Page 60 of Crew Girl

“Better watch out,” Cam teased Ryder, who was watching everyone else record their scores. “I’m coming for stroke, Ryder.”

Ryder, who lacked a sense of humor, didn’t appreciate the playful taunt. “Give your best shot, man. You might be fastest but it’ll never happen. No one’s going to follow a FAID over a Regis.”

Teagan shook her head. Someone had a bit of a Napoleon complex. Without the short part.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” retorted Cam.

“No chance.” Ryder strutted off to the shower room.

“Hey,” she said, once she and Cam were alone. “I have been promised tacos and I’ve come to collect.” She grinned up at him and realized he wasn’t quite as immune to Ryder’s taunts as she’d thought. “You okay?”

He shook it off, shot her a smile. “All good. More importantly, I hope you’re ready for tacos that will change your life.”

“I’m from SoCal,” she deadpanned. “I highly doubt that.”

While Cam was in the shower, a box was delivered to the boathouse. Baloo read the card. “Hey, Ryder! Someone left a box for you.”

The guys gathered around as Ryder lifted the lid of the elaborately decorated gift box and pulled out a big heart-shaped ornament covered in fake gemstones.

Teagan reminded herself where she was and who she was with. They were probably real.

There was a note attached to the heart “written” in cut-out magazine letters.

“You have stolen my heart. Will you go to the Fall Formal with me? From Amber,” said Ryder, reading the note aloud.

Quaid and Crabcatcher oooh’ed and aaah’ed.

Noah looked confused. “So she’s giving him a heart but telling him he stole it—which is it? And why does it look like a ransom note? Does she want money for it?”

“Love’s confusing, bro,” Quaid told Noah.

“It’s not about perfect grammar, Noah,” Baloo jumped in. “Don’t ruin the magic of this prom-posal by trying to find subjunctive clauses or whatever.”

Quaid looked perplexed. “Is it really a prom-posal when it’s the Fall Formal? Is it more like a ‘form-posal’?”

“That’s not any better,” Noah said.

Teagan saw the shower room door open and waved Cam over. This was better than reality TV.

Teagan had never really been a school dance kind of girl. “Isn’t this all a little over the top?”

Baloo shot her a woeful look. “Why do you hate joy?”

Ryder clearly didn’t care because he stood up, popped the heart back into the box with a satisfied grin. “Happy days, boys. That’s my date to the Formal sorted. I’ll organize a table. Who wants to join Amber and me?”

Everyone put their hands up apart from Teagan and Cam.

This wasn’t awkward at all. Tacos! They were going to enjoy tacos. Much better than a Formal.

“Baloo?” Ryder asked. “Two seats? I presume you want to bring your boyfriend.” Baloo gave him a weird look. “The guy you met on socials?”

Baloo shook his head, dropped his gaze. “Didn’t work out. One seat’ll be fine.”

Teagan could totally be wrong, of course, but she wasn’t so sure Baloo was nursing a broken heart. The Baloo she knew would’ve let big fat tears fall down his cheeks, waiting for someone to hunt down some ice cream to help drown his sorrows. But whether he’d been dumped or was having a secret romance with the Prince of Norway, he clearly didn’t want to talk about it. She got that. Big time. There were two boy-shaped problems in her life and—

One of them had just marched into the boathouse.

Josh returned his teammates’ confused expressions with one of his imperious smiles and dropped his duffel bag next to an erg. “Aww, sweet. You guys didn’t have to roll out the red carpet.”