“When were you last spontaneous?”
She bit her lips together, her eyes narrowing. “How are we defining spontaneous?”
“Went somewhere on impulse. Had a one-night stand.” I shrugged, not sure where that second one came from. “Bought a car without meaning to. I don’t know. Just something you hadn’t planned.”
“I bought a load of new underwear last week when I’d only meant to get two sports bras.” The answer shot out just before her ears started to turn red.
I wanted to ask her more about the underwear, but we were walking near a steep drop, and I didn’t fancy my chances, so I kept my mouth shut.
“What was the last impulsive thing you did?” She tightened her ponytail. A strand of her hair had fallen out, making her look almost innocent.
I laughed, hearing the sarcasm in it. “You saw it in the press.”
“Oh. That.”
“Clearly, I didn’t think.”
“Not with the right head anyway.” Her look was victorious. “Why did you do it?”
I shrugged. “She was attractive and interested and I was on holiday. What do you do when you’re on holiday?”
The smile fell away. “Not that. I usually look after my nephew.”
“Isn’t that his mum’s job?” I’d expected her to give me an answer that put me down rather than her truth.
Dee didn’t respond for a minute, looking out at the view from where we were, almost at the summit of Ben Lomond. “My sister likes to sunbathe. Tobias wants to be in the pool or sea, and he likes me being with him.”
“Do you have a holiday that’s just adults though? Where you’re not just babysitting?” I took my mother and sister away every year, at least once. Sometimes I just took my sister so our mam got a break and sent our mam somewhere with her friends. But I made sure I got my R and R too.
Dee shook her head as we caught up with Ryan and Izzy who were at the summit.
“Not this year.” Her tone told me she didn’t want to discuss it any further and I wasn’t going to push. “We should head straight down, see if we can run some of it. We could get up the leader board if we push it.”
And that was our conversation over.
For now.
I hadn’t kayaked for years. When I was a kid, my school ran outdoor education sessions in the summer term, sometimes instead of PE. I would’ve played football all day every day, if I could, so I should’ve been pissed that they made us do something else, like I was when it was rugby or cricket. But outdoor ed was fun. Different. We’d go climbing or biking, kayaking or bodyboarding. There had been a few lessons where we would sail or go orienteering.
Today was the first time since then that I’d been kayaking. Ryan hadn’t tried it before, and neither had Izzy. Dee, of course, had, probably when she was in Scouts or something like that. I didn’t ask.
We organised ourselves to balance the weight, me talking through a bit of strategy and hoping the other three were listening. We’d managed Ben Lomond in a decent time, only one other team beating us so far, so we had a good chance of ending up at the top of the board.
“This is alright!” Izzy had started strong with her stroke. Probably too strong given that we’d gotten a little out of synch on our side.
I heard Dee laugh, a noise that really did remind me of Tinkerbell for some reason.
“You won’t say that in five minutes when you feel like you’ve spent the last hour doing shoulder presses.” The dryness to her words contrasted with the laugh, and she was right: this was going to fucking murder tomorrow.
We managed to get a rhythm going that had us moving quickly with the current. A team of professionals rowed next to us, one of the blokes on it clearly happy to spend more time checking the girls’ technique than me or Ryan’s, and I was pretty sure I’d heard him make a comment about Dee’s ass, a comment she hadn’t noticed else he would’ve been in the water. Possibly held under.
I knew as we hit the turning point that Dee and I were doing most of the powering by now. Ryan was athletic, and fast, but his game was about bursts of speed, while I played the endurance game and worked on my strength in the off season as well. Footballers weren’t meant to be bulky, as bulk could slow you down during ninety minutes of play, but I’d shot down that theory and sent it back to where it came from.
“Can the passengers in the back sort themselves out?” Dee’s shout could’ve come from an army major. There was a groan and things became a bit easier, but only a bit.
We were rowing against the current now, upstream back to the starting line. Coming down the other side were a couple of my teammates, trying to dig in, but their pace was off. That amount of power so soon was going to make it a harder journey when they got to where we were now, which only made me shout louder to get Ryan and Izzy upping their power.
They’d noticed what the other team we could see were doing, and it had clearly clicked that they were about to fuck up while we were nearly done. I glanced over at Dee, seeing concentration and effort on her face. She hadn’t stopped or lost the rhythm once, and she didn’t even look slightly tired. I had a feeling I was going to get my arse kicked at the fitness test, which was going to be hell after this. She was like a terrier, so much energy and ferocity. I grinned; as much as she had the capability to get on my nerves, I was starting to kind of like her. At least respect her.
