Page 66 of Oar Than Friends

‘Yeah, see,’ I pointed outside to a lone man walking past us, ‘when you walk in the rain you keep your head down. It’s weird. Not like it’s going to hit you, but we do it anyway.’

‘Oh yeah, I never thought about it.’ She let out a soft chuckle, folding the towel up and placing it in her lap. ‘But still, someone could have seen us.’

‘And if they did, I guarantee you they wouldn’t care.’

‘Well, I’m not going to risk it,’ she snapped.

‘You talk about it like we’re at war and you’re venturing into enemy territory.’

‘We are.’

I rolled my eyes, and was about to tell her she was being ridiculous before she snapped again.

‘Oz, if you’re not going to take me seriously, then this whole thing is pointless.’

Her stare was as hard and determined as her jaw was tense. She almost looked ferocious.Almost.The raindrop sliding down her nose was diluting the effect, however.

I picked the towel from her lap and gently wiped it away, then threw it in the backseat before an argument started that had her storming back to Downing.

‘I’m taking you seriously, Kate. I just don’t like hiding who I am, which is someone who’d come and meet a girl with his umbrella, so she wouldn’t get wet.’

Her shoulders softened a little as she sighed. ‘Thank you. I just have more to lose than you, and I need you to realize that.’

‘Okay. I get it,’ I replied, even though I didn’t get it, but we’d be here all night if I tried to understand now. ‘Anyway, more importantly, feeling drier?’

‘Yeah.’ She smiled, her annoyance with me vanishing as quickly as it had arrived. ‘My ass is getting hot though.’

My eyebrow shot up, suggestively, which had her cheeks flooding pink. Even in the dark of the car I could tell it was the same colour she’d turned this morning right before I kissed her. I flicked the switch to turn it off. ‘That’ll be better.’

‘Thank you.’ She sat up straighter, her body twisting as she looked around my Land Rover, stroking her hand along the leather arm rest between us. ‘You have a nice car.’

I shrugged a shoulder, like it was no big deal, but I winced a little with self-consciousness. To anyone outside of rowing, it was flashy, unnecessary and expensive, especially for a student, but for me this was the car that could fit two shells on its roof and tow a trailer carrying even more. Plus, transport six of my crewmates when we needed to get to the boathouse every morning.

‘Practical,’ she continued, ‘great for the boats. Bet you could fit two or three on the roof.’

‘Oh, Yankee Doodle, thank you.’ I laughed, the loud whirring in my brain had immediately silenced. Then even more so at her rightly confused expression, ‘I like you, a lot.Yes. Yes, I can and most of the boys back there.’ I thumbed to the back seats.

‘So what you’re telling me is that you’re the soccer mom of rowing?’

I grinned wide at her teasing smile. ‘No, that’s definitely Charlie. Once he’s been fed enough coffee, that is.’

Her brow shot up. ‘Oh? He’s a fellow hater of the mornings, or does he just need a lot of sleep?’

‘Both,’ I nodded, ‘wait, are you telling me you don’t like the mornings either?’

She winced, her hands held out in front of her as she weighed her answer. ‘I like sleep, therefore I like mornings if I’ve had enough sleep.’

‘I’ll remember that, then.’

She blushed again, and now I wanted to find out how far that blush travelled. The other thing about our kiss was having her wrapped around me. She might have been vertically challenged, but she definitely made up for it in all other ways. All the ways that counted.

And that arse. Fuck I’d be dreaming of that for eternity.

‘Okay, seatbelt on please. Ready to go?’

The latch clicked into place. ‘Yes, where are we going?’

‘Well, to accommodate your need for secrecy,’ I rolled my eyes, this time in the over-the-top dramatic manner I’d learned from my sister, making Kate laugh, ‘we’re going to a little place on the outskirts of Cambridge called the Red Fox. It’s in a tiny village called Pickford, frequented by locals only as it’s virtually impossible to get to unless you have a car. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see anyone I know, and if we do you can pretend we don’t know eachother, while I’ll attempt to hold my ego together at the rejection.’

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