“I wanted it to be a surprise!” Stewart proclaimed, smoothing Judy’s fur. She yipped.

“Oh, it’s a surprise, alright,” Archer murmured. Fuck. Where was Caleb?

There was no more avoiding it. They would need some sort of plan if Caleb and Ben were going to miss the show. Archer sidled up to Mateo.

But Stewart saw him. “Archer, my boy!” he cried. “How lovely to see you.” He grabbed Archer and kissed both of his cheeks.

“Stewart!” Archer was, of course, genuinely happy to see Stewart, but there were more pressing matters at hand. “So great to see you too, of course, but I actually need to talk to—”

“How is your tango, young Archer? As sizzling as ever?”

“Er, well, I—”

“I meant to get back on Tuesday to see the Latin show, you see, but Judy needed to get her toenails clipped and her regular groomer was on holiday—”

“That’s great, Stewart, but I just—”

“—and would you believe that the first place I called couldn’t get her in for two weeks? Two weeks! Insanity.”

Archer tried to nod politely, eyes flicking to Mateo and back.

“So I started calling around and there was one place that had an opening before that…”

Mateo was surveying the faces in the room, then he looked at Archer, eyebrow raised.

Archer nodded meekly as Stewart rambled.

“Fuck!” Mateo said.

“Er…” Stewart trailed off. “Is everything alright, Mateo?”

“Not really,” Mateo said. “Fuck.”

“It’s okay!” Archer said. “We can figure this out.”

“What’s wrong?” Stewart asked.

“Well, the show is in ten minutes, and Caleb and Ben are not here,” Mateo growled.

“What do you mean, they are not here?”

Archer laid a calming hand on Mateo’s arm before he could erupt all over Stewart. “Caleb and Ben went for a hike and they aren’t back yet, and they aren’t answering texts.”

“Oh my.” Judy whimpered and Stewart patted her head.

Beau sucked in a breath and sank onto a chair. “What if something happened to them?”

Betty perched next to him and put an arm around his shoulders. “I’m sure they’re fine! Those trails go for miles and there’s no cell reception past the resort. They probably went too far and couldn’t get back in time.”

Archer’s stomach twinged. It had never even occurred to him that something was wrong. He was sure it was just Caleb being Caleb and still mostly expected him to come running in breathless any minute.

“Alright,” Mateo barked. “Let’s make a plan.” He stalked over to the whiteboard and began writing down all the different Around the World numbers. “Okay, Western first. Line dance, then the two-step…”

Archer joined him. “The line dance is fine, no partner work, we can fill in the gaps.”

Mateo nodded. “Now, the two-step … Seta and Beau, can you dance together instead of with Caleb and Ben?”