This place is so different from Seattle, Max thought, laying twigs and small kindling crossways on the leaves and other pieces of debris Alec had collected for the fire.
First and foremost, the sand was actually soft, unlike the harbor beach, which usually had glass and rocks, smoothed over by unrelenting water pressure over many decades, threatening any kind of gentility one deigned to consider by taking off one's shoes. Not to mention the frostbite that would surely occur if one was not smart enough to leave on one's shoes.
Second, it was actually warm. It was warm enough not to have to wear a jacket, even as the sun descended, seemingly past the water and into the earth. The delta breeze brought on its wings tufts of warm clouds, shaking the palm leaves as if they'd been tickled and were giving a hearty laugh in response.
Third, water crashing and pulling away and then crashing again reminded Max of a kind of dance, a familiar dance orchestrated by a clever moon, whose visage appeared rippled in the magical undulations of the deep waters below. The water would destroy the shore, and the shore would take the abuse unrelenting, as if this was how it was meant to be, as if the push and pull carried on outside of all other relationships. It calmed her just to be here.
Planting herself in the sand next to the soon-to-be campfire, Max stared out at the shore, romanced by its sparking beauty, and leaned back on her elbows.
"Beautiful tonight," Alec said, mirroring her relaxed stature after the fire had been going for a while.
Max was staring up at the sky, entranced by all the stars she could see here that she couldn't see in Seattle. Alec stared at her face, her jaw line pointed up and out, the stars reflecting in her wide eyes. She hummed in agreement.
The parts of moonlight that touched her skin directed his gaze; slight shimmer along her neckline, soft haloes at the backs of her hands, glistening diamonds at the curve of her lips as if they'd been dusted in pure stars. He couldn't tear his eyes away. If anyone else was on this beach tonight, he would never know.
She was blushing. She knew she was. She felt like he was appreciating her, and dared not break the spell by looking back at him.
Screw it, she thought, tilting her head toward him at an angle. He drew in a small breath, lips parted in awe, eyes sparking in a vast hazel-green ocean sprinkled with reflections which mirrored the view before them. He focused his stare into hers, then at her lips, and leaned forward.