Page 128 of You Float My Boat

Her ability to get under someone’s skin really was unmatched.

‘Ask him. I’m sure you’re on the way to the boathouse now. I did tell you, Violet, we always find our way back to one another.’

Stella finally snatched the glass of wine I was holding out to her, ‘Come on, let’s get out of here. Evie, go back to your coven.’

I left her standing at the bar, no doubt watching us leave, as Stella dragged me through a fresh swarm of students who’d descended on the pub, probably with the same idea we’d had.

‘That girl …’ Stella spluttered, ‘she’s genuinely got something wrong with her. How did Charlie ever like her?’

I shrugged, with a slow headshake, ‘Honestly, I think about it every day.’

‘You don’t think there was any truth to what she said?’

She’d asked the question right as I brought the glass to my lips, which resulted in me snorting a laugh and the wine shooting straight up my nose. At least wearing Charlie’s hoodie hadn’t been a total bust. It was a very handy face wipe.

‘No, I don’t. I can’t imagine a truthful sentence has ever passed her lips.’

The pair of us were still huffing and grumbling about Evie by the time we arrived at the boathouse five minutes later. And because luck seemed to be – mostly – on our side today, it was the exact moment Charlie pushed through the doors.

In less than a second, my mouth dried up. I almost slapped a hand over Stella’s eyes, because I wanted to be the only one to appreciate the work of art that was Charlie Masterson in all his post-race, sweaty glory. He’d pulled down the straps of his rowing singlet and was walking down the ramp, muscle upon heavily stacked muscle on full display. Even his abs seemed to have grown since this morning.

‘Holy crap,’ muttered Stella.

‘Hello, fancy seeing you here,’ he grinned, though stopped short of giving me the kiss I was expecting – the kiss he usually gave me – and instead I received a quick peck on the corner of my mouth and I realized why when he glanced behind him.

My brother was inside somewhere, and he still hadn’t told him.

Instead, the quick brush of his fingers against mine was enough to push away the minuscule shard of disappointment I knew was only popping up because of what had just happened with Evie.

‘Congratulations.’

‘Thank you, I won for you,’ he winked.

I smiled up at him right as Stella nudged Charlie’s shoulder with her own, ‘Nice win, Chuckles.’

‘Thanks,’ if it was possible his grin got wider, ‘it was a hard-fought race.’

‘You clearly fought the hardest,’ she croaked, and let out a little cough, ‘I’ve screamed myself hoarse.’

‘We appreciate it. That glass of wine seems to have helped though.’ He nodded to the plastic cup in her hand.

‘Yeah, never doubt the power of a glass of wine.’ She took a large sip as if to illustrate the point. ‘It was amazing, and well done Oxford for claiming overall victory.’

‘We’ve got some work to do over the next two weeks. But if today was any indication, the crew is in place for Blue.’

‘We’ll be there cheering you across the finish line at Chiswick Bridge.’

‘You’d better,’ he replied, looking directly at me, andthis time a little spark of electricity shot between us as he touched my hand again.

‘Oh my god,’ Stella continued, not noticing she was completely interrupting a moment, ‘you’ll never guess. We bumped into that psychotic ex-girlfriend of yours.’

Charlie’s hand left mine and all the happiness dropped from his face, only to be replaced by deep frown lines marring his otherwise smooth forehead. ‘Evie? What? Where?’

‘In the pub. Honestly she’s so full of shit, she tried to convince us you’d made her promise to meet you if you lost, so she could make you feel better, or whatever.’

‘Yeah,’ I laughed, ‘I think Stella was ready to burn her at the stake if I hadn’t pulled her away.’

‘Evie told you I was going out with her if we lost the race?’ Charlie repeated.

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