I’ve just arranged my pillows behind me with my portable monitor and mouse propped on pillows too. I’m picturing the sequences I need to unravel this mess. I hear my phone buzz where I put it on the bedside table. I expect it to be one of my brothers or cousins. I can’t help the smile when I see Lina’s name appear in the message bubble.
Lina
What’s your favorite sport?
Random. But I’ll take it because it means we’re chatting.
Me
Rugby. You? Curling or hockey?
Lina
LOL Neither. I row and like to watch crew, swimming, or soccer
Me
Starboard or port
Lina
Starboard bow
She’s tall, but with how slender she is, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she’d said she was a coxswain—the person who steers and commands the pace. No, coxes don’t scream “stroke, stroke, stroke”—but she’s a rower.
Me
Port stroke
From a rower’s perspective, since we move backwards, the person in the bow is the last rower. The person who rows stroke is the first one and keeps the pace. Again, since rowers move backwards, starboard is to the left, and port is to the right. It’s all reversed.
Lina
Rugby is your favorite sport but you rowed?
Me
Rugby is the sport everyone—men and women—play in my family and the universal one we all enjoy watching. Both my brothers played lacrosse. One cousin swam and played water polo, another wrestled, and another played soccer. I only have one cousin who played rugby competitively through college.
Despite what most would assume looking at Seamus and Cormac, it was Dillan who wrestled. Cormac swam and played water polo, and Seamus played soccer. Shay and Cor are built like ox. Most assume they’re meatheads with nothing between their ears but air. At best, people think they’re pro athletes. Few believe they’re lawyers until they see my cousins in suits and hear them speak.
Dillan’s sister, Colleen, was the rugby player. She was so damn good. Fearless. Agile. Competitive—way more than any of us guys. She was our ringleader growing up. She was also a vet who specialized in rescue animals. Like the depressing ASPCA commercial rescue animals. But being part of my fucked-up family got her killed.
I don’t want to think about that while texting Lina.
Lina
Sounds like there’re a lot of you.
Me
Yup. Always someone to play with growing up. Always someone breathing up your arse as an adult.
Lina
I only have one brother and I know what you mean about someone breathing up your arse.
Me
