Page 102 of Crew Girl

“Like what?”

“My family. The shop’s about to go under and I needed the money.”

Teagan went quiet, absorbing what he’d said, then piecing together the pieces of the puzzle. “Someone paid you to throw the race, didn’t they?”

He didn’t bother to nod.

“Ryder. Wasn’t it? Oh, Cam.”

He could tell she didn’t get it. She felt bad for him, but even knowing what she did now, couldn’t understand why he’d done it.

“There had to be a better solution.”

If there had been? He would’ve done it. He knew she wouldn’t get it.

Rowing was the most important thing in the world to Teagan. The thing she prioritized above everything else, like it was a sacred act. The one thing she did in life that made her feel whole. Pure.

Up until now, she’d thought it was something they shared.

He knew she would have given Ryder the answer he had when he’d come to the shop. No way. But she wasn’t standing where he was. Watching everything his dad had worked for teetering on the brink.

“It was forty-eight thousand dollars, Teagan. That’s how much my dad owes. If not? He loses everything. How was I supposed to get that kind of money?”

She shook her head, his predicament finally beginning to register. “I don’t know.”

Not that easy, was it? Finding a solution to a problem like that. Standing here watching her try to come up with an answer when it was too late wasn’t an option. “So why don’t you go focus on our own race, okay?”

He shouldered his bag and left, charged past groups of guys sharing times and war stories. He caught a glimpse of Baloo talking to someone from Westvale, but hurried past them, too.

The sprawling woodland beyond the rec center offered him somewhere to take some deep breaths and disappear for a while. Not that the fresh air would help. The only scent filling his nostrils right now was the stench of his own self-loathing.

TEAGAN

“Madison!” Teagan jogged over to the registration desk, relieved to see an ally. Future stepsister?

Ugh, too soon. Her dad was still out there somewhere, wasn’t he?

“Hey. What’s up?”

“I need a favor.”

Madison held up her hands. “Our parents might be bedfellows, but I don’t think we’re there just yet.”

Like she’d thought. Too soon. But not for this. “It’s for Cam. You can’t ask why—just know that I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important. You saw what happened with him…?”

Madison cricked her neck, concerned. “What can I do?”

“I need you to put me on the same erg Cam raced on.”

It wasn’t the best plan in the world. But kind of like Cam, it was the only one she had. After Madison fulfilled her part of it, Teagan headed to erg 10, adjusted her blister tape, pulled up one foot for a quad stretch. Did the other side. Dropped into a lunge beside the erg and slipped the strip of blister tape she’d just pulled off into the flywheel. The round disc that fed the steel chain attached to the rowing handle.

She strapped herself on to the erg, pushed out a couple gentle pulls, felt the tape connect as she’d hoped.

It was probably the stupidest thing she’d ever done. And that was saying something considering she was surrounded by top rowers from Gravenhurst. A team she would’ve been part of if Cam hadn’t opened her eyes to what it really meant to be part of one. He’d called it months ago when Quaid landed everyone in detention. Sometimes you did things you wouldn’t normally do, to prove to your team you were one of them, that you had their back no matter what. At least this wouldn’t be landing everyone in detention.

Aura points!

“All rowers—” came the announcement. “Pick up the handle.”