Page 99 of You Float My Boat

‘Not right now,’ Oz replied.

‘Great.’ Brooks snatched up the cupcake then looked at me with a shake of his head. ‘Purple frosting. You really are hanging out with my sister too much, and now it’s affecting my snack times. Remind me when this thing is going to be over between you two?’

‘Um …’

‘At least can we have brown frosting next time?’ He held his hand up. ‘It’s all I’m asking.’

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ I replied, trying to ignore the squeezing in my chest, for the first time thankful that Brooks’ stomach always led the conversation.

Oz and I watched as the second cupcake vanished in less time than the first. Sometimes I wondered if Brooks even tasted his food or if it just got swallowed without touching the sides.

‘We should definitely have cupcakes more often in this house.’

I moved the remainder of the cooling tray out of his reach.

‘Hey, did you know it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow?’

I nodded. Oz looked as startled as I had when Leo Tavener had announced it.

‘Shit. Tomorrow? Shit. I should send something to Kate. Do you think? I should. Shouldn’t I? That would be the right thing to do. So she knows I still love her. I’m still thinking about her, right?’ Oz’s head flicked from me to Brooks and back again. ‘Right? Yes?’

I nodded, one deep nod. Over the past few weeks Oz had been moving through the five stages of grief. I think we were currently in bargaining, and that was based on nothing but the fact that our morning training sessions on the river had been getting easier. The anger Oz had used to power us through the week before last seemed to have lessened.

I didn’t know whether sending her a Valentine’s gift would get her back, but Ididknow that if he kept pushing us at the rate he had been, we’d all collapse. Therefore, I would be encouraging anything that involved him doing something else.

‘Yes, mate. That’s a good idea.’

‘What d’you think would be good. What would work? What do girls like for Valentine’s?’

‘Can’t go wrong with flowers,’ answered Brooks, like he was an expert. Which he wasn’t seeing as he clearly hadn’t known Valentine’s Day was tomorrow, not to mention the fact that when we were sixteen he broke up with Annabel Caterham two days before Valentine’s so he could be single. And to my knowledge he’s never had a girlfriend on Valentine’s since.

Oz raked a hand through his hair. ‘Yeah. I could do flowers. Roses? Yeah, roses.’

Reaching for his phone currently plugged in on the counter, he hit speed dial. It only rang twice before it was picked up by a voice we all knew well.

‘Osbourne,’ answered Oliver Greenwood, also known as Olly, and the unofficial fourth member of this household. ‘What’s up?’

The four of us had all attended school together. Being in the same boarding house meant we were rarely apart but while Brooks, Oz and I had all taken the rowing path, Olly was a natural at rugby – something he’d only taken up to help him get girls. And it did, far too well.

Unfortunately, just like the three of us were destined to attend Oxford, Olly was fated to go to Cambridge, follow in his family’s footsteps studying law and less so, but just like his older brother, cause havoc among the first-year girls. Most likely second, third and fourth years too.

‘Ol, I need you to do me a favour.’

‘I’m still doing the last favour you asked me.’

Oz frowned. ‘What was that?’

‘Keep an eye on Kate.’

‘Oh, well, it’s the same thing then. I’m going to order some flowers, but please can you deliver them to her?’

‘Florists deliver, Oz. They can do it,’ he drawled.

‘I need to make sure they’ve arrived safely. Please.’ He stretched out his pleading so long that I’d have said yes just to stop it.

The grunt down the phone said Olly was of the same opinion. ‘Fine. What about a card?’

‘A card?’

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