“I’m sorry,” Stone whispered again.
“The couple leaving the competition tonight is…” Juan Carlos paused for dramatic effect. Gina held her breath, squeezing her eyes shut while the silence dragged on. Stone wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest, his heart pounding against her ear.
“Stop.”
It wasn’t Juan Carlos who’d spoken. Everyone stared at Twyla, who stepped out of the spotlight with a noticeable limp.
Juan Carlos recovered quickly, as a good host should. “Is everything okay, Twyla?”
“No, everything is not okay.” She stood with her head held high, leaning on Roman’s arm for balance. “I screwed up my ankle in the dance tonight. I was going to try to suffer through it, but you know what? I’m too fucking old for this.”
Everyone gasped and giggled, but Gina’s heart swelled as she strained to hear Twyla’s next words over the laughter.
“I’m going home.”
Gina exhaled in a rush, sagging against Stone. He pressed his cheek to the top of her head and ran his hands up and down her arms.
“Does this mean we stay?” he asked.
“It does.” She sent up another prayer that viewers would take pity and vote for them tonight.
He lowered his voice further. “What if it was supposed to be us?”
“We’ll never know.”
“We better kick ass next week.”
She smiled and patted his back. “We will.”
Backstage, they said goodbye to Twyla. The older actress kissed Stone full on the mouth, which made his whole face turn red but only slightly diminished the tension in his stance.
Jordy pulled Gina aside and handed her a piece of cardstock. “Your next dance. Figured you might want to start planning right away.” He grimaced. “Sorry about the rehearsal package. You know that was all Donna’s idea.”
“I know.”
Fucking Donna.
Gina glanced at the card and was hit with a burst of excitement. Oh, they were totally kicking ass next week. She grabbed Stone before he went off to change. “Jordy gave us our next dance style.”
“Already?”
“Yeah, and it’s a good one.” She showed him the card. “We’re doing the paso doble.”
“What’s that?”
Gina launched into her explanation with enthusiasm—shelovedthe paso doble. “It’s a forceful Latin dance mimicking the drama of a bullfight. The leader—that’ll be you—plays the role of the matador, and I’ll play the cape or the bull.”
Stone shrugged. “All right.”
Frowning at his lackluster response, Gina tapped the card against her leg. “Next week is also Fairy Tale Night.”
“Oh great, we have to tell a story again.” Stone rolled his eyes, then sighed. “Sorry, I’m not mad at you. Tonight was just… a lot.”
Her heart went out to him. She would have died if they’d gotten any of her ex-boyfriends for a surprise interview. Trying for a joke, she said, “Just wait until we have an argument. Even if it’s two minutes out of the whole week, you can bet that’s what’ll be shown before we dance.”
“Can’t wait.” Stone’s eyes cut over to Jordy and the camera crew. Jordy shrugged, as if to say,Hey, just doing my job.
Okay, so maybe that hadn’t been a good joke.
