I’ve got a text!”

Shouts of “A text?” “Oh my god!” and “Read it out!” came from across the villa.

“ ‘Lovers,’ ” Delilah said, reading the text in a loud, clear voice. “ ‘Tonight you’re going to find out this week’s public rankings. You’re halfway through, so we thought it was time to shake things up a bit: The least popular boy and the least popular girl will be immediately removed from the villa. If they are not from the same partnership, their partners will be single. #BuckleUp #TheresBeenALotOfMovement.’ ”

And there went Cas’s peaceful afternoon.

The dressing room was uncharacteristically quiet as they got ready that evening.

There were a few comments—“Do you think I should wear this dress or this one?” “How much time do we have left?”—but the energy had been completely sapped out of the room.

This was the first time all summer that multiple people were going home.

If things continued the way they had been, in a few short hours, she’d find herself on a plane back to England. And because Robert was nothing if not shameless, she was sure she’d be in a nightclub not too long after that, passing out shots and dancing around trying to get people to make out again.

And what’s more, if she left now, she’d miss the friends she made here and... whatever it was that was stirring between her and Ada.

Their conversation last night and Femi’s words the other morning during their pool float breakfast had been swimming around in her head all day. Cas could still feel the memory of Ada’s arms around her waist, of Ada’s lips on her jaw, and that, along with the way they’d spent the entire day lounging together in the sun?

It was making it really hard to convince herself that keeping her emotional distance was a good idea.

The boys were already in the lounge when the girls made their way down the stairs, the silence stretched so taut between them that Cas could feel it, tight against her throat, as she walked over to the sofa. Femi had his arm stretched out over the back of the couch and he grinned at Cas and patted the cushion beside him as she approached. He’d left just enough room for her to join him, but as she sat down, Cas felt someone else sliding in beside her.

“Hey.” Ada shifted uncomfortably, tugging her dress down the backs of her thighs to avoid flashing the camera as she crossed her legs. “Do you mind if I sit with you guys?”

Cas choked out something like a response, and luckily, Femi swept in.

“No, ’course not.” He reached across the back of the sofa, leaning a little into Cas, so that he could touch his fingertips to Ada’s shoulder. “You’re always welcome to join us.”

Brad was sitting on the far left side of the sofa, hatred written all over his face. Ada must have felt his gaze on her, but she refused to look over at him, to acknowledge him. Her fingers were trembling as she reached up and threaded them through her hair, smoothing out the waves over her shoulder, but otherwise, she was the perfect picture of composure.

Leo’s phone pinged first, signaling the official start of the ceremony.

“ ‘Lovers. Tonight, you’re going to find out how the public has ranked you based on your time in the villa this week. As always, you are ranked individually, and not as members of your couples.’ ”

Leo’s voice was calm, even, though there was a slightly detectable nervousness there. He’d done relatively well last week, but the threat that things had changed, that you’d somehow upset the public, was ever-present.

Brad’s phone.

Brad stared down at the screen for a long moment, lips tight, before he cleared his throat and read the message.

“ ‘As always, we’ll start with the girls first.’ ”

The number one flashed up on the television screen, the line beside it ominously blank for half a second before—

Charlie’s phone.

“ ‘The most popular girl in the villa this week is... Sienna.’ ”

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