Now this was a day Drake had looked forward to! He strolled along the marina, wearing a thin white cotton t-shirt, enjoying the gentle breeze tickling his face and the briny tang in the air.
Boating was one of the few things that made him feel like himself and, even better, he didn’t have Liam to compare himself to because he hated sailing so much. The corner of his lips quirked up as he remembered his and Liam’s first and only attempt at sailing as teens.
It had been Drake’s idea, of course, eager as ever to get away from the palace and stuck up noble’s taunts. Liam had agreed readily enough, though, after a day full of boring meetings. The King and Queen must have known, even then, that Leo abdicating was a possibility and had insisted Liam receive the same education. They might have hoped Leo would yield his position, in fact; it didn’t take a genius to know the difference between the half-brothers’ temperaments made Liam far more suitable for the throne.
“Are you sure they won’t catch us?” At thirteen, Liam was already very tall, but the usual awkwardness that accompanies this stage seemed to have spared him.
“Positive. My dad told me he would be training the new recruits today, so no one will even come near the marina!” Drake was even taller than Liam, and skinnier. He, unfortunately, did move with the clumsiness that comes from not recognizing your own body. He wasn’t nearly self-conscious enough to be embarrassed, though. Actually, he was a lot freer or somehow… lighter back then. He didn’t have that much of a chip on his shoulder yet.
Liam got on the boat while Drake untied it from the pier and hopped on after.
“You ready?”
Liam nodded excitedly. Drake unfurled the sails and set them off. He occasionally gave Liam, who was less experienced, instructions, which he followed diligently. It felt good to be the captain, for once.
The wind suddenly died down and they took the opportunity to dangle their legs off the boat. Taking in the view, they dipped their toes in the frigid water, which was a relief in the humid heat. They were still relatively close to the shore, but if they looked in the opposite direction, they could pretend they were out at sea, just the two of them, no court, no responsibilites…
“Drake, do you think I could be a good king?”
Drake turned to look at his best friend who was gazing intently into the water.
“What makes you ask that?”
“I don’t know. I’m second in the line of succession, it could happen.”
“Do you want it to?”
“I’m not sure… I think I do. I want to help Cordonia somehow and if I am not king, then what can I do? That is all I’ve been taught.”
“Calm down, Simba, I’m sure you could find ways to help even if you’re never king.”
Liam shoved him at that, laughing. “Fine, but you haven’t answered the question.”
“Shit, I don’t know, man.”
Liam grimaced and Drake continued hurriedly. “I mean, I can’t know, ya know? But if you’re as good at being king as you are at being a person, then sure.”
“You think I’m a good person?” Liam smiled.
“Duh. I wouldn’t be here with you if I didn’t… A good person for a noble, obviously.”
“And you’re not too bad for a commoner.”
The usual insult lost all its bite when accompanied by Liam’s kind smile, but Drake splashed him nonetheless.
“Hey!” Liam splashed him back.
This continued until they were both soaked and had swallowed more than their fair share of ocean water. They were so absorbed, they didn’t notice the sky growing ominously darker. Not, that is, until they felt drops falling from above.
“Uh oh,” said Drake.
They both immediately stood up, and Drake set about trying to turn the boat around. The storm was worsening by the second. Gusts of wind buffeted the boat and their small bodies, almost pushing them around. The sails snapped and flapped uncontrollably. Untied ropes flew around and the fixed ones were taut with tension. Drake tried hard not to panic.
Suddenly, he heard a loud knock. It happened so fast, he almost missed the boom hitting Liam and him falling to the water like a rag doll.
“Liam!”
Drake’s teeth were chattering, from fear or cold, he wasn’t sure, but he imagined it was a bit of both. Before he could talk himself out of it somehow, he jumped in after Liam, roughly around the spot he’d fallen. By the time he reemerged, Liam had, too. He instantly felt stupid for jumping in. It’s not like he can’t swim.
They both got back on the boat with much effort. Drake hoisting himself up and then pulling Liam on board. They sat for a few seconds, panting.
“You-you saved my life,” said Liam between pants.
“Don’t be stupid,” answered Drake but a proud smile was spreading on his face, “it’s not like you can’t swim.”
“Still. You didn’t even hesitate.”
“Yeah, well, you’d do the same for me, right?”
“I would.”
Liam clapped Drake gratefully on the back. The storm showed no signs of slowing down, so Drake got to his feet decisively.
“Okay, Liam, we need to–”
At that moment, a powerful blast of wind caught the side of the boat and capsized it. Drake resurfaced and looked around for Liam, who’d fallen just a little farther. Drake gestured to him to swim closer. They attempted to right the boat, but the combined forces of two thirteen-year-olds were not enough.
Resigned to their fate, they swam the rest of the way back pushing the boat, hoping against hope they would make it back before they were missed. Sadly, when your best friend is a prince and second in the line of succession, the window of opportunity is pretty narrow, so they had a very angry group indeed waiting for them at the shore.
The subsequent scoldings and punishments were among the harshest either of them had ever suffered, but Drake couldn’t help but smile at the memory now. Oddly, the parts he remembered most vividly about that day weren’t the terror of the storm or the different, but no less awful terror of disappointing their parents. What he remembered most was feeling capable and brave, and like he was a good friend, for once.
He’d been wandering aimlessly up and down the pier during his stroll down memory lane. A low buzz had started growing louder and louder as more nobles arrived for today’s event. Drake sighed heavily, knowing that was all the alone time he’d be getting today. He looked towards the opposite end of the pier, where the suitors and Liam were being surrounded by the press. He caught a glimpse of Riley as she smiled brightly at the reporters, no doubt wowing them as she had done so far.
He hadn’t noticed he had stopped, but he found himself straining his ears trying to catch a snippet of what she was saying. All he could hear was the cadence of her voice, occasionally mixed with Liam’s, who was standing next to her. She then stood on her tiptoes and kissed Liam on the cheek. His eyes unfocused and he stood there, not seeing anything. After a few seconds, he became vaguely aware that something was bothering him.
“Drake absolutely loooves nobles! In fact, there’s nothing he likes better, except maybe mai tais. You hear that everyone?! Drake drinks mai tais, Drake drinks mai tais, DRAKE DRINKS–!”
He turned around furiously and slapped his hand on Maxwell’s mouth.
“Shut up. I do not drink mai tais.”
Maxwell licked his hand.
“Ugh! What are you? Twelve?” Drake said disgustedly, wiping his hand on Maxwell’s shirt as the latter laughed.
“Twelve and a half.” He looked at Drake confusedly. “Did you seriously not hear me? I was trying to get your attention for, like, a full minute.”
“I must’ve learned how to tune you out.”
Maxwell let out a great laugh. “HA HA! There’s that classic Drake humor, love it!”
“What do you want?”
“Want? Why would you–” Drake glared at him and Maxwell relented. “Fine, I need a favor.”
“What now Maxwell? I’ll remind you I already said no to being in your dance crew.”
“Oh I’ll get you someday, but it’s not about that! Well, it is a crew, but a different kind… The thing is our boat crew, uh, bailed on us.”
“What? Why?”
Maxwell mumbled something.
“What did you say? Speak up, dude!”
“Money troubles! We’re having money troubles, okay? Please don’t tell anyone, Bertrand would go ballistic.”
Drake shrugged. “Of course I won’t, man. You forget, I’m the only one here who has actually been through this.”
“You never know, nobles are just better at hiding it.”
“Yeah, I guess it’s easy to hide it when you already have expensive shit to show off.”
“Touché. Anyway, I remember you used to like boats so I was wondering if you could help out?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t been on a boat for a while and–”
“Pleeease?” Maxwell whined. “It would mean so much to me and Riley! She doesn’t even know about this yet, but she’s gonna be so disappointed if we don’t get to race.”
“On second thought, it could be fun to sail again,” Drake agreed quickly, or, as he’d tell himself later, reluctantly.
He and Maxwell boarded the yacht, getting everything ready for Riley. She caught up with them not long after. She waved at Maxwell with a small smile and then grinned as she spotted Drake. He came forward to greet her and tripped on a rope. Riley sniggered and he glared at her.
“Drake? What are you doing here?” She turned towards Maxwell, “Maxwell, didn’t you leave with Bertrand? And shouldn’t there be other people? Like… an actual crew?” She looked around the boat, as if expecting the crew to be hiding.
“Yeah, Maxwell.” Drake pushed him forward. “What happened?”
“Well…” He rubbed the back of his neck, stalling. “I have good news and bad news.”
Riley crossed her arms, bracing herself. “Tell me the bad news first.”
Maxwell sighed in defeat. “The bad news is that the actual crew dropped out… Something about not paying upfront?” He grimaced. “But good news… you still have a crew. In fact, Drake volunteered to help out!” He clapped Drake’s back.
“He ‘volunteered’?” Riley raised an eyebrow skeptically.
Drake smirked. “Maxwell begged me.”
“I thought I was rather dignified,” he defended himself.
“Practically in tears, actually.” Drake’s smirk grew wider as Riley laughed, her eyes crinkling.
“And you both… know about sailing?”
“I used to own several boats, and Drake is an excellent boatman!” explained Maxwell enthusiastically.
“From what I hear, you’re terrible with boats!” Riley pointed an accusing finger at Drake. “I just heard a story about a capsized boat from Liam that says Drake isn’t.”
“He told you about that?”
Of course he told her. He was surprised he was as disappointed as he felt. Liam told it all wrong, though! From what Addams said, he told it like it sucked! I mean, yeah, it was scary but it was a cool adventure… Of course Liam would mostly remember how worried everyone was ‘cause he’s considerate and not an asshole like I am.
Sure, it was a good story that he would’ve enjoyed telling Riley… or anyone, for that matter, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.
“Okay, that was bad, but after that whole mess, I decided I’d spend a summer learning how to sail properly…” It had been a good one, too. He’d gone out with his dad every weekend, often joined by Savannah and even their mom, sometimes.
He looked at Riley seriously. “Trust me, you’re in good hands.” She smiled softly and he cleared his throat. “At least mine. Can’t speak for Maxwell.”
“Hey!” he said indignantly.
“Wait, what about Bertrand? Why isn’t he here?” asked Riley.
“His words were, and I quote,” Maxwell swelled his chest importantly in a convincing impression of his older bother, “‘Have we fallen so far? Is this what becomes of House Ramsford?’ And then he muttered something about ruin and reducing our name to rubble and then I hope he went to get a drink or something after that.” Maxwell shrugged helplessly.
Riley giggled. “Sounds about right. What about Tariq? He looks like a guy who could sail a boat.”
Is she serious?! Just when I thought she wasn’t that naive.
Drake burst out laughing, “HA HA ha ha haa.”
Riley scowled at him which only made him laugh harder. “It was only a thought.”
Drake clutched his middle, breathing deeply, and slowly stopped laughing. “Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry to say, Addams, you’re not going to be cruising around like the other ladies. You’re going to have to do some work to help us win. I hope you’re up to the job.”
Riley put her hands on her hips at this, challenging. “Drake, only if YOU can keep up.”
Drake raised an eyebrow. “You’re on, Addams.”
Drake bustled around the boat, tying the last ropes before untying the yacht from the pier.
“Casting off!”
He unfurled the sails and automatically turned his head to see if Riley had been looking. It might have been his ego, but he thought her smile seemed like she was impressed. His chest felt warm.
From their right, Hana waved at them and shouted, “Good luck to you both!”
Both? Oh, ugh.
Olivia’s boat was to their left. She replied with, “I don’t need luck. I know I’m going to win! I hope you both like losing!”
Great comeback. What an idiot. He rolled his eyes at Riley, who shook her head sympathetically. She got a determined look on her face. “Maxwell, how do we win this thing?”
Maxwell cheered and Drake wondered at her, feeling almost as proud as if they’d already won the race. “Riley, you’ll be watching the wind indicator for us. Whenever it shifts, tell us, so we can adjust the sails.”
Riley nodded competently and Drake added, “We’ll tell you what else needs to be done as it comes.”
“Sounds doable…” She gave him a small smile that wanted to be confident. He returned it, hoping to reassure her.
Maxwell looked toward the pier, where King Constantine stood with the royal family and the press. “Looks like the race is about to start!”
“Racers, ready!” King Constantine boomed. He put his arm up, pistol in hand.
“Here we go…” Drake said. Riley grabbed his arm and shook it in anticipation. He chuckled. He was about to ruffle her hair when the sound of a gunshot tore through the charged atmosphere.
They barely heard King Constantine’s “And go!” as they all hurried to their posts. Olivia’s boat was off faster than he cared for, but he trusted his skills, if not his companions’. Slow and steady wins the race. He realized he was staring at Riley and shook his head, continuing his tasks.
Olivia yelled back at them, “I’ll be waiting at the finish line!”
“Hell no. No way carrot top is beating us.”
“NO WAY,” Riley echoed and fist-bumped him. He laughed a little. What a dork.
“Hold it steady,” Drake reminded her.
“The wind changed!” Riley shouted.
“Adjusting sails!” Maxwell called back. He did so then went to Riley. “Hey, Riley, tie this down for us! We need to hold the sail in place!”
“Oh, um, okay,” she said half excited, half nervous.
Drake kept a discreet eye on her, not wanting her to think he didn’t trust her to do it right, but also wanting to stay in the race. He shouldn’t have worried, of course; Riley tied the rope with a sturdy sailor’s knot and stepped back to survey her work with a self-satisfied smirk on her face.
“Perfect.”
“It’s okay. Barely in the top five knots I’ve seen in my life,” Drake teased.
“What! I think it’s amazing! But I guess you could say it’s… knot bad,” she replied with a cheesy smile. “Get it?”
“God, Addams!” He shook his head at her, only just keeping his laughter in. “That was terrible! You’ve been spending too much time with Maxwell!”
“Well, you’re never around!” she said reproachfully.
He opened his mouth to reply, though he had no idea what to say to that. Does she want to spend more time with me? He was saved by Maxwell, who suddenly yelled from up front, “There’s the halfway point! We just have to turn around the buoy and head back to the finish line!”
Drake whipped his head to the front and realized, “We’re coming in too fast! Brace yourself!”
The boat turned sharply to the right, skimming the water. Drake saw Maxwell grab on to a rope and did the same. He turned to look at Riley anxiously, but she seemed to have an iron grip on the rigging, and he felt his breath return. The boat righted itself and they smoothly circumvented the buoy.
Riley let out a sigh of relief. Drake gave her a soft pat in the back and encouraged her, “Let’s keep going. We’re almost there.”
“Wind’s picking up in our favor!” Maxwell informed them.
“Back to stations!” Drake barked. “Addams, secure the jib.”
“And that means to…?” she bit her lip uncertainly and Drake softened his tone.
“Catch the wind coming from behind us!”
“Aye, aye, captain,” she saluted him and followed his instructions, allowing them to finally overtake Olivia’s boat.
“What?!” Drake heard her say. “Make the boat go faster!” she yelled at her crew, to no avail. Their boat had picked up an unstoppable momentum and it would’ve taken a miracle to overtake them. They crossed the finish line with a comfortable lead.
“We did it!” Riley cheered, jumping up and down.
“Wooohooo!!!” Maxwell ran around the yacht with his arms in the air.
“You really pulled through for us, Addams,” Drake said, giving her a one-armed friendly hug. She pushed him off to hug him from the front enthusiastically. Well, what the hell. He hugged her back and lifted her off the ground. He heard clapping and saw King Constantine and Liam waiting for them on the pier. He put Riley down so fast she almost fell down.
He cleared his throat again. “Um, nice work.”
“Yeah, you too. I mean, I couldn’t–we couldn’t have done it without you.”
He nodded at her and gestured for her to get off the boat first. She made a beeline towards Liam. After a short conversation, she left with Hana, while Liam made his way over to him.
“Where’s Maxwell?”
“I think he went to go talk to Bertrand or something.”
“That was some sailing, my friend.” Liam claps him on the back.
“Thanks. I’ve definitely improved since we were kids, huh? Addams thought I’d still be as bad.”
They start walking together towards the royal yacht to see the regatta.
“Ha, well of course you have! I hope you didn’t mind I told her that story, I was just explaining why I don’t care for boats.”
“Oh. That story is the reason you don’t like sailing?” Drake tried to keep the hurt from his voice.
Liam put his hand on his shoulder. Damn it, he knows me too well. “I didn’t mean it that way, Drake. It’s actually one of my fondest memories! We were having such a good time before the storm… And it serves as a reminder of why you are my best friend.”
“You need reminders, huh?”
“Constantly, when you’re being a pain in my… rear.”
“Oh, come on, man! Just say it once!”
“I won’t! You know how I have to watch what I say! Even more so now…” Liam grimaced and stopped abruptly, staring pensively at his feet.
“What do you mean now?”
“Are you joking?”
“I mean, unless I suddenly became Tariq and lost all sense of humor, no. What kind of joke would that be?”
They resumed walking.
“Did you not hear my father’s announcement?”
“Nope.”
Liam shook his head at him. “Well, the main point of it was that he is abdicating once the social season is over.”
“WHAT! But that’s so soon! So does that mean–?”
“Yes. I will be king that soon and I am no longer choosing a wife that’ll someday be queen. I am choosing our immediate queen.”
“Shit.” That was really all Drake could say.
King. That is a tall fucking order. You could not pay me enough to do it, man. Nothing in the world could make me want to be a noble. Not now, not ever. On the other hand, all these girls are gonna be throwing themselves at Liam even more now. He cracked his knuckles, feeling the urge to punch something.
“I was hoping you’d have more to say…” prompted Liam. Drake realized he’d been quiet for way too long. They arrived at the yacht, which allowed Drake to stall a little longer. As soon as they were on, though, Liam was looking expectantly at him, not even glancing at the race, which was starting.
“I mean, what do you want me to say, man? You seem overwhelmed, but I know this is what you want. So just hold on to that, okay? You can finally help Cordonia, like you’ve always wanted.”
“Right, but what about the suitors?”
“What about them?”
“Now that it is not hypothetical anymore, I believe more than ever I have to put Cordonia’s interests before my heart’s wishes…”
“Well…” The words didn’t seem to want to leave Drake’s mouth, so it took him a second to wrest them out. “What if you could do both?”
“What are you saying?”
“Look, we all know you care about Riley, okay? And like I said the other day, she would make a decent–no, scratch that, a helluva queen. So there you go.”
A waiter passed bearing drinks and Drake blindly snatched two. He’d already drank half of the first in one gulp, when he became aware that the normal thing to do would be to give Liam the second one. He parted with it unwillingly.
“Thank you. And you’re right, as usual. I do not think it’s as simple as that, but there is hope. I just wish there was some way to show her how much she means to me, without giving too much away before the season’s over…”
Liam snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it! The beach party!”
“What about it?” asked Drake monotonously.
“We could ask the chefs to serve something American, to remind her of home and make her feel more at ease. The problem is… what?”
Drake instantly remembered one of Riley’s truths in Two Truths and a Lie being that sloppy joes were her favorite. “Uh, I’m sure I could think of something… You know, being half American and all.”
“Of course! Thank you, Drake! Once again, you’ve helped me more than you know. Someday I’ll have to repay you for everything you’ve done for me.”
Drake waved his thanks aside and strode cheerfully towards the exit.