“You came, too,” he said to me, and to my surprise, he hugged me as well. I was pressed up against the t-shirt he’d put on over his funny, tight uniform, but it was over too quickly for me to put my arms around him.
“You rowed excellently,” I told him, and he laughed.
“Could you see that from here?”
“We have binoculars,” Everly explained, and displayed her pirate spyglass.
“You came prepared,” he said to his sister. “I expect no less.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone that you were doing this?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“I don’t know. How about you three wait for me to put on shorts, and then we go eat? Are you hungry?” he asked his niece.
She was, despite the snacks she’d taken from the expertly packed cooler. First, Levi had to do something to his boat which involved his crew working together to put it on a tall trailer. While we waited, we watched more of the competition, but it wasn’t nearly as exciting as when he’d been on the river. Everly, Ava, and I were in complete agreement on that.
They left for the restaurant in their car, but I waited to go with Levi in his. When he came to meet me, now more covered up, I couldn’t seem to stop talking about his race and asking questions, too, about how he rowed, about the boat, and about the peculiar uniform they all wore that was extremely flattering on him. Extremely.
“I had so much fun,” I kept saying, and he looked at me and laughed.
“Did you?” He put his arm over my shoulders. “I should have told you sooner.”
“You told me about your book, and I didn’t say anything to anyone else about it. Even when Ava questions me about you, I keep everything to myself,” I pointed out.
“And I’m familiar with how she questions. It’s rough,” he said, which I’d learned was true. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. I guess because I was bad at it and learning, and then it felt like another way that I was wasting time.”
“But it’s so good for you,” I protested. “And I saw you talking to everyone, so it’s also an effective way to form relationship bonds and make friends.”
“Maybe you could try it. You could work out on an erg, a rowing machine, to see if it hurts.”
“Maybe,” I said. I didn’t want to immediately shoot him down, but I’d seen the way their hips moved as they pulled their oars and I had my doubts. “Why did you worry?”
“Huh?” He opened the car door for me.
“Why did you worry that I might consider rowing to be a waste of time? I don’t,” I added. “What would that matter, though?”
Levi got in the car and looked at me. “Because I care what you think.”
“What?”
“Why do you sound so shocked?” he asked me. “I care about your opinions. Why do you look so damn surprised?”
“I just never thought…I didn’t imagine…” I stopped and regrouped. “You were worried thatIwould think less ofyou.”
“Yeah, that sums it up. I thought you’d wonder why I was spending so much time sitting in a boat rather than putting my ass in a desk chair, doing the productive things that you like.”
“I’m not always productive. Yesterday, I took a break at noon and watchedWoman in the DarkandThe Thin Man, a Dashiell Hammett double-header.”
“But you made it up by working late. I know you did,” he told me. “You don’t cut yourself many breaks.” He started the car but we didn’t go yet.
“Well…” That might have been true. “Well, the only reason I worried about you being productive was because when we met, you seemed to feel very unhappy with yourself.”
“Did I?”
I wished that I had the transcript, but I’d reviewed it a bunch of times so I remembered his words pretty well. “You said that you didn’t understand what had happened, but you had slid. Life had come at you too fast because all you did in college was go to class and have a beer, but that your friends had been busy preparing. Ava had started cornering pathetic strangers in doctors’ waiting rooms to fix you up and you were living in her basement, and you didn’t seem to like any of it.”
“I have a job now,” he said. “I’m not living in a basement anymore.” He started to carefully drive around pedestrians and boats. “I think I’m making progress.”
“You are. It’s all great, but it wasn’t like I didn’t want to be friends with you because you might have needed a kickstart. I liked you.”
