Page 31 of One Last Thing
I am neither fun nor gentle. I don’t think people would describe me as someone they seek out at parties for a good time or as someone they can talk to. I guess people would describe me as that friend who cancelled her wedding.
‘How are things between you and your mum?’ Nico asks, speeding the boat up a little as we move out to the open water.
As he pushes the throttle lever forward, I find myself admiring his toned forearm tensing with the action. I blush even though he hasn’t noticed me perving on him, embarrassed that I’m so pathetically susceptible to the effortless sexiness of a strong arm.
‘As strained as they’ve always been.’
‘I don’t remember it being like that between you two,’ he says with surprise. ‘I always thought you were close. You giggled together a lot.’
‘Did we?’ I raise my eyebrows. ‘Well, we don’t anymore. We don’t talk much at all. And definitely not about anything real. In fact, I’m not sure my mum has ever talked about anything real to anyone.’ He shifts at my bitterness and I feel embarrassed for making him uncomfortable. ‘Dad and I were close, though. Really close.’
‘You must miss him.’
‘I do. I feel stupid that I didn’t know he came out here and bought a house and saw you and organised all of—’ I gesture around hopelessly ‘—this.’
‘You shouldn’t feel stupid. He wanted the surprise.’
I snort. ‘You make it sound like a birthday party.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it sound . . . smaller than it is.’
‘No, it’s okay. He obviously wanted us to enjoy the trip. Make it some kind of weird celebration of things he loved. Although, if he did want us to enjoy it, I don’t know why he’d make us do it together. But, hey, we’re here now.’
I sigh, turning to gaze at the stretch of cliffs we’re passing to my left.
‘Did he tell you he was ill?’ I ask Nico quietly.
‘Sorry?’
He can’t hear me over the noise of the boat.
‘Did he tell you he was sick?’ I say clearer, annoyed at myself for wanting to know.
‘Oh. No, he didn’t. But I guessed,’ he admits. He slows the boat down so we don’t have to talk so loudly and to make driving it more relaxed. ‘When he was last here, he looked different. Thinner. Tired. And when he told me that you and your mum would be coming without him and he asked me to book all these things for you once you arrived, I was confused. It was odd, all the arrangements. It felt like he was telling me something was going to happen but he didn’t want to talk about it.’
‘He didn’t like talking about it with anyone.’
‘He did like talking about you, though.’
I snap my head up to look at him.
Nico smiles, pleased at the reaction. ‘Whenever he visited, he told me all about you. Your career, your big life in London, your success. He was very proud.’
‘That’s . . . embarrassing.’
He laughs. ‘Youshouldbe embarrassed. He wouldn’t shut up about you. The way he spoke, you were the smartest, most powerful, brilliant person on the planet. No one could compare. You ruled London.’
‘Oh god.’ I bury my head in my hands. ‘Please stop.’
‘It is how a father should speak about his daughter, I think,’ he says through chuckles.
‘Yes, well, major exaggerations, I assure you.’
‘I don’t know.’ He shrugs. ‘You’re doing well.’
‘So are you.’
‘Ah, but I wasgiventhe chateau to run. I didn’t get there all by myself.’
