Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

The hotel had, as promised, come up with the special wheelchair with wide
wheels, and most mornings Nathan transferred Will into it and we all three
walked down to the beach, me carrying a parasol so that I could protect him if
the sun grew too fierce. But it never did; that southern part of the island was
renowned for sea breezes and, out of season, the resort temperatures rarely rose
past the early twenties. We would stop at a small beach near a rocky outcrop, just
out of view of the main hotel. I would unfold my chair, place myself next to Will
under a palm tree, and we would watch Nathan attempt to windsurf, or waterski
– occasionally shouting encouragement, plus the odd word of abuse – from our
spot on the sand.
At first the hotel staff wanted to do almost too much for Will, offering to push
his chair, constantly pressing cool drinks upon him. We explained what we
didn’t need from them, and they cheerfully backed off. It was good, though,
during the moments when I wasn’t with him, to see porters or reception staff
stopping by to chat with him, or sharing with him some place that they thought
we should go. There was one gangly young man, Nadil, who seemed to take it
upon himself to act as Will’s unofficial carer when Nathan was not around. One
day I came out to find him and a friend gently lowering Will out of his chair on
to a cushioned sunbed he had positioned by ‘our’ tree.
‘This better,’ he said, giving me the thumbs up as I walked across the sand.
‘You just call me when Mr Will want to go back in his chair.’
I was about to protest, and tell them they should not have moved him. But
Will had closed his eyes and lay there with a look of such unexpected
contentment that I just closed my mouth and nodded.
As for me, as my anxiety about Will’s health began to ebb, I slowly began to
suspect that I was actually in paradise. I had never, in my life, imagined I would
spend time somewhere like this. Every morning I woke to the sound of the sea
breaking gently on the shore, unfamiliar birds calling to each other from the
trees. I gazed up at my ceiling, watching the sunlight playing through the leaves,
and from next door heard the murmured conversation that told me Will and
Nathan had already been up long before me. I dressed in sarongs and swimsuits,
enjoying the feeling of the warm sun on my shoulders and back. My skin grew
freckled, my nails bleached, and I began to feel a rare happiness at the simple
pleasures of existing here – of walking on a beach, eating unfamiliar foods,