None of us moved.

“Go!” he urged again.

“Come on guys.” Alec called. “Let’s go.”

We all jogged to the canoes. Of course, Jaymeson and Angelica were last. She claimed the impact of jogging made her shorter and she needed all the height she could get. I for one just thought she was lazy.

“Come on, Lyss.” I helped her into the canoe and we were off, taking turns rowing toward the first buoy.

“Tell me why we decided to do this again.” She grunted as she pulled the oars.

“Let’s blame Alec,” I muttered. “If he wouldn’t have screwed up all those years ago, then I wouldn’t have gotten addicted to drugs, or ended up here, or had to do a stupid show in order to promote our next album.”

Alyssa’s face fell.

I laughed out loud and kicked the bench she was sitting on. “Lyss, come on. You know I’m kidding. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Just think, a few more weeks and we get off this God-forsaken island and go on tour.”

“Seaside isn’t an island.”

“Yeah, I was quoting Survivor, trying to get into the mental game of the competition.”

“Quoting Survivor won’t make us win, Demetri.” Alyssa rolled her eyes. “You actually have to put effort into it. I swear it isn’t fair. You get a side ache when you walk, yet you still have the body of a—”

I smirked “The body of a what?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Nevermind.”

“No, really go on.” I winked. “Want me to take off my shirt again? I can go all Magic Mike on this love boat and—”

“Yeah, I’m going to stop you before you hurt yourself trying to think of more sexual innuendos.”

“Bummer, because I had this really good one about strippers and paddles and—”

“No, Demetri. Just. No. Let it go.” Alyssa patted my hand. “Oh, and do us a favor and row harder. I can’t do all the work.”

“Fine.” I put my back into it and soon we were passing Jaymeson and Angelica, but to be fair, it looked like she’d gotten a sliver and he was in the middle of trying to set her on fire. Either that or he didn’t know that the lighters in the first aid kit were for other purposes.

“Yes!” Alyssa pumped her fist into the air. “Faster!”

I groaned. “I’m trying but it’s not like this is easy. I’m sweating.”

“Poor baby.” She mocked and then grabbed a bottled water. “We only have a bit more to go. Besides, no way are we catching up with Alec and Nat. They would kill on The Amazing Race.”

“You’d think with all their competitiveness they’d want to kill each other,” I muttered. “But clearly they’re still blissed out.”

“Yeah.” Alyssa began playing with the paper on her water bottle.

“Uh-oh, what did you hear?” By now sweat was pouring down my face. Alyssa stretched her arms above her head giving me quite a pleasant view of her tight little body. Maybe rowing wasn’t so bad.

“Nothing.” She waved me off. “Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s something. I don’t know. You know Angelica.”

“Angelica?” This had to be good. “What does Angelica have to do with anything?”

My muscles burned as I kept the rowing motion up while my eyes were trained on Alyssa. She would tell me if I was going to hit something. Not that there was much to hit out on the open water, then again we were rowing to the next beach over.

Alyssa looked above my head. “We’re gaining on them.”

“Focus.” I snapped. “What did Angelica say?”

Alyssa shrugged. “This morning after breakfast she was just telling Nat how fickle guys can be and how Alec wasn’t always this tame.”

“Tame? Alec is anything but tame. He’s just… housetrained.”

“Like a dog?” Alyssa glowered.

“Like all men should be when they settle down with their woman,” I countered. Crap. I think I just pulled a muscle. Was it bad to cry in front of a girl? With Alyssa’s help we went around the bend to the next beach over.

“Anyways.” Alyssa took a swig of water. “Angelica was probably just trying to make Nat feel jealous or something. The conversation ended with Angelica blurting to Nat that if Alec was so happy why was he on anti-depressants.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“There’s the flag!” Alyssa shouted. “Faster!”

“If you say that one more time…” I ground out. “Please tell me you didn’t let Nat know you knew about Alec’s pills.”

“I feigned indifference. I didn’t think it would be smart to tell her how worried you were. It would just make things worse.”

“Did they fight?” The shore was coming fast. Finally. I was ready to burn my own damn canoe.

“Nat didn’t want to ruin teambuilding day, and she didn’t want to do something on camera, you know?”

“Good call.” I put in a few more good pulls on the oars and then stopped when I hit the shore. I helped Alyssa out and took her hand. We ran toward the stupid flags where we were supposed to build our castles and stopped mid-stride just in time to see Nat punch Alec in the face.

With a low whistle, I nudged Alyssa. “Yeah, I think they’re having that important chat in front of God and everyone.”