She marches away from him and pulls Damian out toward the water.
Aiden’s scowling toward them, so I walk up to him and say, “She’s having fun.”
“She’s acting like she loves him already. They just freaking met.”
“She told me it was love at first sight.”
Aiden nods. “She told me that too.”
“And do you believe in it?”
“Yes, of course I do.”
“Then you understand why she needs to see it through.”
Aiden nods solemnly then grabs my hand. “Come on, we have some things to do.”
“Like what?”
He runs down the beach along the water’s edge, dragging me with him. Then he grabs me around the waist, lifts me off my feet, and kisses me.
And kisses me.
I feel like I’m starring in an amazing beach-set love story.
I don’t want this day to ever end.
“This looks like the perfect spot,” Aiden says, setting me down in the sand, but not letting me go. “Remember that bracelet you had on the day of the Gods of the Olympics competition? You had love written on your arm.”
“I remember.”
“Close your eyes and don’t move.”
A few moments later, he comes up from behind me, wraps his arms around my waist, and whispers, “Open.”
I open my eyes and look at the sand in front of me.
“Love in the sand,” he says. “I put it higher on the beach so the water wouldn’t wash it away.”
I want to cry. “The water always washes it away,” I tell him.
“Maybe the words, but not the feelings.” He spins me out of his arms in a dance move and says, “Go write your name.”
I move a little ways down the beach, fighting back tears, and wondering if he could be right.
I find a stick and use it to draw all sorts of doodles in the sand. Hearts, flowers, swirls, a castle, a frog, a wand, lips, stars, a moon, a rock, waves, a surfboard, the chaos symbol, fireworks, a soccer ball, pompoms, a four-leaf clover, and then, in big, bold, capital letters, KEATYN.
Aiden says, “I wish I had my phone to take a picture. That’s, like, a work of art.” He studies it more closely. “Is that the story of your life?”
“What?”
“Oh, it just looks like you drew all the things you love.”
I study my sand doodles more closely, realizing he might be right. I smile at him. “I was just messing around, drawing random things, but they are all things I love.”
He points over at his name written in the sand. Just a simple Aiden. “Mine looks pretty lame in comparison.”
“Actually, yours looks perfect,” I tell him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “It says everything about you.”
“That I’m boring?”
“No, that you don’t need any embellishments to make you stand out. You just do.”
He gives me a hug and kisses my forehead. “I saw some shells down here by the waterline. Want to gather some up?”
“Yeah, let’s do that and then we’ll go make necklaces!”
We gather shells, filling his board shorts’ pockets with them.
When we get closer to the cabana, I stick my tongue out, splash him, and then run down the beach screaming, “Bet you can’t catch me!”
Oh course, I’m not as fast as him and two seconds later, he grabs me from behind.
I deftly spin out of his grip, kick water at him, then land in a karate stance, and go, “Ka-cha!”
“Oh, you’re gonna fight me?” he says with a laugh.
“Unless you’re a chicken,” I reply, kicking more water at him.
He makes one fluid leap and tackles me straight into the water.
I was totally not prepared for it and come up laughing. “What the hell was that? That wasn’t even fair!”
He rolls me over and pins me on the sand underneath him. “Maybe I’m tired of playing fair.”
I lean up like I’m going to kiss him, but instead elbow him in the ribs and slip away.
Almost.
He grabs my legs, pulls me back underneath him, and pins my arms above my head.
Truth be told, I totally could’ve gotten away if I wanted to. I’ve learned a lot from Cooper. But when he leans down to kiss me, I’m really glad I didn’t.
The waves rush up over our feet and legs, the cool water doing nothing to quench the fire inside me. I don’t even care that my hair is probably getting caked with wet, nasty sand.
Because when Aiden kisses me, I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks.
A ding dong ditcher.
7:30pm
We collect some more shells, watch the sun slide below the horizon, and then sort through our shells, deciding which ones will work best for our jewelry.
“Come on. We’ll go in the toy shed to make them. There are tools in there.”
“We gonna hammer, nail, and screw?”
“Actually, we’ll use a drill.”
“Drilling sounds like fun,” he says with a naughty smirk.
As I clean the shells off with bleach, I say, “You know, you’ve become a tease.”
“I’m a tease?” he asks, pointing to himself.
“Yeah, you’re a ding dong ditcher.”