Disclaimer: I do not own Jane or Kurt or Blindspot. Writing about them is simply the outlet for my obsession.
A/N: I have to say, this story is the perfect one to alternate writing with The Aftermath, which is so painfully angsty (just wait for the next chapter of that one, OMG!). As far as this chapter goes, all I can say is... you're welcome. :)
As they walked down the few steps to the sand below, Jane noticed that Sarah and Sawyer, even Kurt, immediately kicked off their sandals and picked them up rather than try to walk with them through the sand. She followed suit, immediately surprised by the feeling of sand under her feet and between her toes. It was… strange. Squishy. Warm. Looking at her feet in surprise, she noticed that it was also very hard to walk in. She looked up at Kurt, who was watching her with a smile. He wasn't laughing at her, though he did seem to realize that she was surprised by the sand, and find it more than just a little bit amusing.
"It's a weird feeling, isn't it?" he asked her, smiling sympathetically. "Lots of little kids don't like it. It took us a few years to get Sawyer to be comfortable with it… I used to go to the beach with him and Sarah a lot when he was little. Well… not a lot, but… more than now. The last few years… well, things happen. Life gets busy."
She was still holding his hand with her right hand, carrying her sandals in her left, as she struggled to walk through the soft sand. Sarah and Sawyer were halfway down the beach already, but at least they could still see them ahead. Kurt wasn't rushing her. On the contrary, he seemed content to go at whatever pace she wanted to. Or, more accurately, however slow she needed to go.
This is what everyone gets so excited over? she wondered in annoyance. This whole sand thing may be overrated. Of course, she could do it, she reminded herself – with all of her various extraordinary skills, she could certainly handle walking through sand! It was just that it was so… frustrating.
Kurt could see how annoyed she was as she tried to hurry after Sarah. "Hey," he said, using her hand to tug her a little closer to him. "You don't have to try to walk so fast. Don't fight the sand, just take it slow. Besides, we're not in a hurry. It's annoying, but if you don't think of it as slowing you down, it actually feels kind of cool." She let him set the pace and found that it was true, the less she fought to walk through the sand, the less frustrating it was. They were getting there, just… more slowly than she'd expected. But what was the rush, after all? He was right beside her.
"See over there, where the sand changes color?" He pointed to what looked like a line where the sand suddenly got darker and flatter. She nodded, then looked back at him. "That sand isn't as dry as it is here, and it's a lot easier to walk on." The difference she noticed when they reached the wet sand was dramatic, and once again, she felt like she could walk normally. They finally caught up with Sarah and Sawyer, who were laying out their towels not far from the water. Jane followed everyone else's lead and laid her sandals down along the edges of the towels to anchor them against the occasional breeze, but really there wasn't much wind blowing – at least not yet.
Sarah had taken the sunblock out of the bag and tossed it out onto one of the towels. Sawyer was wearing a bathing suit and UV protectant shirt that so many kids wear, which protected most of him from the sun, but Sarah was still in the process of spraying his remaining exposed skin with sunblock and then rubbing it in. Luckily for him, the fact that he was already partially covered cut down on the time it took for his mom to apply sunblock to him, because with his fair skin, he couldn't afford not to use it.
"Help yourself to sunblock, you guys," Sarah called. Kurt nodded, tossing down his sandals and setting the cooler at the corner of the farthest towel, letting go of Jane's hand. She stood beside one of the towels, watching Sarah rub sunblock on Sawyer.
It's going to take a lot more sunblock than that to cover me, she thought. Still, she was relieved that this was something normal, and not a consequence of her tattoos or her lack of a memory, simply a result of her having very fair skin and a bathing suit that didn't cover very much of it. All of a sudden, she felt self-conscious about that new bikini that lay under her clothes. She tried to recall Patterson's reaction when she'd seen her in it, and how her friend had absolutely insisted that it was perfect on her. In her head, she gave herself the pep talk that she imagined that Patterson would have given her, had she been there.
Glancing around them at the other groups of people who were on the beach, whether sitting down or just arriving, like them, she suddenly felt like everyone was staring at her, and at her tattoos. Granted, a few of them actually were staring, though they most of them had the decency to at least look away when she glanced in their direction.
Suddenly, Kurt was standing directly in front of her, his face only inches from hers as he asked, "Is it time for the big reveal?" he asked her quietly. His eyes were twinkling mischievously, and it was then, when her eyes flicked down quickly, nervously at his question, that she noticed that he had already pulled off his t-shirt.
Her first thought was, Now that's something you don't see at the office, as her eyes shot back up to his face. He was definitely… not bad to look at. Not bad at all. She was having trouble figuring out which of the two was the less dangerous place to look was, actually. She had to fight the urge to take a step back - not because she wanted to be farther away from him, but because she was simply overwhelmed at that moment.
What were you expecting? the voice in her head asked. Really, she hadn't thought about this part somehow.
He seemed to sense her sudden surge of emotions and, after bending down to pick up a bottle of sunblock, he put his hand lightly on her bicep, which immediately got her attention. All of a sudden she was back in the present moment, and as much as her heart was beating wildly, his hand on her arm was more calming the rest of it was overwhelming – as usual. She looked back up at him, trying to steady her breathing, because she suddenly felt like a lot was happening right in front of her, and a lot more happening in her head…
"You're going to want to step back a little while I spray this," he told her calmly, as if nothing unusual was happening. Somehow he always knew when to make contact, when she needed reassuring words, and when acting like everything was completely normal would put her most at ease. He knew it far better than she knew it herself. "You don't want it to get in your eyes, because it'll sting."
She nodded, and he slowly let his hand slide down her arm, beginning where he'd been holding onto her bicep, and moving all the way down to her hand before dropping completely, leaving a trail that felt amazingly like electricity in its wake. Taking a few steps away from their things, while also attempting to stay away from other beach goers as much as possible, he sprayed sunblock on the skin of his arms, legs, chest, stomach, neck… everywhere that wasn't covered. She realized too late that what she was doing was more accurately classified as staring at him than just watching him.
He could see her watching him rather intently, even without looking directly at her. He might have been embarrassed if he'd been stared at so blatantly by anyone but Jane, but as usual, she was the exception. It was a compliment, he decided – she certainly didn't have a poker face whatsoever just then, and he was pretty sure that she liked what she saw, which obviously was totally fine with him.
As he finished rubbing sunblock into his neck and shoulders, he looked up at her in amusement, and she felt her face turn pink immediately.
Did he know I was watching him all that time? she wondered in a panic.
But… I was just watching to see how it's done, she protested to herself.
Right, said the other voice in her head, that's exactly what you were doing.
Kurt had finished up now, and walked over to her with the bottle, holding it out to her. However, instead of just handing it to her, he asked, "Can you get my back?"
Oh, wow.
For a second, her thoughts stopped there as she looked at the sunblock, slightly panicked… but in a good way. She'd had no way to know that this was what was coming. Never having been to the beach, or even really knowing anything about it, she didn't know that this was something that was reasonable to expect of someone you went to the beach with. While she was a little bit nervous, she certainly couldn't object...
Nodding and trying to sound absolutely not shocked or nervous when she replied, "Sure," she took the bottle from him, shaking it slightly as she'd seen Sarah do. He smiled at her, looking like he might just know exactly how flustered he was making her, and turned around so that his back was towards her. She began spraying, not quite hard enough at first, but quickly getting the hang of it. Starting at his shoulders, she sprayed back and forth all the way down his back to where his bathing suit began. Spraying his back was the easy part, of course.
He looked over his shoulder at her, turning part way around and leaning down towards her, and said, a serious look on his face, "The directions on the bottle really do say you have to rub it in after you spray it. I swear, I'm not making it up to get you to rub my back… That is just a lucky coincidence." He grinned at her, then added, "Do you want to check the bottle?"
"You wouldn't lie to me, would you?" she asked innocently. It was a slightly loaded question. There hadn't been any lies between them in a long time… not since everything that had happened the previous year.
Leaning even closer to her, he looked into her eyes and told her, "Never again." The look on his face threatened to melt her heart then and there.
"Okay then, I believe you," she replied just as quietly, slightly surprised by his absolute sincerity. She couldn't help the smile that overtook her face, and he turned back around slowly.
Well okay then, since I have no choice… she thought to herself, definitely not hating this particular assignment. This was a part of the beach weekend that she hadn't been able to anticipate, and she certainly wasn't complaining. Tentatively at first, she started with his shoulders, working her way down his back at what she could only guess was an appropriate speed. She'd watched Sarah rubbing sunblock on Sawyer just a minute before, and she'd seemed to be doing a pretty thorough job…
This wasn't exactly the same, of course, but the idea was the same – from what she'd heard, sunburn was pretty serious for some people, and she'd read that even if someone wasn't prone to burning, sunblock was important. I can't have him getting sunburned, she thought, rationalizing just a little bit more rubbing of her hands across his back than may have been absolutely necessary… there was no rush, after all, and she wanted to be sure she did a good job…
Finally, she was fairly sure she was done, and let her hands drop slowly down his back. He turned around and smiled at her, and for some reason she felt herself blushing again.
Stop it, she told herself. That was just sunblock. But her brain wasn't buying it. He was looking at her steadily, no doubt waiting to see her new bathing suit, when Sarah's voice interrupted their thoughts.
"Here you go, guys," she said, holding out a differently shaped bottle. Kurt reached out and took it.
"Thanks," he said to Sarah. Then, to Jane, he said, "More sunblock," holding up the bottle to show it to her. This one wasn't a spray, but a white, almost liquid like substance. "It's easier to put this on your face. Helps avoid spraying in your eyes… although, you don't want to get this in your eyes either…" he explained, putting a few dabs onto his hand and then spreading them around his face as best he could. After a minute he looked down at her and asked, "Did I get it all rubbed in?"
I think I love sunblock, she thought, having to stifle a grin as she shook her head, reaching up to rub in the white streak that he'd left across his left cheek. She wondered if he'd done it on purpose…
"Better?" he asked, raising his eyebrows playfully.
I could say no, and rub his other cheek… she thought, followed closely by, Oh no, I hope this isn't one of those times when he reads my mind…
She noticed him looking at her intently then, as if he wanted to laugh, and before he could say anything else she nodded quickly. "Uh, yes, you're all set. Much better."
"Alright you two, can I trouble one of you to do my back?" Sarah asked. Jane turned and looked at her, and saw that Sarah had removed her t-shirt and shorts, and was now standing there in a black, one piece bathing suit that left the top half of her back exposed.
"Sure," Kurt said, stepping forward and taking the bottle from Jane, brushing past her as he went. She smiled slightly, suspecting that it had not been accidental. While he was spraying sunblock on Sarah's back and then rubbing it in, Jane took advantage of their distraction to take off her shorts and tank top without feeling like she had quite as much of an audience – only all the rest of the people on the beach besides the two she knew – Sawyer having run down the short distance to the water's edge as soon as his mom had finished rubbing sunblock on him.
Still, somehow it was easier to shed her outer layer of clothes without Kurt watching her, even knowing he was about to turn around and see her in a few seconds anyway. Laying her clothes down on the towel by her feet, she stood still, suddenly feeling very exposed, much more so than made sense considering the small amount of clothes she had actually removed. She watched Sawyer playing in the water as she waited for Kurt to finish with Sarah's back, her apprehension mounting. For some reason, she preferred not to be looking at him when he turned around to see her. She was feeling very self-conscious at that moment, so she just focused on Sawyer and wished that it was over with, already.
Suddenly, she noticed the playful brother-sister banter behind her had stopped, and the silence that replaced it was almost deafening – at least to her. Then, without turning her head, she saw Sarah walk into her line of sight, on her way toward Sawyer. "I love that suit on you, Jane," she called, grinning, and then turning toward her son, she splashed him from behind as he waited for the next wave to roll in. Jane continued to watch the two of them, now absolutely unable to turn around, feeling Kurt's eyes on her even without looking at him.
"Wow," he said, walking in front of her and coming to stand only inches away. "You know how amazing that looks on you, right?" From the look in his eyes, she could tell that he meant it sincerely. She couldn't help but smile, feeling herself blush… again. How many times was that now? How did he keep doing this to her?
"Oh, really?" she asked, biting the side of her lip and smiling.
"Oh, like you don't know…" he replied, making a face at her.
She shrugged. "Maybe…" Finally looking up at him for more than a second, she added shyly, "but I certainly don't mind hearing it."
He took a step back and looked at her, still in shock over how beautiful she looked. Of course, he'd seen her naked before – which seemed like a weird and extremely inappropriate thing to think about someone he worked with – but again, Jane had always been an exception to the rules. No, the whole team had studied pictures of every part of her body day in and day out for months on end, and longer, looking for clues to help them solve what they referred to as "the tattoo cases." Looking at her now, he could honestly say that he actually found her much sexier wearing this new bikini than seeing the pictures of her wearing nothing at all work. Either way, there was simply no denying that she was gorgeous.
Looking her up and down, his eyes returned to hers, and he stepped closer to her once again. "You look… incredible," he said softly. "Not that I'm surprised, of course." She was sure she was beet red by now. "And now," he said, deciding that he'd stop embarrassing her, which it was obvious that he was doing, with the truth, "you need to sunblock all that fair skin."
"Right," she said, reaching for the sunblock he was holding. He handed it over, and she began spraying it on her arms, almost expecting him to offer to rub it in for her. She wasn't entirely sure how she would have answered if he had offered, but he just watched her, glancing out at the ocean from time to time, but mainly watching her working her way down her arms and legs, her stomach, her shoulders and neck… it felt like it was taking forever, especially because she couldn't help but be conscious of the fact that Kurt was watching her – the same way she had watched him, though he was staring at her less blatantly than she'd stared at him.
"This takes almost as long as getting to the beach," she commented in surprise, feeling like she'd been sunblocking herself for hours, as she finally finished the front of her.
"Okay, hand it over," he said, holding out his hand for the sunblock bottle and smiling at her. She noticed that the sunblock was now significantly lighter in her hand.
"I'm not sure there's much left in here," she replied sheepishly, handing it over. "I think I have too much exposed skin."
He'd already stepped around her to spray her back, and he leaned over her shoulder and said, "I think you have just the right amount of exposed skin," winking at her with a boyish grin. She slapped him playfully with the back of her hand, unable to not smile at him.
Now I think I see why people like the beach so much, she thought, knowing very well that it wasn't the beach that she liked so much, but the company.
"One more thing, Jane," Kurt said from behind her. She turned around to look at him questioningly. "This is going to feel really cold. A lot colder than it did on the front of you, for whatever reason." Her eyes widened slightly. She wasn't sure exactly what very cold on her back was going to feel like… but she supposed that she was about to find out.
"Thanks for the warning," she said hesitantly, turning back around, now just a little nervous.
"Ready?" he asked.
"As I'll ever be…" she replied, not sure what to expect. A second later she found out just how right Kurt was, because the sunblock was indeed very cold. More specifically, she felt like he was spraying ice directly onto her back. Her arms were at her sides, and almost immediately every muscle in her body tensed, as was obvious by the fact that her fingers suddenly spread out as far as they could from each other. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth against the sensation. Okay, it wasn't torture in a CIA black site, or a body full of brand new tattoos, but it was pretty damn uncomfortable.
Kurt hadn't even finished spraying her upper back when she felt him grab her left hand, and she squeezed it tightly as he continued to spray her back. Her eyes were still closed and her teeth were still gritted, but at least she had his hand to squeeze through the rest of it as he sprayed down to the bottom strap of her bikini top, and then across her lower back, which made her squirm even more.
Finally, mercifully, he was done. She stood there, trying to focus on catching her breath and continuing to squeeze his hand. He chuckled at her reaction, leaning over her shoulder slightly once more. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Holy shit that was cold!" she said breathlessly, opening her eyes. "What the hell is in the stuff? And why does it feel so much colder on my back?" He was still laughing at her gently, his right hand already sitting on her right shoulder. She leaned into his hand unconsciously, grateful for the sudden warmth that contrasted so significantly with the feeling of being frozen to death.
"Yeah, you should have heard Sawyer scream when he was little. It lasted for the entire time we sprayed him, which was a lot of fun, trust me... But it's actually a really common reaction in kids," he replied, prying his left hand from hers, and moving it to her shoulder. Then, leaning over towards her ear once again, he added, "In adults, not so much." She turned her face to the left, where he had positioned himself by her ear, and glared at him playfully.
"Did I scream?" she asked, pretending to be offended by the implication that she had reacted like a kid to the sunblock on her back.
"No, you didn't," he replied, as if he hadn't tried to compare her reaction to a child's.
"So then, what are you trying to say?" she asked him, looking into his eyes, mere inches separating them as she dared him to say something that would get him in trouble.
"I just meant that you…" he paused, beginning to rub the sunblock on her shoulders and upper back very slowly into her skin, "need someone to warm you up...?" Whatever reply she'd been preparing died on her lips, and she just stared at him, open mouthed. He looked at her seriously for only a few seconds before his face dissolved into the same charming smile as usual.
Is that over the line as far as teasing her goes? he wondered for a second.
You've been over the line for a while now, a voice in his head replied quickly. You're just now concerned about it?
She wasn't quite sure how to reply. He looked like he was kidding… but of course now he was rubbing his hands across her back, which was indeed making her feel warmer. Actually, after that comment she'd felt her entire body flush what felt like a dark pink all over again… and then there was the fact that they were standing in the sun. She stood very still, turning to look back out at the ocean, not sure exactly how she was supposed to react.
He was watching her carefully, and though he could no longer see her face, he did notice that she was suddenly standing completely still, and that her muscles felt very tense under his hands – not quite the same way she had when he'd been spraying sunblock on her, but tense nonetheless. The timing of that joke and rubbing her bare back at the same time may have been a little too much, he thought. Though he wasn't finished rubbing in her sunblock (he could have been finished by then, but was simply taking him time… to do it very thoroughly, of course), he slid his hands back up to her shoulders, moving his thumbs gently against the base of her neck. Leaning over her shoulder again, he said, "You know I'm kidding, right?"
She turned in his direction again, looking flustered and uncertain, but above all, relieved. One of the things he liked best about Jane was that she wasn't like everyone else, that she was simultaneously vulnerable and incredibly tough at the same time… he just forgot, sometimes, that since she had such a limited amount of memories, she could be very easily overwhelmed in certain situations… specifically, anything remotely like this one – anything involving the complex relationship that had always existed between the two of them. He smiled at her, rubbing her shoulders less as a way to spread sunblock on her and more as a way to help her relax. Her smile slowly returned, to his relief.
"Well, now that that's cleared up, get back to work," she told him seriously. He smiled then, and his hands returned to the middle of her back, where he'd been rubbing in her sunblock.
"This is work?" he asked as his hands moved slowly. "Hmmm… I think I must have gotten a pretty damn good promotion."
"Oh? And just out of curiosity, have you put sunblock on anyone else on the team as well?" she asked seriously. "Reade, maybe? Patterson? I think Zapata would sooner punch you in the face…" He snorted with laughter, and as he'd reached her lower back, he brought his hands around to her sides and tickled her lightly. She stepped forward quickly to get away from the attack, turning around to face him. "Hey, no fair!" she cried.
"What's wrong?" Kurt asked. "A little ticklish?"
She shrugged. "I guess so…" she replied. "Did you actually finish my back? Or am I going to end up sunburned?"
"Let me just make sure. I promise not to get distracted," he said, looking at her innocently.
"I don't think you should make that promise," she observed with a smile, but returned to her place in front of him anyway.
"It's true," he said thoughtfully, gliding his hands over her back again to be sure the sunblock was rubbed in. Once his "work" was finished, his fingers lingered on the tattoo that looked like large, hexagon shaped rings in the middle of her back. He traced the perimeter of the outer one, then switched to the next smallest ring, and then the middle one after that. Finally, the fingers of his right hand moved upward and settled on his name, at the top of her back, his left hand dropping to his side.
He had clearly finished rubbing in the sunblock on her back, but his fingers were still tracing their way across her skin. She certainly didn't dislike what he was doing, even if it made her wonder a little… Most of the time since they'd arrived in Virginia, she had been perfectly happy to ignore the fact that the invisible line that had always existed between them because of work apparently didn't exist between them here, so far away from home. Just then, however, she couldn't help but think about it. Maybe it was because she was staring out at the ocean, which, while beautiful, wasn't quite as good as the view that she would have had if he'd been standing in front of her, not behind her.
She knew which tattoo his fingers now rested on. She had studied them endlessly, enough to know that the one he was touching was the one of his name. Turning to look over her shoulder at him once again, she caught him staring at her back absently, appearing lost in thought.
"So, I guess they look different in person…?" she asked, smiling at him knowingly. He looked up at her, knowing that she'd caught him, and bringing himself back from where he'd been lost in thought. With a smile of his own, he swept his hand across her upper back once more before letting his fingers trail lightly down her spine until he reached the end of her exposed skin, at which point he reached for her left hand with his right, instead.
He knows exactly what he's doing, she thought, as she attempted not to shiver as his fingers trailed down her spine, finding it impossible. As he took her hand, she looked over at him as if to say, I know that you know exactly what you're doing. He just looked back her innocently, smiling and squeezing her hand.
"Only one thing left to do," he told her, keeping her hand in his and turning to face her. She raised her eyebrows questioningly, still a little dizzy from the whole sunblock application on her back thing. He bent down and picked up the bottle of sunblock that Sarah had brought along specifically for their faces. Instead of taking it, she simply held out her palm for him to squirt it onto her hand. After managing to flip the tab open with one hand, not wanting to let go of hers, he turned it over and squirted some onto her hand. It came out a little faster than he'd expected, perhaps because he was using his left hand, and suddenly her hand had significantly more sunblock on it than her face probably needed.
They both laughed, and he flipped the tab closed, tossing it back onto the towel at their feet. "Sorry," he said, not sure exactly what she was going to do with it.
"Better safe than sorry?" she asked with a grin. She didn't mind though, because she had an idea. The hand now smeared in sunblock went to her face, and she dabbed a healthy amount on her forehead, cheeks and chin before looking back down at her hand. There was still plenty of sunblock remaining, both on her fingers and on the palm of her hand, so she did what she thought was only fair – she reached up and began dabbing it on his face instead, momentarily ignoring the fact that the sunblock on her own face wasn't spread out yet, or the fact that he'd already put sunblock on his face, for that matter. There was simply too much still on her hand to be able to work with what she'd just put on her own face without getting rid of the excess. At least, that was how she rationalized what she was doing.
He smiled when he realized that she was putting the extra sunblock on his face, not minding even a little bit. She first used her fingers, moving gently across his forehead, his cheeks, his nose… and when she was satisfied that her fingers were sufficiently cleaned off, she did the same with the inside of the palm of her hand, dragging it slowly across his face. Closing his eyes, he couldn't help but thank the bottle of sunblock of squirting out far too much, because he couldn't have asked for a better excuse to have her touching his face. When he finally felt the absence of her hand on his cheek, he opened his eyes and watched as she looked at it with satisfaction.
"You get all the extra off?" he asked her, as if he was just curious, and she hadn't just spent the last few minutes gently rubbing her hand across his face.
"Yep, I think so," she replied, smiling shyly. She swiped at the sunblock on her own face, but really didn't do a very good job spreading it out. It was, after all, her first attempt, and she was doing it without a mirror. He chuckled at her and shook his head as she looked at him innocently.
Or does she know that she didn't really get it spread out? he wondered…
"What?" she asked, as if she had no idea why he was laughing. Since he was holding her left hand in his right, he was at a slight disadvantage – which had allegedly led to this "problem" in the first place – but he brought his free hand up to her face to try to spread out the globs of sunblock anyway. Luckily, she'd left him quite a bit to work with, and he took his time, since unlike him, she didn't already have a layer of it on her face. All kidding aside, he really didn't want her getting sunburnt the first time she went to the beach.
She stared at him as he worked, and watched his eyes darting from one section of her face to another, his fingers gently moving across her skin. In a way, this was better than when he'd put sunblock on her back (though of course, after the initial blast of cold, it had not been unpleasant), because she hadn't had to be frozen half to death first, and also, she could look at him as he worked... The sensation of his fingers on her face was different than on her back, but equally as nice. She silently wished that she'd left even more extra sunblock on her, as he seemed to be finished far sooner than she would have liked.
"The thing about sunblock," he said as he dragged his fingers slowly across her face one last time, "is that it doesn't last all day. You have to reapply it at least every few hours, or your skin absorbs it and you still end up getting sunburn. I think the bottle actually says every eighty minutes." He slowly took his hand off of her face and smiled at her as if he wasn't trying to say anything other than to give her information about sunblock, and watched as understanding crept across her face. She bit the side of her lip and smiled, thinking that that might be the best news she'd heard in a long time.
"Ready to go down to the water? I think you have enough sunblock on now," he said, glancing down toward the water where Sarah and Sawyer were now mostly wet, still splashing each other and playing in the waves.
"Sounds good," she said, and then because she couldn't help herself, she tugged on his hand and, when he turned to look at her again, she asked, "Are you sure I have enough sunblock on me?"
"For now, yes. You'll need to reapply it later, of course," he told her. When she pretended to pout for a second, he rolled his eyes at her, squeezed her hand and tugged her along toward the water. "Not too much later," he said as they walked toward the water side by side. She couldn't help but break into a smile, deciding that she definitely liked the beach.
Especially now that she knew that sunblock only lasted a few hours.
