Page 132 of Oar Than Friends

‘Really? Are you sure?’

‘Positive.’ Though from the way he was scratching his chin, it didn’t look like he wasthatpositive.

‘Presidents! Make your way to your boathouses. I won’t tell you again.’

‘Hang on!’ I snapped back, forgetting for a second who I was addressing, and swiftly followed up with a very apologetic ‘I’m so sorry, sir. We’re almost done.’

‘No, Mr Osbourne-Cloud. Youaredone.’

I turned to give Will one last silent plea, but he’d already disappeared into the Cambridge crowds.

‘What did you get?’ called Pete, the second I stepped over the threshold of our boathouse, and everyone else glanced up with the same question in their eager gazes.

‘What?’

‘Which station are we rowing?’

Fuck.

I realized I’d been so distracted with thoughts of Kateand where she was going that I’d completely blanked on what side of the river we’d been awarded.

Not a good start.

Not a good start at all.

Kate

‘Boats. Five minutes,’ the umpire’s voice echoed through the megaphone.

I gripped onto the rowboat holding us in place. The water was choppier than it looked from the land, and the boat rocked viciously as we moved into our starting position; lined up exactly with the stone marker seventy metres to the right of me. It was the marker Oz had pointed out the first day we’d cleaned up the river, when he told me about coxing on the Tideway and taking part in this race. I swallowed my smile; our stretch looked no cleaner. We didn’t get much cleaning done.

It was the same day he’d begged me to give him a chance, to see him for who he really was.

That had been five months ago, and I was not the same person I’d been five months ago.

‘Crews. Get ready,’ came the order from the umpire, and my hand immediately shot up to signal we weren’t.

‘Boys? How we doing?’ I peered down the boat to see most of them nod to me as I adjusted my headset. ‘Take your time, take your time.’

A quick glance to my right and Pete’s hand was also in the air, so I took the opportunity for a second glance atOz directly in front of him – because when opportunity strikes and all that.

I could barely see him under his cap, pulled down so low on his face that the shadow almost merged with the thick stubble coating his cheeks, and dark strands of hair curling up the rim.

But even from this distance he still had the ability to render my heart to a near stop.

Just like in all the YouTube videos I’d been obsessively watching, Oz’s jaw was working overtime as he channelled the adrenaline coursing through his body, making his nostrils flare with every deep inhale. His muscles looked bigger than I remembered; deep crevasses appearing along his triceps as they flexed while he made the final checks to his oar, clenching and unclenching his fists around the rubber grip. My eyes stayed glued as I watched him settle.

He was power personified. He was devastatingly handsome. And a beat before his head tipped up to let Pete know he was ready, he glanced over to me.

The earth may have stopped spinning as we locked into each other.

His pale blue eyes shone bright against the gloomy grey of the sky, and I could almost feel his breath against my neck, sense his heartbeat next to mine as it slowed, and I found myself able to take a lungful of air for the first time in a month.

Just like when I’d stepped off the bus, it was the balm I needed, because Oz had this way of calming the storm around me, quieting the noises buzzing in my head, and I remembered exactly why I was here, and what I was doing.

What I planned to do.

A month ago I’d given myself three things to accomplish. I was already one down. There were twenty minutes between me and the next two items on my list to check off.

---