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I could have pushed harder. I wanted to. The mezcal made risking the question feel easier, but his expression warned me the answer lived inside territory he wasn’t ready to enter while wearing pastel green in front of our friends.

Bliss raised the megaphone. “On my count, open your first envelope. Three, two—”

Every Bennett moved on two.

“Cheaters!” Aura shouted.

The lawn erupted.

Cade caught Bliss around the waist when she tried to chase her brothers with the megaphone. Easton ripped open his envelope with his teeth. Briggs dumped the contents of his basket onto the grass, and Lyric cursed as pencils rolled in every direction. Rider and Elenore walked calmly toward the garden path without opening their clue, apparently choosing to follow everyone else and conserve energy.

Ryan took our envelope.

I reached for it. “I’m captain.”

“So am I.”

“I created the schedule.”

“You don’t get advance access to the clues.”

“I didn’t write them.”

“That sounds like something a cheater would say.”

He held the envelope above my head.

I stared at him. “You’re six-four. That isn’t talent.”

“It’s working.”

I jumped until I caught both his shoulders and hauled myself up his body, reaching for the envelope with one hand. Ryan laughed as his free arm locked around my waist and lifted me completely off the floor, holding me against him while I twisted, stretched, and fought for another inch he had no intention of giving me.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that, pequeña.”

“I’m five-four to your six-five. You are setting me up to fail.”

“Exactly. Adorable effort.”

I tightened my arms around his shoulders and climbed higher, forcing him to adjust his hold before I made another grab for the envelope. Ryan lifted it farther above us, laughing harder when my fingertips barely brushed the corner.

“Small but mighty,” I warned.

“Small and losing.”

“Charm one. Ryan zero.”

“That score remains fictional, mami.”

I wrapped one leg around his hip and stretched again. “Keep laughing. I’m taking you down with me.”

His hand slid beneath my ass to hold me securely against him. “You think having you wrapped around me is a threat?”

My laughter caught as our eyes met.

Ryan’s smile changed, heat slipping beneath the playfulness while he kept me suspended effortlessly against his body.

“Try again, pequeña,” he murmured. “I’m enjoying the attempt.”