Distracted By You: Book 1 in The Exeter Running Girls Series, стр. 15
As he pulled back to take the shot, I sighed loudly and readjusted my jeans on my hips, showing a flash of skin. His eyes flicked up to watch, sending the ball into the side of the table.
“Can I be on her team every time we play?” Savannah asked the others gleefully.
In the end, we won. Much to Savannah’s joy as she danced round Sam, shaking his money in his face. I didn’t mind the extra fifty pounds either, but I was a little more sporting in my defeat.
Tye dropped us all back at our places, booting me first. I would have liked to have thanked him for the evening, for distracting me when I needed it, but the full car prevented any such truth passing my lips.
Later that night, Leonora rang to apologise, saying she had got cornered on the phone by her brother and didn’t notice the time. She felt so guilty, but actually I was very happy she hadn’t come.
Chapter 5
“Track three of the playlist,” Cara called as the four of us prepared ourselves on the start line. The running society was holding a five-kilometre race and despite how cold it was outside we had all showed up to see the frosted morning. Grass was tapered into white spikes, and leaves were bordered in sparkly silver.
We all jumped up and down to get the blood moving as we set our music to track three, our breath clouding the air in little puffs of mist. At the beginning of the first term we had discovered Cara’s amazing taste in music and her genius in creating great running playlists. She had quickly been named our running DJ.
“First one across the line buys drinks for the rest of us,” Leonora was kicking her legs to warm up.
“That’s no incentive,” I snapped back, my eagerness to win the race suddenly evaporated. Even with my newly earned fifty quid, I was hardly feeling flush with cash. Far from diving into a room of gold coins, I imagined my bank account was a room full of lint and tumbleweed blowing through in non-existent wind.
“On your marks, get set…” The president of the society called from the front of the large group that had turned up that morning. We all pressed play on our music – ‘Eye of the Tiger’ started blazing into our earbuds. “Go!” We just had time to share thrilled glances at the song choice before we left, milling amongst the others.
We all had different running speeds so quickly split up. Neither Leonora nor Cara were the strongest runners, so Ellie and I pulled easily to the front.
In the last kilometre, I slowed up to let Ellie pass – there wasn’t a chance I was going to put myself in the position of buying drinks for everyone. There was only one piece of tumbleweed left in my bank account.
When the finish line came into sight up on the hill of the campus outside the forum, my heart plummeted into my stomach. It was the very core and centre of campus, so a few passers-by had stopped to watch us all finish, including Tye who was talking to Ellie.
As I crossed the line, I noted my time and walked straight over to the two of them, desperately hoping to break anything up before it could begin.
“Hey!” My voice sounded a lot chirpier than I currently felt. Those little people in my stomach I liked to think of as embodiments of my nerves were leaping into acrobatics now, each of them somersaulting and tumble turning.
“Hi,” Tye turned to me with a surprise and a genuine smile lit up his dark features. “You in the running society?”
“Yeah, it’s where I met Ellie and the others,” as I gestured to Ellie her dark glare burrowed into me. Evidently, she thought I was crashing her flirting. I had somehow temporarily forgotten my plan to see if he could resist her.
“Ivy, would you be a dear and grab me some water?” Ellie asked with sweetness, giving me a clear-cut cue to get the hell out of there.
“Sure,” I rolled my eyes for only Tye to see and walked off to the cooler box provided for us. I couldn’t help my gaze being drawn back to the two of them. Just as Ellie raised a hand and touched his arm, he didn’t remove it. I looked away again, feeling hope sink faster than a granite stone in a swimming pool. I trained my eyes on the runners coming up the hill across the steep paved slope, waiting for Cara and Leonora.
Despite my best efforts, my eyes eventually slid back to them. How Ellie managed to look so good after a five-kilometre run was very frustrating in her Lycra-clad figure, barely a sweat showing. The smile Tye had worn for me was not there anymore at least. He rubbed his face as though exasperated and looked away, his eyes finding me. Ellie was not deterred, not noticing where he was looking and just stepping nearer to him.
I couldn’t help but laugh, just for him to see. He was shaking his head, his short hair bouncing across his forehead with the movement, as if to ask me wordlessly, what is happening? I felt a small jolt of joy. No. He still wasn’t interested in Ellie. He looked back down at her and said something with a fake smile before walking away, towards me.
He moved with exasperation in his every step as he reached my side.
“Does she not get what ‘no’ means?” He held his hands out in front of him as if pleading for an explanation.
“By saying no, you have just become a greater challenge for her. She likes the hunt.”
He ran a hand across the back of his neck, causing some