Page 55 of Crew Girl

“Hey,” she said, panting. “Sorry I’m late for our run.”

“You look like you’ve already worked out.”

Busted. But the trickles of sweat running down her neck? That was from her guilty conscience. “Nah. Just the jog up. C’mon. You ready?”

As they ran, Teagan wittered like a zealous tour guide to stop herself from overthinking her own situation. Crabcatcher was too busy trying to memorize the course to notice.

When they got back to the starting point, he looked winded but not spent.

“Teagan!”

Oh no. No, no. Anytime, any other place, but not here.

Gravenhurst’s coach jogged over to them. “After your performance in the erg room this morning, I spoke to the head of the school. Gravenhurst would like to offer you a place. I know it’s mid-semester, but we can transfer you now. Get you training with us right away.”

She’d done it. She’d won a place in the top rowing program on the East Coast.

“Thank you.”

“You’re transferring to Gravenhurst Academy?” said Crabcatcher. The hurt in his voice lanced straight through her.

The guilt she’d been keeping dammed up flooded into her system. “Crabby… I can explain.”

Two minutes ago, she would’ve thought jumping boats to cox for Westvale would’ve been the ultimate betrayal, but somehow this felt worse. Choosing herself over the team. An oddball group of guys who had put her through her paces, but had finally, at long last, woven her into the fabric of their team.

“Were you even going to tell us?” Crabcatcher took a step back from her, like she’d turned into kryptonite.

“Crabby,” she appealed. “You know me. I’m a rower first. I never planned to be a coxie—”

“You fought Liam for it. Made us believe we’d be better off with you. Made me believe it. I was on your team, remember?” His voice crackled with hurt. “Why do that if you didn’t want to cox?”

“Because it was the only thing I could do at Easton.” Didn’t he see that?

He wasn’t buying it. “You never gave a crap about us. Never cared about the team. The only person you care about is you.”

“That’s not true, Crabby.” It wasn’t. It really, really wasn’t. But all the things she wanted to say to him to fix this—about how becoming part of the team had been one of the hardest, most frustrating, and, ultimately, very best things that had ever happened to her—stayed lodged in her throat.

He looked over at the sound of new arrivals. It was the team.

She gave him a pleading look. If they heard about this before the race…

“I won’t tell them, if that’s what you’re worried about. I don’t want to screw with their emotions before the race. Unlike you, I care about them.”

“Crabby, I care about you. All of you.” She desperately needed him to see this. “Rowing for Gravenhurst isn’t personal.”

“Then why work so hard to bring us together only to abandon ship?”

It was a good question.

“You guys have Liam,” she said. It was a lame response. They both knew it.

“It doesn’t work like that, Teagan. We might be an eight, but we’re a team of nine.”

She knew in her heart he was right. And yet being a cox had never been her dream.

“We’ve changed because of you, Teagan.” His anger was seeping away now, turning into sadness. Like her going to Gravenhurst was a done deal. “Everyone’s rowing better. Even you. Remember? You got your personal best rowing with us.”

She had. A PB she hadn’t been able to replicate today when she’d been rowing for herself.