He laughed. “You know I’m going to keep reminding you. I’ve already ordered you something to help.”
“What’s that?” I groaned, thinking of all the embarrassing things it could be.
“Hair ties.” He rubbed his hands together. “I’ll pick a few buckets up from the pound store later and drop them off.”
“There’s really no need. It won’t be happening again any time soon.” I stood up. It was nearly time for the coaches to leave and I didn’t want to be one of the last people on, because there’d inevitably be cheers and teasing for those few stragglers.
Rowan didn’t stand up, he just nodded. “Does you good to let your hair down sometimes. And you have pretty hair.”
My hand went up to my ponytail, twisting my fingers through it. “I think I should just say thank you to that and move on.”
He laughed. “Probably. Do you want a take-away tea for the ride back?”
“Are you getting one?”
“Coffee. But I can manage to get you tea.”
I remembered the tea he’d made last night, vague recollections of what we talked about fluttering about my head. “Thank you. Shall I save you a seat?”
He waggled his brows. “Is that your way of saying you want to sit next to me?”
I laughed, wanting to deny it, but realising I kind of did. “You’d save me from having to sit next to Izzy and hear all about last night while she pretends to be mortified.” Because I knew she was secretly pleased to have bagged one of the men’s team. I didn’t know what to say to her, because it felt all kinds of wrong, but I didn’t want to burst her bubble.
“Done. I’ll let you fall asleep on my shoulder. I can be your knight in shining armour twice in twenty-four hours.”
“If I do that, people will talk.”
I did do that.
We’d come off the motorway, the turns of the A roads waking me up, my head on Rowan’s shoulder, and the rest of my bodysnuggledinto his. As soon as it dawned on me exactly what position I was in, I froze. Sudden movements would only make other people notice, if they hadn’t already, and judging by the lack of noise on the coach, most people were asleep or zoned out.
I prodded his thigh, finding just hard muscle there.
“You awake now?” He shifted in his seat, putting down his iPad. “You sleep like the dead.”
I groaned. “Why did you let me nod off?”
“Was I supposed to use torture to keep you awake? You should’ve said.”
I dug my short nails into his tracksuit bottoms. “People will talk.”
“Let them. Deny it, and they’ll talk even more. You fell asleep on me. Nate’s done the same and if you can raise your head up enough, you’ll see that Matty Culver has fallen asleep with his head in Jesse’s lap, which is what people will be talking about later.” He sounded as if he was half-asleep himself. “Stop worrying so much.”
I sat up. “I can’t help it.” I felt anxiety rise up inside when I remembered what had happened with Toby.
“Dee, it will be fine.”
“How do you know that?”
He stretched out his shoulders, making me wonder exactly how long I’d been asleep for. “Because you’re a good person, you have a good job that pays well enough, I guess, and you have people to support you. You’re just going to have to go through some shit before you get the happily ever after. Matty! How were your dreams?”
His attention was off me and on his teammate who was now taking some ribbing about exactly where his head had been while he was asleep. I checked my phone, reading through a handful of messages, a couple from Genny and one from Joanne’s friend, saying she knew Joanne was with her new boyfriend in London, so I didn’t need to worry about anything bad having happened to my sister.
That was going to happen when she eventually turned up home.
There were two messages from my agent. One telling me that a sportswear brand had been in contact about a possible endorsement, and to check my emails. The second was a link to the club’s website and showed a write up about the challenge from yesterday. We’d come second, narrowly beaten by a point – I was going to try not to bear a grudge with Izzy and Ryan for that – but the main photo on the article wasn’t of the winning team: it was me and Rowan, when we climbed out of the kayaks, and taken at a point when we were laughing at each other.
I closed the link. When I swallowed, it felt like I had a hard ball in my throat.
