Page 60 of Flirty Dancing

There was silence around the table for a good five seconds before everyone began yelling at once. “That’s totally cheating!”

“No, it’s not!”

“Yes, it is!”

“It doesn’t say you can’t in the rules!”

“Oh my God, are you for real?”

“It’s a good strategy!”

“That is the cheat-iest cheatingI have ever heard of!”

Archer watched the fighting, wondering what Mateo would have said. It was better with his calm, steadying presence here.

“Fine! I won’t play anymore!” Dominik announced. He got up and stormed off toward the back door.

“Don’t be a baby!” Seta called after him. “We can play again for real now that we all know how you cheat.”

The screen door slammed.

Seta snorted. “Ridiculous.”

“So…” Caleb hedged into the awkward silence. “Who wants to go for a midnight swim?”

“Yeah, sure,” Seta agreed, starting to clean up the game.

“Bedtime for me,” Beau yawned.

At the same time, Ben hopped up. “I’m in for a swim.”

Beau frowned. “You were saying you were tired, earlier.”

“Well, I’m not now.” Ben narrowed his eyes at Beau in a challenge.

Caleb smiled and took Archer’s hand. “You in?”

Archer watched the B-Boys silently fighting and vowed to keep things nice and light with Caleb. “Sounds great.” He winked. “As long as it’s swimsuit-optional.”

They had a late night, and when Archer finally cracked his eyes open Sunday morning, he was alone in their room. He saw that Lynn had textedCall me!and wasted no time dialing her number.

“So… I baked a cake yesterday,” she said as soon as he answered.

His heart leaped. “And?”

Lynn groaned.

His heart sank right back down. “Did she say no?”

“I didn’t get to ask! I went for a shower when it was in the oven and when I got out, I smelled smoke.”

“Oh my God!”

“Then the smoke alarm went off, then the sprinklers.”

“Holy shit, Lynn.”

“It wasn’t for very long, but… part of the ceiling fell in.”

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