‘What the hell happened?’ Sofia had her hands on her hips, feeling a little left out of the joke.
‘Milly saw a shark, but we’re pretty sure it was just a dogfish,’ Jack chimed in.
‘No way, I reckon it was a great white!’ Milly sounded indignant, but she was grinning. ‘OK, maybe just a baby one.’
‘We were swimming along and then Milly did the hand signal for a shark, or danger or whatever, and we all panicked, when we came up Jack explained it was harmless, but once she’d got it into her head...’ Brian was teasing, and Milly rose to the bait.
‘Wait wait, there was definitely a moment there where you were scared too!’ she objected.
‘Call it group hysteria.’ Jack rolled his eyes dismissively but even he looked a little shaken up.
‘Well, after the shock you’ve all had, I think it’s the perfect time for a spot of lunch.’ Sofia helped Milly up and headed to the cool box.
‘Which we are lucky enough to have had lovingly prepared, and remembered, by our one and only Chef Harlow.’ It was Jack, in hushed tones, but when Sofia turned round to give him a scathing look she was caught off guard by the good-humoured twinkle in his eye.
‘Yes, this time around we won’t have to scavenge for our food,’ she retorted, and then catching Jack’s eye, she added, ‘As enchanting as that little detour was.’ He smiled at her and she felt her heart skip. She blushed slightly at the radiance of his face.
She set up the tender’s small collapsible table, grunting a little at the effort of tightening the bolts into the deck. She could feel Jack’s bemusement as he watched her, arms resolutely folded.
‘You’re not going to help then?’ she puffed.
‘You’re doing a fine job as is it, Harlow. Wouldn’t want to interfere,’ he said with his face fixed in a smirk.
Sofia laid out the picnic on a gingham blanket. She’d thought it might look good on an Instagram story when she’d chosen it, and then felt silly for taking that into consideration. Now that Milly was getting her phone out and rearranging the strawberries and slices of cheeses to better sit in the frame, she was glad that she did.
‘What are those?’ Milly pointed at a small jar.
‘They’re preserved mussels. They’re delicious with a bit of crusty bread.’ Sofia broke off a chunk and handed it to Milly, who wrinkled her nose.
‘Come on now, you can’t knock them until you’ve tried them, babe.’ It was Brian, softly berating.
Milly took the bread from Sofia’s hand and then picked up the jar of mussels, eyeing them suspiciously. ‘I simply can’t eat that. They have, like, little beards on!’
Brian took the jar, opened it and then spooned a single mussel onto a corner of bread. Sofia and Jack were mesmerised by the scene in front of them. It was familiar and strange, performative and intimate. Brian reached forward and using two fingers lowered Milly’s eyelids, a mortician arranging his dead. As he did so, she opened her mouth and he fed her the snack in his hands. They all held their breath as she chewed contemplatively.
‘That’s actually super tasty,’ she said, clearly surprising herself. She opened her eyes and smiled at Brian. Then she turned to Sofia. ‘He’s always getting me to try new things like that. If it wasn’t for him I never would have tried that weird risotto. Turns out blue cheese and pear actually works!’
So it was Brian that Sofia had to thank for being able to expand her repertoire. When she caught his eye, he looked down bashfully. ‘It just seemed a waste to not get her to at least try all your wonderful food.’
Sofia was touched. Brian was so full of surprises, a football player with a heart of gold, a penchant for photography and an adventurous palette.
Sofia thought back to when she had met them, how Milly had seemed to be the one in charge, the one with the vision. Now she realised that they were a pair, each bringing their own strengths and skills to the union, and pushing each other to be better.
Chapter Forty-Two
After they had gorged themselves and washed it down with a couple of glasses of champagne, Brian and Milly dozed on the loungers at the bow of the boat. Jack and Sofia cleared away lunch.
‘So, I lost the bet then,’ Sofia said, for want of something to fill the slightly awkward silence they had been manoeuvring around all day.
‘Oh hands down, she had a whale of a time.’ He looked at her expectantly. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of laughing at such a lame pun, but it was the lameness of it that tickled her.
‘I didn’t take you for the dad joke sort.’ She was trying not to look at him too much, instead concentrating on the plates in her hands.
‘You, Sofia Harlow, are famously a terrible judge of character, so I’m not surprised by that at all.’ He nudged his shoulder against hers playfully, and she almost lost her balance, squatting as she was with her hands full.
‘Careful!’ she squealed.
He raised a finger to his lips. ‘Shhhh, you’ll wake the kids.’ He gestured towards the front of the boat where Brian could be heard snoring softly and Milly’s Prada sunglasses had slipped halfway down her face.
