Page 86 of Bad Luck Club

“You’re doing this with me?” he asked in shock as they climbed the three steps to the stage.

“Yep.”

The room was quiet, and he tried to quell his fears, wishing he’d downed his drink instead of nursing it, but then the first notes of the song started.

He laughed. “The song fromDirty Dancing? Are you serious?”

She gave him a tiny shove. “You’re missing your lines.”

Laughing, he rushed to catch up, “Now I’ve had the time of my life…”

He sounded like a garbage disposal with a soda can ring caught in the blades, but she didn’t seem to care, jumping in with her lines. She’d claimed she couldn’t sing, and while she’d never get a recording deal unless she was auto-tuned, she wasn’t nearly as bad as he was.

But he continued singing, and when the tempo picked up, she grabbed his hand and started dancing. It looked like a line dance or the choreographed steps one of his old girlfriends did when she’d done Zumba. He caught on pretty quickly, surprised he could dance and sing at the same time. Baffled that he was doing either in front of an audience.

They weren’t great, but they had fun. The audience got into it and cheered, and when the song reached the iconic part of the movie when the girl leapt off the stage and into her partner’s arms, Lee surprised Blue by lifting her under her armpits and swinging her in a circle. Her laughter was giddy and sweet, and he started laughing with her.

When they finished, the crowd got to their feet and cheered. Lee took a bow and turned to Blue, who now looked slightly embarrassed, and he realized belatedly this was just as hard for her as it had been for him. Yet she’d done it for him because she thought he needed it. Put herself in an uncomfortable situation to help him grow.

He’d never known anyone that selfless before, and while he didn’t deserve her today any more than he had yesterday, he aimed to become the kind of man who might.

Pulling her flush to his body, he kissed her, cupping the back of her head, as he probed her lips with his tongue. When she opened to him, a wave of longing filled him, and he knew he had to get her out of here.

“Come on,” he said, taking her hand.

She stared up at him in a daze, but then she nodded.

He was barely aware of the cheers and catcalls as he reclaimed their coats, which they’d left on a rack by the door, and pulled her down the steps, leaving their barely touched drinks behind.

His only thought was getting her naked.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Our next challenge is to pick the first motel we find,” Blue said, “no exceptions.”

They’d just slid into the car, neither of them having spoken since they left the bar, but Lee didn’t look surprised…maybe she should have chosen a differentDirty Dancingsong for him because he was seriously vibing “Hungry Eyes.” Heat gathered between her legs as she stared right back.

“No exceptions?” Lee said with a small smile.

“You’re not going to complain that I should only get one challenge?” It had seemed right somehow, because Bad Luck Club was what had gotten them here, even if she’d grown beyond it and he really had just joined for her.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. But what if it’s a Motel 6?”

Her mouth pulled to the side, but she scrunched her nose. “No exceptions. Let’s keep expanding our horizons. It’s worked out pretty well so far.”

“I can’t deny that,” he said, starting the car. “I will one hundred percent risk bed bugs to get you alone right now.” He drove to the parking lot exit, then lowered a hand to her thigh and glanced at her. “Which direction, Blue? This is your call. You’re the one with intuition.”

What was it Adalia had said? That Lee saidintuitionas if it were a dirty word, and he thought it was something hippies said so they could have an excuse to do whatever they wanted.

Oh, how he had grown.

Biting her lip, she said, “Left.” But there was a pulse ofwrongwithin her, and she amended, “Right. Go right.”

His hand lifted from her thigh momentarily, making her almost gasp for the lack of it, but he gave her a two-fingered salute before returning it, letting his hand tease up the hem of her dress.

“Let’s hope there’s one close.” He sounded slightly strangled.

They drove for five minutes, Blue shooting off a text asking Adalia to check on Buford and pass along word that morning yoga was canceled, cringing a little internally as she did, because surely Addy would understand what it meant. The phone went back into her pocket, because using the maps app would feel like cheating. They passed a McDonald’s, a Chuck E. Cheese—“Tell me they don’t offer boarding,” Lee had muttered—and a bowling alley when she saw a big blinking sign advertisingTheme Motel.

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