the boat and Taffie jumped up, barking at it, nearly falling overboard.
‘Taffie! You crazy dog!’ Maddie yanked on his lead and told him sternly to ‘sit’ next to her feet. He dutifully nestled by her feet, but kept looking up to see what he was missing.
It had become decidedly breezy as the wind had picked up the further out they had gone. So this was it, her world in a boat, the two people she loved the most. She crossed her fingers tightly. It looked like they were slowly building some bridges between them. Even if Greg was distant with her for the rest of her life, she reasoned, she’d been able to broker things between him and Ed. She crossed her ankles, one over the other, and looked out at the sea. Sometimes I think I wanted kids more than her… Greg’s words were playing in a nonstop loop as she looked at Ed and frowned.
The sea was quite choppy now. Maddie stared at the bow of the boat as it ploughed through the water, white foam gathering at either side. She wished things could be different between her and Greg.
‘Here.’ Suddenly he was next to her and she looked up. He handed her a steaming cup of coffee in a small tin mug.
She took the cup from him and stood up. ‘Thanks.’ She had to stand with both legs quite far apart to get her balance. The sea was much lumpier further out in the harbour. She glanced up and saw that Ed was at the helm. She took a sip of the strong brew and felt it travel down her throat, warming her up.
‘How’s he doing?’ She nodded over to Ed.
‘Good. He’s a quick learner, seems to really enjoy it.’
He turned away abruptly, leaving Maddie standing on deck alone. She cast her gaze out to sea – there was a hubbub of activity on the harbour. It was like one the picture books Ed used to like as a baby where all the pages were full of tiny drawings of different scenes: a park, or in an office or people shopping, and you could spend hours looking at all the miniature characters and what they were doing. Today, on the water there were sailing boats, hovercrafts, a ferry on its way to Lymington, jet skis, a couple of fishing boats, and speed boats cutting different patterns though the waves and criss-crossing each other.
‘We’ll head to Alum Bay,’ Greg said, nodding towards the front of the boat, ‘then turn back. That should be enough to give Ed a taste of being skipper so he can get the miles in his logbook.’
Maddie rubbed her arms and looked up. The sun had disappeared entirely and she felt a very slight drizzle on her face as she gazed up to the sky.
‘It’s raining,’ she said, as she took in a lungful of damp sea air.
Greg glanced out to sea, then scratched his head. ‘Hmm, weather’s not looking great.’ He pulled his sunglasses up over his head. ‘Meant to be fine for another hour, but perhaps we should cut this short.’
He went over and said something to Ed who nodded. By now they were way beyond the harbour. Maddie could feel the swell making the boat roll quite strongly from side to side. Taffie was running between her and Ed. ‘Come here!’ she said, and tucked him up beneath her feet. But he wouldn’t sit still and leapt up, putting his paws on the gunwales of the boat. ‘Down, Taffie!’ she said as the boat rolled again, but the animated terrier just barked some more.
The wind was pretty gusty now. Both Ed and Greg had put on waterproofs earlier. Maddie clamped a baseball cap firmly onto her head to keep her hair from whipping across her cheeks. Greg threw her a waterproof, and as she got up to catch it, she lost her balance and fell sharply onto the deck.
‘You all right?’ Greg shouted from the helm.
Her knee was stinging, but she didn’t want to make a fuss, so she stood up, hobbled back to her seat by Taffie, and nodded. ‘I’m fine.’ The boat was tilting quite alarmingly to each side as the sea surged underneath it. Maddie watched as huge, foamy waves crashed down on the side of the boat, sending it reeling to one side and then the other.
After a few minutes it was clear that the situation had changed pretty dramatically. Greg’s mouth was set in a firm