Page 86 of Oar Than Friends

‘I can see that big brain of yours working overtime,’ he mumbled against me as he pulled away, his blue eyes wideand filled with mischief. ‘Please come home with me. My mother is expecting you, so you’d only be getting me into trouble if I returned empty handed.’

My shoulders dropped; even though I knew he was teasing, there was a tiny ball of pressure building. I could feel it travelling up from the pit of my stomach.

‘I need to study.’

‘I need to study too, so we’ll do it together.’

‘But you’re …’

He stopped me with another smack of his lips. ‘Kate, whatever argument you put forth, I will have a response. And I should warn you that I was president of the debating club, and we never lost. Now please say yes.’

‘I don’t have any gifts,’ I blurted out.

To his credit he didn’t laugh as hard as I could tell he wanted to. ‘The only gift I want is you. You’re all I need.’

I sighed; after two weeks of my own company, the thought of Oz leaving so soon after arriving was enough to bring me to tears. They were already creeping up my throat as it was.

‘Okay,’ I smiled, ‘I would love to come home with you. But only if we can stop to pick something for your mom before we get there. I cannot arrive empty handed.’

‘Those are terms I can agree to.’ He grinned, grabbing my backpack from the bench and tossing it over his shoulder, ‘let’s get your things, then we can decide on the way.’

I slipped my hand into his, and we walked back to the dorm building, ‘Thank you for coming to get me.’

‘I will always come to get you.’ His lips brushed against my temple, ‘Plus I missed you. I’m not sure I’m cut out for this long-distance shit.’

A little butterfly emerged in my chest at his words.

This was much better than a Netflix marathon.

Wrought-iron gates, the type you’d associate with Jane Austen orDownton Abbey, swung open and the car moved slowly along a paved driveway lined with huge oak trees that looked like they’d been present at the dawn of time. Fifty yards in and we passed a small round stone hut, with a large camera bolted to the side which tracked us as we passed, designed to let trespassers know they were being watched.

Oz turned to me, and the hand which had never left my thigh for the entire ride squeezed gently. ‘Welcome to my home.’

I knew Oz had money. Vast amounts of money. But now here I was driving along the road and it felt like we could have been entering a small European country for all I knew.

I was just about to ask if I should have brought my passport when the path curved around and opened up; there in front of us, elevated on a slight hilltop, was the most beautiful house I’d ever seen. It was also, quite easily, the largest. I sent out a silent prayer that maybe – hopefully – this was a hotel, and not somewhere my entire hometown could fit into.

‘You live here?’ was all I managed to say as we drove around an enormous Christmas tree twinkling with white lights, and parked in front of a door easily twice the size of the huge library doors at Cambridge, then, ‘Holy shit,’ when he nodded gently.

He shifted his body so it faced mine, his expressionholding the exact amount of nervousness that I felt, like he wasn’t quite sure how I’d react to all this grandeur. That made two of us. But his nerves did help mine dissolve a little, or enough that I could smile and smooth out his brow.

‘I live in Oxford, but this is where I grew up in England. It’s my mother’s house, and has been in her family for a long time. She spends half the year here and the other half in Greece.’

‘Oh right, she doesn’t like the cold,’ I added, remembering one of many small nuggets of information Oz had given me during our thousands of hours of talking. My brows dropped a little, ‘But it’s December, and cold.’

‘Ah yes,’ he winked, ‘but she loves English Christmases, and she won’t break with our December traditions, otherwise we’d all still be at our place in Morzine.’

‘Is that where you went skiing?’

‘Yup.’ Taking my hands in his he brushed his lips along the tips of my fingers, ‘I know this place must seem big, but I promise it’s cosy, and you’ll soon realize we need the space to escape Phoebe, Hector and Al, who can only be tolerated in very small amounts.’

I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him look nervous, or lookthisnervous, and this time I could laugh away my anxiety. ‘Come on, let’s go and meet everyone. How bad’s it gonna be?’

I was still laughing as I opened the car door, and a flash of pink caught my eye. The handle was yanked from my grip and I found myself being pulled into a near-suffocating embrace, coupled with a deafening shriek, by someone tall and kind of soft, who turned out to be wearing a very fluffy sweater.

Adding to the commotion was a pack of excitedly barking dogs – a Great Dane the size of a small horse, three Labradors and a couple of Jack Russells – the smallest one now in Oz’s arms.

‘Jesus, Phoebe, put Kate down. Chill the fuck out, will you?’

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