Page 99 of Crew Girl

Karina shot daggers at him while Ryder got his stuff and headed into the hall. “May the best man win,” Josh called after them with a smile. It dropped away fast. Nothing about his life was giving him the feels these days.

TEAGAN

One lap around the athletic center was enough to pull focus. She’d stretch out, do a warm-up, get in the zone—

“Teagan.”

She glared at Coach Hayden.

“Teagan, listen.” He’d read her body language—not interested—but plowed on anyway. “I know we’re going to have to deal with what happened this morning at some point, but today? Here and now? I’m your coach. And you’ll treat me like one.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m the one who gets to decide that.”

He shrugged out a fair enough. “Okay. But your coach has intel on your competition. Would you like to hear it?”

Obviously. But she was busy sending out Distinctly Unhappy vibes. Ha. They could glare this out. Orrr they could pick it up later when her chances of putting her rowing career back on track weren’t dangling in the balance.

“Intel. Please,” she added, because her mother, who had slept with him, had raised her to be polite. They would definitely be having words later.

“Good.” He held up the notebook he put stats in. “No surprise, Gravenhurst are expected to take first and second positions. There’s an up-and-comer from Claremont to watch for, but if you keep your pace on your third five hundred, you’ve got a shot at taking that top spot.”

“Okay.” Good. Yeah. She liked those odds. Had needed the intel. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“This doesn’t make up for smashing my mom.”

Hayden winced, like he’d smelled a skunk. “Hearing that is punishment enough.”

Fair. She hadn’t painted a pretty picture of what had, presumably, been a good date night. Now that she thought about it, her mom had been a lot happier lately. But there had to be ground rules. “No PDA, she’s home by eleven, and I’m up at six, so if you’re sneaking out, it better be earlier.”

“Deal.” He nodded, satisfied. No need for a handshake.

“One more thing, and this is really humiliating for me to ask so don’t make a big thing about it, okay?”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you know where she is? She’s not answering her phone. She said she’d be here.”

He shook his head. “Sorry. But I’m pretty sure if she does call… when she calls…” he amended, “you’ll be the one whose phone rings.”

Good answer. And a good coach. But the other stuff? Bleurgh.

Truce in place, she accepted Coach’s invitation to sit with him and Ryder’s mom to watch the guys’ race.

She hunted her teammates out among the rows of ergs, with judges walking between them. Coach spotted them first. “Looks like Cam’s already caught the scout’s eye.”

“Or Ryder,” his mom interjected.

Yeah. Maybe. They were both good. But Coach’s lack of response indicated there was something else they agreed on. Cam was the one to watch today.

She watched as he and Ryder exchanged a weird look Teagan couldn’t interpret, but Cam’s face transformed into his blinkered zone too soon for her to figure it out.

Uh-oh. Baloo was staring daggers at the Westvale guy. Snapchat wouldn’t light up with their shirtless selfies anymore. Poor Baloo. He deserved so much better.

She spotted Josh strapping his feet on to the erg. He was in his own world from the looks of things. Eyes not lifting once to find a friendly face in the crowd. Which made her heart ache almost as much as it had when she’d caught that glimpse of “normal Cam” at check-in.

Madison jogged over and squished herself between Teagan and Coach—wise—just as the official moderating the event did a quick mic check.