Page 66 of Flirty Dancing

“Er, well, I—”

“I meant to get back on Tuesday to see theLatinshow, you see, but Judy needed to get her toenails clipped and her regular groomer was on holiday—”

“That’s great, Stewart, but I just—”

“—and would you believe that the first place I called couldn’t get her in for two weeks? Two weeks! Insanity.”

Archer tried to nod politely, eyes flicking to Mateo and back.

“So I started calling around and there was one place that had an opening before that…”

Mateo was surveying the faces in the room, then he looked at Archer, eyebrow raised.

Archer nodded meekly as Stewart rambled.

“Fuck!” Mateo said.

“Er…” Stewart trailed off. “Is everything alright, Mateo?”

“Not really,” Mateo said. “Fuck.”

“It’s okay!” Archer said. “We can figure this out.”

“What’s wrong?” Stewart asked.

“Well, the show is in ten minutes, and Caleb and Ben are not here,” Mateo growled.

“What do you mean, they are not here?”

Archer laid a calming hand on Mateo’s arm before hecould erupt all over Stewart. “Caleb and Ben went for a hike and they aren’t back yet, and they aren’t answering texts.”

“Oh my.” Judy whimpered and Stewart patted her head.

Beau sucked in a breath and sank onto a chair. “What if something happened to them?”

Betty perched next to him and put an arm around his shoulders. “I’m sure they’re fine! Those trails go for miles and there’s no cell reception past the resort. They probably went too far and couldn’t get back in time.”

Archer’s stomach twinged. It had never even occurred to him that something was wrong. He was sure it was just Caleb being Caleb and still mostly expected him to come running in breathless any minute.

“Alright,” Mateo barked. “Let’s make a plan.” He stalked over to the whiteboard and began writing down all the differentAround the Worldnumbers. “Okay, Western first. Line dance, then the two-step…”

Archer joined him. “The line dance is fine, no partner work, we can fill in the gaps.”

Mateo nodded. “Now, the two-step… Seta and Beau, can you dance together instead of with Caleb and Ben?”

Beau shrugged. “I suppose, but I’ll have to dance Ben’s part.”

“Right. Shit.” Mateo started scribbling down all the partners.

“It’s fine, I can do it.” Beau stood and began miming the choreo in place, brow furrowed in concentration.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay, next is Ukrainian…”

They went through the rest of the numbers and did their best to cover Caleb and Ben’s absence, re-pairing duos, orhaving some dance twice, or not at all. The clock ticked away until there was nothing to do but make a wish on Judy’s collar—which Stewart made them do because it contained rhinestones that allegedly once adorned a Liza Minnelli costume—and take their places in the wings.

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