Okay so I know this was supposed to be up yesterday, but man has this week been a lot. I had several bad days, left for vacation, got sick on vacation
Anyway it's been a lot, but I did try to finish this for yesterday. It just didn't quite happen.
This is a bit of a sneak peek for a new installment in the Unconventional series, that I'll be starting to put up after I finish Voices Carry!
"Look, Elsie, there it is," Sara pointed up ahead to a white sand beach less than thirty feet away from where she and her four-year-old daughter were standing.
"Woah!" Elsie exclaimed, "Mommy, look, the water's so blue!"
"I know," she replied, "Do you know where we are?" Elsie shook her head, "We're in Norway."
"That's where I'm from!" she yelped.
"Yep. Different year, though," Sara told her as they continued down the sandy boardwalk, "We thought about taking you back to one of the beaches in Spain, but we thought this might be more special."
"And Cece and Sammy really aren't coming with us?"
"We told you it's just you and me and Daddy."
"But where is Daddy?"
"He's just parking the car," Sara told her, "I promise we're not gonna, like, sneak-attack you with siblings."
By now, they had reached a spot on the sand only a few yards away from the water. As Sara spread a pale blue blanket out on the ground, Elsie started pulling her yellow sundress over her head.
"You wanna go in the water?" Sara asked.
"Uh-huh."
"Wait a second and I'll come with you."
"But I can swim all by myself," Elsie said.
"I know, but I still wanna come," she replied. She looked up and smiled when she saw Elsie hopping from one foot to the other in excited impatience, "C'mere, let me do your hair."
Elsie went over to her and stood still as Sara began pulling her blonde hair up into a bun.
"Why'd you wanna put my hair up?" Elsie asked.
"So it doesn't get all in your face while you're swimming," she answered, then added, "The water's gonna be a little colder than at the beaches we went to in Granada, just so you're ready."
"Okay," she said.
A moment later, Sara said, "Ready?"
"Yeah!" Elsie exclaimed. She took off for the water, Sara following at a more comfortable pace behind her. Elsie stumbled to a stop when she reached the water.
"It's cold!" she shrieked.
"I told you," Sara called to her. A moment later, she was standing beside Elsie as the cool waves lapped onto their feet.
Elsie pointed to a spot behind Sara, "Look, there's Daddy!"
Sara looked over her shoulder to see Leonard standing by the beach blanket, watching them from the sand.
"How come Daddy's wearing normal clothes to the beach?"
"Because Daddy's a weirdo," she replied.
—
Later, when Elsie was done playing in the water, she and Sara returned to the blanket to eat lunch with Leonard.
"You having fun, Else?" Leonard asked.
"Uh-huh," Elsie replied, her mouth full of peanut butter sandwich. After she swallowed, she asked, "How come Sammy and Cece didn't come with us?"
"Because," Leonard said as Sara pulled Elsie into her lap, "it was just you and me and Mom for a while, and we love Cece and Sammy, but that doesn't mean that we have to stop doing things just the three of us sometimes."
"Yeah, we wanna spend some time with our little baby before she turns five on us," Sara said.
"Sammy's actually a baby," Elsie said, giggling as Sara planted little kisses on her cheeks.
"Yeah, he's actually a baby," she nodded, "but you're our first little baby, and we're never gonna forget that."
"Yeah, and then one day I'm gonna grow up and die, right?"
Sara stilled. She furrowed her eyebrows, glancing up at Leonard who was holding in a chuckle. She looked back down at Elsie.
"I'm just kidding," she giggled.
Those end lines were inspired by an actual conversation with my cousin. I was saving them for another Rory fic, but they fit pretty well here too