Page 81 of One Last Thing
Now, I’m wondering why the fuck I’d need to bring a swimsuit.
‘So,’ Nico begins, spinning round to face us as we near the crowds of the beach and clapping his hands, his expression a mixture of overzealous enthusiasm and panic in anticipation of our reaction, ‘you may have guessed it—’
‘Nico,’ I say in a warning voice.
‘—Henry always found the race of homemade rafts a fun competition that brought people together as a team—’
‘Oh god,’ Mum whispers, her hand flying to her mouth.
‘—and I believe he always liked the idea of taking part,’ Nico continues, his pitch growing higher and higher as he reads my expression. ‘So, today, he asks you to climb aboarda raft that I have helped to build with some friends and together we will paddle to victory!’
I stare at him, my mouth falling open.
He waits for one of us to say something, but eventually his eager smile falls and he sighs. ‘Please? It will be fun, I promise.’
Mum’s shoulders begin to shake with laughter. ‘I did not see this one coming, did you?’ she asks me, placing a hand over her heart. ‘Nico, tell me which team we are joining, and if you point at that group of handsome men wearing pirate hats and carrying paddles whilst towing what appears to be a large front door towards the sea—’
‘It’s the group of men wearing pirate hats,’ Nico confirms. ‘I’m not going to tell them you said they were handsome.’
She nods slowly. ‘Wonderful.’ She gives him a salute. ‘I’m in, Captain.’
‘You’rein?’ I say, turning to her in disbelief, panic rising in my chest at the loss of an ally. ‘Are you serious?’
‘We don’t have a choice, Megan, you know that. It’s your father’s request.’
‘We haven’t prepared for this! We haven’t . . . you want us to go out to sea in that thing in front of all these people and we have no idea if it will float or sink!’ I cry, gesturing to our so-called vessel which is sitting at the edge of the water, its creators posing for photos with their paddles lifted in the air like swords.
‘It’s hardly out to sea,’ Mum reasons, squinting at the post that we’re aiming towards. ‘If the plank sinks, we swim back in. Or wade, depending on how far we get.’
‘You’re being very calm about this,’ I say, irrationally annoyed that she’s not also irrationally annoyed. ‘We used to laugh at all the people who took part in this stupid race!’
‘We laughed with them,’ she corrects. ‘Everyone is here to have a good time and not take anything seriously. I’ve always admired the people who give it a go. Obviously, your father did, too. Now we get to be a part of it without having had to do any of the work.’
‘Rowing is tough work, Mum.’
‘I think our team looks well able,’ she says, practically drooling as some of Nico’s friends peel off their T-shirts, ready to run in with their boat in board shorts.
‘Bloody hell, Mum, you have a one-track mind.’
She huffs, turning to face me with her hands on her hips. ‘Megan, I think this will be good for you. Do you know why?’
‘Please don’t say something about conquering my fear of being in front of an audience. Or anything to do with setting me up with one of those guys. Or anything about me being an uptight person who needs to let go.’
The corners of her mouth twitch upwards. ‘I was actually going to say that I think this task will be good for you because you are really good at these sorts of things.’
I point my finger towards the makeshift boats and their deluded crews. ‘You think I’m good atthis? Oh, great, good to know my talents aren’t anything too niche.’
‘No need for that cutting sarcasm of yours, my darling, I meant that you’re fearless and you’re practical,’ she explains, giving me the kind of look that tells me she’s right and don’t even try to deny it. ‘You got in a hot air balloon the other day! And you told me yourself when we were camping that you were tough.’
I glance at Nico and quickly mutter, ‘I didn’t say that out of nowhere, by the way, I wasn’t, like, boasting about being tough. There was context around it, I was trying to say to Mum that—’
‘You were always first to jump in the water on the night cruises, even though you were scared of jellyfish,’ Mum cuts in and I stop rambling. ‘You beat everyone when it came to any water sports we did, isn’t that right, Nico?’
‘Yes,’ he nods, ‘except I beat you a few times when we were racing kayaks.’
I frown at him. ‘I don’t remember that.’
‘It happened all the time.’
