Page 96 of Oar Than Friends

Reaching up, I twisted a curl of his hair around my index finger, ‘I just wanted to kiss you, and hug you and tell you that I think you’re an awesome brother.’

The smug grin mask he’d been wearing for the last minute dropped, and he stilled in my arms. ‘What d’you mean?’

‘You’re an awesome brother to those three. You act like they’re a pain in the ass, but even in the few days of being here I’ve seen how fiercely you protect them and love them. You’ve spent most of today helping Hector with his Latin when you have your finals coming up this year, and Alex told me yesterday about the newspaper he’d found and how you helped him get rid of it.’

He looked at me, really held my gaze until I could see the gratitude in his eyes, the relief at being seen for something other than the tabloid version of him. Because no matter how much you tried to avoid the gossip, there would always be a tiny part of you that wondered if it were true. Or if perhaps you really were the person people said you were.

‘Thank you.’ His head dipped until his lips brushed mine, pressing harder until I opened up and allowed him access.

Softly, slowly, his tongue moved against mine as his hands cupped my cheeks, but he didn’t deepen it. The kissstayed as wholesome as a kiss could be, because this wasn’t a kiss which was leading anywhere. It was almost a kiss of relief, and when he stepped back and held my gaze I knew I was right.

‘Thank you.’

‘For what?’

‘For being here. For being you. I’m so happy I found you, Kate Astley. You’ve no idea.’

‘I think I do, thank you for inviting me.’ I brushed my thumb against the soft stubble on his cheek. ‘You’re a great teacher, you know. You really should think about pursuing it. You should be teaching. Why don’t you talk to your mom while you’re here?’

His mouth held in a straight line, but he didn’t reply and when his stomach rumbled, he grabbed it. ‘Come on, you might have got me out here on a pretext, but I’m hungry and we have a tray full of snacks to take back to those beasts now.’

We walked toward the chef’s kitchen where the pie was, but I didn’t ask what he was thinking as we continued in silence because I was too busy answering the question I’d asked myself when I’d first arrived here.

If he was busy protecting everyone else, who was protecting him?

Me, I decided.

‘Oz,’ his name stretched out on my wide yawn as I watched him rush around. ‘Why are we awake so early? The sun hasn’t even risen yet.’

‘You’ll see. We have a busy day,’ he called from his dressing room.

‘What are we doing?’

‘Surprise. Now do as you’re told, and get dressed.’

My curiosity got the better of me and I threw back the covers. I always expected it to be cold first thing in the mornings, just like the winters were back home before the stove was lit, but for an old house it was surprisingly well insulated.

‘What am I wearing?’

‘Something warm.’ He kissed my head as he walked past. ‘I’ll see you downstairs in five minutes.’

I frowned after him as he closed the door, wondering if I’d ever seen him so focused or distracted. He hadn’t even used the opportunity to squeeze my ass, which might be a first, but seeing as I was on a time constraint I snapped into action and pulled on the warmest leggings I could find, along with a long-sleeve t-shirt, thick hoodie and woolly hat.

‘Four minutes and forty-three seconds,’ Oz announced as I reached the bottom of the stairs.

‘Were you timing me?’

‘No, I’m timing Phoebe, but you happened to arrive first.’ He grinned, picking up a steaming to-go cup of coffee and handed it to me. ‘Here you go.’

‘Phoebe?’

‘Yes, she’s bound to take longer than five minutes, but I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt.’

I was still trying to figure out what we were doing when Alex slid down the banister, clearly racing Hector who was sprinting down the stairs, both jumping off at the bottom and landing square on the floor.

‘I won.’ Hector threw his hands into the air.

‘No, I did. I hit the ground first.’

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