Page 38 of Lie For Me

Ollie was beckoning them frantically as Sophie and their friends went off to collect swimming costumes, towels, and hats.

‘Come on,’ Jack said brightly as a young waitress clattered about their table, stripping it of plates and cutlery.

‘Boating,’ Lucy mumbled, shifting in her seat. ‘I don’t know in what moment of madness I signed up for this. I can’t go boating. You can’t be drunk and in charge of a boat.’ She sat back and ran her fingers through her hair. ‘We should just go and lie in the garden in the shade and take a leaf out of Nanna’s book and have an afternoon snooze.’

‘Luce, two mimosas in three hours—I think you’re okay to handle some oars.’ Jack stood and extended his hand. ‘Come on. We agreed we’d have some fun.’

‘I am not sure kayaking with my brother’s uni friends and other strangers meets the definition of fun,’ Lucy said, wrinkling her nose and levering herself to her feet. ‘I might drown,’ she added ominously.

‘That’s the spirit!’ Jack said and set off for their room, Lucy trailing a few steps behind him.

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‘Right, listen up, people,’ the kayak instructor bellowed, clapping his hands together sharply.

Ollie and his friend Dave were whispering something. The instructor waited, arms folded until they had finished, like a schoolteacher. Everyone stood obediently still, watching.

Ollie, realising everyone was now looking at him and Dave, said, ‘Oops, sorry,’ and grinned. The kayak instructor shook his head wearily with the air of a man who’d seen it all before.

‘Right.’ He looked pointedly at Ollie and Dave. ‘Now I have everyone’s attention, let’s go over the rules of the water!’ He barked the word water.

‘My name is Tristan, and my job here today is to get you the right kit and make sure you can operate this safely,’ he gestured at a kayak and oars. ‘Has anyone here been kayaking before?’

Hardly anyone put their hands up. Tristan nodded and puffed his chest out. Lucy sensed he was pleased.

‘Okay, good. We’ll go through everything you need to know to be safe out there today. There are rules on the water.’

You’d think they were about to navigate the Panama Canal in a tanker.

Tristan started pacing up and down.

‘You need to know and obey these rules to be safe.’

‘He’s gotta be ex-military,’ Jack whispered in Lucy’s ear as they listened to Tristan bark out instructions. ‘I think I might accidentally salute in a minute.’

Lucy giggled, then stifled it as Tristan shot her a look.

Tristan started reciting the rules.

‘No standing up in the kayak, no pushing other boats with oars, no dropping the oars in the water, no drinking. Don’t go off on your own, don’t go out of sight. Be careful with the oars. The edges can be sharp. They are not to be used as a weapon.’

Crikey, what kinds of groups was this guy used to teaching?

‘Get your life vests on now!’ Tristan roared, and everyone scrambled obediently to find a life vest from the huge crates.

Lucy was giggling as she sorted through them, looking for one that didn’t have too many suspicious-looking marks on it––Was that blood? From previous kayakers who had used oars as weapons…?––not helped by Jack muttering, ‘Yes, sir, right now, sir,’ in her ear.

‘Sun protection,’ Tristan barked. ‘This is not a rule of the water, but you will find,’ he was pacing again, ‘that the water will be reflecting the sun back at you, increasing your chances of getting burned.’

The group started rummaging in backpacks for sunscreen. No one wanted burnt noses or singed forearms in the wedding photos.

Ollie had pulled the straps of Sophie’s swimming costume down her arms and was vigorously massaging sun cream into her shoulders and back while mumbling something into her ear that was making her hoot with laughter.

Lucy fished out her factor fifty and started smoothing it over her arms and shoulders. She reached around to get her neck.

Ollie glanced over and saw her straining to reach.

‘Jack,’ he called. ‘Lucy needs you.’

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