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“Guns?!” Rhonda yelled.

“She’s kidding,” Archer replied, still not looking away from Tea. “Ready?”

“Not even in the slightest!”

Rhonda roared the engine. Tea kept a tight grip on the handle and locked in her legs, using the pressure of the water against the ski to pop herself up. For a few glorious seconds, she was upright, her hair whipping behind her, the sun on her face.

Until she realized her bikini bottoms were down by her ankles.

Shit! She let go of the handle and crouched down, falling into the water on her side. The water ski slipped off. She reached into the water for her feet, scrambling for her bottoms.

But they were nowhere to be found.

The boat puttered over to her.

Archer lifted his arms. “What happened? You were up!”

Tea frantically scanned the water around her. “You didn’t see what happened?”

“Um, no? Did you slip?” He noticed her panicked expression. “What’s wrong?”

She felt her cheeks flush. “Um, wearing a bikini was probably not the right call.”

“I beg to differ, I think it was an excellent call—” He paused. “Oh. Oh no.”

“My bottoms slipped off and now I don’t know where they are.”

Archer froze, then tipped his head back and let out a booming laugh.

She glared at him. “Shut up and help me.”

He kept laughing as he removed the towel from around his shoulders.

Rhonda stepped up to him, hands on her hips. “What’s going on?”

“Tea’s nude.”

“I’m not nude. I lost my swimsuit bottoms.”

“So you’re nude,” Rhonda teased.

Archer kept laughing as he stepped to the edge of the boat and dived in, facing the opposite direction to give her privacy. Thankfully the lake water was dark enough that she was shaded from him as they swam around the vicinity looking for her bottoms.

After several minutes of unsuccessful searching, Archer swam up to her. “Okay, it’s looking like your swimsuit has been sacrificed to the lake.”

“This is so embarrassing,” she bemoaned.

Archer lifted an arm, reaching for a wet strand of her hair and tucking it behind her ear. “I’m going to get on the boat and hold up my towel, then you climb on and you can wrap it around yourself.”

She frowned. “I liked this swimsuit.”

“Trust me, I did, too.”

If she hadn’t been swimming commando in freezing cold water, that comment probably would have left her feeling a little too warm.

Archer did as promised and was a gentleman about it. She wrapped the towel around her waist tight as he unbuckled her life jacket. Rhonda maneuvered the boat back in the direction of Wild Pines.

He sat down and covered his mouth, doing a terrible job at hiding the goofy smile on his face.