Disclaimer: I do not own Jane or Kurt or Blindspot. Writing about them is simply the outlet for my obsession.

A/N: Less than a week to go until the angst that is Blindspot comes back for season two, but right here, it's summer 2017 and all that is behind them… this story is definitely my happy place. Enjoy!

The four of them walked a few blocks down the boardwalk, enjoying the view of the ocean, then crossed between the hotels at 25th street towards Atlantic Avenue, which ran parallel to the beach for several miles. They crossed to the far side of the street, and turned left, making their way down the sidewalk on Atlantic toward one of two several mini golf establishments at Oceanfront. The walkway was crowded with tourists, both those walking with a destination in mind, as well as those who were clearly just perusing the selection of souvenir shops, restaurants and various other establishments that catered to the summer crowd of visitors. Because of this, Jane and Kurt continued to walk behind Sarah and Sawyer, and since it was easiest to maneuver if they stayed close together, he put his arm around her shoulders – which was absolutely fine with her, of course.

"Hey, Uncle Kurt," Sawyer called, turning around to look at him, "look at that crazy sign! It's not even in English!" Up on one of the sign posts, visible from the sidewalk, was a circular sign without any letters at all, only symbols. The first one looked like a spiral, the second a lightning bolt, the third a hashtag mark (formerly known as a pound sign), followed by two exclamation marks. The whole thing had a thick red circle around the outside and a diagonal red line through the middle. Jane looked at the sign in confusion, now also wondering what the sign meant.

Kurt chuckled, glancing at the confusion on Jane's face, then looked back at Sawyer. "That's the City of Virginia Beach's nice way of reminding people to watch their language, and not to curse," he explained. "Which is a good idea, since there certainly are a lot of kids around here."

"Oh, okay, that makes sense," Sawyer replied, turning back around happily.

"Is that really what it means?" Jane asked from beside him.

"I assume so," Kurt replied. "Usually when people want to signify a curse word without actually typing one, they use some combination of symbols like that, so…" he shrugged, smiling, not at anything in particular… except Jane, and the fact that they were walking down the sidewalk side by side, his arm around her. It seemed like every few hours since they'd arrived, it had hit him: the two of them were on vacation together – no leads to follow up on, no suspects to chase, no bombs to diffuse, no other team members to check in with... just the two of them, having fun. That was more than enough reason to smile, after all.

They'd walked less than a block after that when Sawyer spotted a familiar pale green and pink logo on the umbrella above a small table out in front of an equally small storefront, and began bouncing with excitement beside Sarah – to the amusement of the two behind him. "Mom, look! They have Sweet Frog here! Can we go? Please? Please?" The begging intensified quickly, and Jane listened in confusion, trying to figure out what exactly Sawyer was so excited about. They had stopped just past the corner of Atlantic and 24th streets, in front of the shop in question, while Sarah considered her son's request.

"You guys interested in frozen yogurt?" she asked Jane and Kurt.

"Sure," Kurt replied. Because why wouldyou say no to something like that when you were on vacation? At least in his mind, you wouldn't. He looked at Jane, who smiled a little bit uncomfortably. He was almost sure that she hadn't tried it before, but he was also almost sure that she would like it. He knew that she got uncomfortable when asked to choose from a large number of flavors, because even now, she would run across ones that she had no memory of trying, which made choosing hard.

To his surprise, however, she smiled, albeit slightly nervously, but said, "Sure."

"Why don't you guys go in and get started, and Jane and I can go back to the house and drop off the cooler," which he held up in his right hand, "and our towels, so we don't have to keep carrying them around, since the house is only a few blocks from here… and we'll meet you back here?"

"Sure, if you guys don't mind," Sarah replied, handing him the key to the house. She took her shorts and t-shirt out of the towel bag and, having decided that she was now dry enough, slipped her clothes back on over her bathing suit and stuffed her towel into the bag, handing it over to Jane. They put the rest of the towels inside it as well, and Jane also took the bag of sand toys from Sawyer. The two of them set off for the beach house, telling Sarah that they'd see them shortly.

"Do you want me to take one of those?" Kurt asked her as Jane adjusted the two bags on her arm.

"I'm fine," she said, shaking her head at him. "Besides, it's only a few blocks, and you're already carrying the cooler, which is heavier. Besides I like your other hand right where it is." The arm to which she was referring – his left arm, to be specific – was back around her shoulders. Her right arm, in turn, reached across his back. He smiled at her matter-of-factness, thinking that it was very… her.

Just then, something screeched across the sky overhead, the noise almost deafening. Jane stopped in her tracks, looking up in search of the source of the noise. What in the world was that? she wondered. Finally, just before they disappeared behind a cloud, she saw two small airplanes that looked far too far away to have just made as much noise as they had. It had sounded like they'd been about to land on the street in front of them, they'd been so loud.

"Military jets," Kurt explained when the noise finally stopped, and she could hear again. "There are four military bases in this area, so there are a lot jets flying around here." Jane just continued to stare after the two jets that they'd seen.

"They're so loud," Jane said, still surprised, even now that they couldn't see or hear them anymore. She started walking forward again, and he followed her lead.

"That's for sure," Kurt agreed. "I'm sure those aren't the first ones that have flown over us this morning, because they do training exercises pretty frequently. Maybe they're just the first ones we've heard."

"How in the world would we have missed something that loud?" she asked, finding the idea hard to believe.

"Well, we could have been in the water, which is also pretty loud… or, we could just have been… distracted…" he said, trailing off and raising his eyebrows at her with a grin. As expected, her cheeks turned slightly pink and she looked away, in the direction they were walking. "You are pretty distracting…" he added.

"I'm distracting?" she asked in disbelief.

"Well, at least you can admit it…" he told her with a grin, knowing that he'd get a reaction. Her eyes narrowed at him, but sparkled with laughter at the same time. She removed her right hand from his waist and punched him gently in the lower back, then slid her hand back into place. He really was terrible.

They'd come to the intersection of Pacific Avenue, which ran parallel to Atlantic, and 24th street. Crossing Pacific had to be done carefully, since it was two lanes on each side and, despite having many crosswalks, the majority of cars didn't seem to stop for pedestrians quite as willingly as they were supposed to.

Once they'd made it to the other side of Pacific, they turned right to backtrack two streets, to the narrow street where their beach house sat. Jane had only just noticed the name of the street, since they'd gotten in so late the night before. "Twenty-fifth and a Half Street?" she read out loud. "How can you have a half street?" Kurt chuckled beside her as they approached the corner, "their" beach house coming into view as they rounded the bend.

"Well, there's a grid of streets around here, all numbered, and I guess they already had the numbered streets laid out… So maybe they added one in, in between…? It is pretty narrow… They could have called it something else, but maybe they wanted to keep it simple? So it would be obvious where it was…? Or maybe someone just wasn't feeling very creative that day…" He trailed off, grinning down at her. The truth was, he thought it was pretty silly too, but he'd seen it done before, in other places. He was just enjoying her reaction, and couldn't help but pull her a little bit closer to him as they walked up to the front of the house.

When they reached the door, he let go of her reluctantly, setting the cooler down and digging the key out of his pocket. She followed him inside the house, where they set down the cooler and the bags. Kurt had disappeared down the hall, and Jane took advantage of the chance to use a bathroom that hadn't been used by hundreds of strangers that day, emerging to find him waiting for her, leaning against the back of the couch. Without even thinking about it, she walked toward him, as if some force was just propelling her forward. She wondered if the smile on her face was as big as the one on his face.

She stopped in front of him, suddenly noticing how close she had gotten to him without actually realizing it. Not that she thought that he minded, and not that she minded, she just… This was still a very new thing for her – not fighting the urge to get closer to him, not forcing herself to stay on opposite sides of the invisible line, the one they generally weren't supposed to cross but had been dancing back and forth over since they'd arrived. Not having to wonder if she should... She couldn't completely shake the feeling of hesitation. Suddenly wondering what to do now that she was so close to him, she hesitated.

"Are you having a good weekend?" he asked her then, sensing her hesitation. "Glad you came along?"

Is he seriously asking me that? she wondered. In what universe do I seem like I'm having anything less that the kind of fun that words can't even describe? She bit her lip, trying to hold back the smile on her face, but it was nearly impossible. "I don't think a word exists for how amazing this weekend has been so far," she replied sincerely, ready for him to make fun of her. "At least, not one that I remember."

He chuckled at the fact that she was making fun of herself, standing up from where he'd been leaning against the couch and taking a half step forward, which was all it took to close the distance between them. As there so often was, there was an intensity in his eyes when he looked at her, something she couldn't quite put into words. It was a big part of why it was so easy to get a little dizzy when she looked at him.

"Good," he said, hesitating, as if there was something specific that he wanted to say but couldn't quite bring himself to say it, and then said simply, "I'm glad you're here, Jane." She stood still, frozen in place, and had to remind herself, not for the first time that weekend so far, to breathe. He was staring into her eyes, and if she didn't know better she'd swear she saw a hint of uncertainty there.

Really? she thought in surprise. After everything that has already happened between us in the past twenty-four hours? His hesitation was endearing, just like everything else about him. The smile on her face suddenly intensified, and she was surprised when he took both of her hands in his, bringing her left hand up to his lips with his right and kissing the back of her hand. There was something hopelessly sweet about the gesture, and she leaned forward against him, her forehead against his shoulder, feeling him plant a kiss in her hair, pulling both of his arms around her. There was really no need to go anywhere the rest of the day. She could stay right there with him and be completely content, even if she didn't move an inch.

But of course, one of them had to think more practically. "Time for some frozen yogurt," he said in a low voice, into her hair. She shook her head against him, no intention of moving from the spot where she stood, and yet again, his laughter rumbled in his chest. "Come on," he continued, "we're going to find your favorite flavor." He felt her sigh against him, and he rubbed one hand against her back. He knew how she hated to be in this kind of situation, where she had to choose from a large number of choices that she might or might not recognize, based solely on something as subjective as a preference that she might or might not remember – even after all this time. "Trust me," he told her, "I have a plan. Besides, Sawyer and Sarah and waiting for us, and you don't want to keep that kid from mini golf, trust me." He felt her chuckle against him, and he knew he'd won.

She picked up her head off of his shoulder, looking up at him shyly, and he leaned down until the tip of his nose touched hers. She thought that he was going to kiss her, but he simply pressed his nose, and then his forehead as well, against hers. "Come on," he whispered. She made a face at him, scrunching up her nose in displeasure, and he leaned back just far enough to kiss the top of her nose before standing back up, tugging her by the hand toward the door. Sighing in pretend resignation, she let herself be pulled towards the door.

Back outside, they actually did make an effort to walk quickly back up to Sweet Frog, and Jane tried her best not to dread their arrival as they went. It was stupid, she knew, to be bothered by something like this after she'd probably long since tried all – or at least most – of the flavors… but for some reason, any time she was given a selection to choose from – in this case, flavors of frozen yogurt, but it could be anything – it gave her flashbacks to the very beginning of her memory, back to when she would be paralyzed by simple choices like that, simply because there were so many of them, and she had no way to know what she liked or disliked.

That had been where Kurt had come in, and slowly over time he'd helped her sample many of the different things that most people were commonly asked their preferences on: ice cream, various forms of chocolate and other desserts (which he'd insisted was very important), other foods, wine, coffee, movies… not that they had a lot of downtime in their jobs, but they made the most of what little they did have.

These days, though she was still wary of this kind of situation, she could usually make a decision when pressed, or sometimes she'd just leave it up to Kurt. By now, he knew most of her likes and dislikes just about as well as she did, and at least enough to make an educated guess about what she would probably like. There were still plenty of varieties of different things that she had no idea about, but at least the indecision didn't paralyze her any longer. In this case, she was genuinely curious about what he meant when he said he had a plan.

Back at Sweet Frog, they found Sarah and Sawyer at the one table on the sidewalk outside, still eating. Sawyer looked blissfully happy, and he grinned at them as they approached. "Are you guys getting frozen yogurt, too? It's so good!"

"Yep, we are. We'll be right back," Kurt told him, holding the door open for Jane. He retrieved two Styrofoam bowls from the counter in the corner, as she walked slowly along the line of levers sticking out of the wall, each labeled with a flavor above it. There were some she knew she'd tasted before and some she hadn't.

Walking back over to her, he said quietly, "Don't worry, no choosing yet." With that, he started at the end closest to her and proceeded to pull the lever quickly, dispensing only a tiny amount of frozen yogurt into what she realized was a very specific part of the bowl. Then, turning it carefully around, he retrieved a Sharpie from his pocket, consulted the card with the name of the flavor on the wall, and wrote on the outside of the bowl. As he moved on to the next flavor, repeating the process exactly, she now saw what he was doing.

This was far from the first time he'd displayed such thoughtfulness, but every single time he did something like this she felt the same lightheadedness, the same disbelief that she could be the object of such a gesture. Even to this day, after everything that had happened between them, she was still surprised.

He went on to dispense tiny samples of all fourteen flavors: chocolate and vanilla, of course, but also cookies and cream, island banana, New York Cheesecake, strawberry, toasted marshmallow, cake batter, dulce de leche, coconut, fudge brownie batter, mango, watermelon and strawberry lemonade. He took the two bowls of tiny samples to the counter, looking at the confused young woman behind the register, who weighed them and then took his money, looking at him strangely. "We're not sure which one we like best, so we need to try them first," he told her. She just nodded at him, a forced smile on her face. Clearly, she thought this was the strangest thing she'd seen all day – not that he cared whatsoever.

The transaction completed, he walked back over to where Jane was standing at the far end of the room. "Okay, so now for the taste test," he told her, handing her a spoon. "Of course, the ones that are right next to each other can also be swirled together, but let's not worry about that. We needed them separate so you could tell the flavors apart." He handed her one of the two bowls, pointing out where he'd written the names of the flavors. She knew it was silly, but she felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to him. He constantly did things like this for her, acting as if it was nothing. On the contrary, it was everything.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "This is…"

Because he could always tell, he knew she was overwhelmed, so he just smiled and diffused the seriousness by finishing her sentence a different way. "This is melting." His eyes sparkled playfully, and she couldn't help but smile. "Which one do you want to start with, boss?" Since he was, of course, actually her boss, she found that comment amusing, but focused on the frozen yogurt in front of them, settling for starting with the familiar ones, chocolate and vanilla, and then working her way around. They each had a few bites of each one, and before they knew it, their samples were gone.

"So," he asked, "what's the verdict?"

"It's a hard choice," she replied seriously. "They're all good. But I think… strawberry lemonade."

"You can have more than one at the same time, you know," he reminded her. "You just pile them in the bowl together."

"Hmmm," she mused. "Maybe you shouldn't have told me that…" He walked to the corner and picked up two more bowls, handing her one.

"Here," he said, "Go crazy." While Jane considered her strategy, Kurt started from one corner and worked his way down, combining chocolate, New York Cheesecake, cookies and cream, toasted marshmallow, cake batter and fudge brownie batter. When he'd finished, he glanced up and saw Jane in deep concentrating, her bowl already containing a swirl of various colors.

"How's it going?" he asked.

She grinned at him, showing him the contents of her bowl so far. "Well, I have island banana, strawberry, coconut, mango, watermelon and now I just need strawberry lemonade."

"Perfect," he replied, "then you can sample some of mine and get almost all of the others."

She looked at him suspiciously as she walked toward the strawberry lemonade. "Does that mean you want to sample mine, too?"

"Only if you're willing to share," he said, matching her pretend serious tone. It was yet another thing she loved about him – that they could go from seriously joking to jokingly serious and back in seconds, and always seemed to understand what the other meant by it.

Once she'd finished dispensing her final flavor, she walked up to him, standing close, their bowls between them. Pretending to think about it, she said, "Maybe. If you're nice."

"When am I not nice?" he asked, now pretending that his feelings were hurt. Of course, it wasn't as though he'd always been nice to her. They'd done plenty of things to each other that were a million miles away from nice, to put it mildly, in the past – serious things that neither of them would bring up over something silly like frozen yogurt.

"Well," she said slowly, "you're usually nice. So I'll probably share with you." She smiled then, as he shook his head at her, chuckling softly.

"Do you want any toppings?" he asked, glancing over at a counter that held bins of a dizzying array of small bits of things that could be added on top of their frozen yogurt. She stood over them, looking down and reading the labels as he walked up behind her.

"I've only tried maybe half of those things before," he reassured her quietly, leaning over her shoulder. She smiled, turning around to walk toward the counter.

"I think that's enough choosing for now," she told him.

They walked back to the young woman at the cash register, who was just shaking her head at them. Kurt paid for their treat, and they walked outside to see Sarah and Sawyer waiting. Upon seeing them, Sawyer jumped up excitedly, having spent the past five minutes asking Sarah how much longer he had to wait – approximately every thirty seconds.

"Ready?" Sawyer demanded.

"Sawyer, calm down," Sarah told him, though she couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm.

"We're ready," Jane assured him. "We can walk and eat." She glanced at Kurt questioningly. "At least, I think we can…"

He made a face at her, taking another bite from his bowl. "Of course we can." As they headed down the sidewalk toward 22nd Street, Sarah and Sawyer once again in the lead, he leaned down closer to her and said quietly, "However, what we can't do is walk and eat and hold hands."

This was a major downside as far as she was concerned, and Jane found herself eating a little faster because of it, wanting to be finished and get rid of the bowl. Kurt watched her in amusement, like he had done most of the day, simply finding it one more endearing thing about her.

At one point as they walked, when he was in between bites, he leaned down towards her again, putting his left arm around her and resting his hand, still holding his spoon, on her shoulder as he said quietly near her ear, "If you eat too fast, you're going to give yourself brain freeze." And just like that, his hand left her shoulder and he was using it to spoon another bite into his mouth.

Being the stubborn person that she was, Jane refused to slow down, and approximately two bites later, she experienced exactly what Kurt had warned her about – brain freeze. She stopped in her tracks in the middle of the sidewalk, and Kurt had to tell Sarah and Sawyer to wait a second as he stood in front of her, trying not to laugh at her surprised reaction. Though he'd just warned her about it, she seemed genuinely shocked.

"Brain freeze?" he asked quietly. She just nodded, watching as he tried but didn't quite succeed at not laughing at her.

"I did warn you…" he began. She was not amused, and just made a face that suggested that she was in pain, then leaned forward until her forehead was on his chest.

Sarah and Sawyer looked on from a few feet away, Sawyer looking very concerned. "Is she okay, Uncle Kurt?"

"Yep, she is," he replied. "You know how your mom and I tell you not to eat cold stuff too fast, so you don't get brain freeze?" Sawyer just nodded. "She doesn't like to listen when I tell her things like that." He'd stuck his spoon in the remaining frozen yogurt in his bowl so that his left hand could squeeze the back of her neck gently. He could feel her chuckle slightly at his explanation to Sawyer, knowing that he was right. She hadn't listened. To Jane, he said, "Are you okay?"

Lifting her head – though she would have happily continued to lean against him, given the chance – she nodded. "Better," she replied. "So that's brain freeze…"

He chuckled at her. "Yes, it is. So slow down just a little, and you won't get it." She nodded slightly as they turned and started walking again. After a minute, he offered her a spoonful from his bowl, which she took, tasting the difference from her bowl to his, then dug her spoon into her bowl, giving him a similar sample.

By the time they reached the mini golf entrance, they were taking their last bites, throwing away their trash just in time to free their hands to play. After getting the four of them the appropriate sized clubs and choosing different colored golf balls, they moved on to the course. It was very standard mini golf, with large statues of animals beside the various holes, giving it a Jungle Golf theme. Jane watched as Sawyer putted first, followed by Sarah. The two of them set off for the next hole, at Sawyer's request, too impatient to wait for his uncle and Jane, who seemed to be taking forever, as he'd said. Kurt just chuckled. That kid was in a big hurry. Then again, his excitement was contagious, and despite the fact that the sun was very hot by this time of day, especially because they'd moved inland away from the water, they were all having fun.

Jane watched as Kurt stood to the side and hit the golf ball gently from one end of the green to the other, wondering what the strategy was. To get the ball in the hole, obviously, but what was the best way to do that? she wondered. Though she'd just watched all three of them do it, when it was her turn to hit the ball, she wasn't sure how to stand or quite what to do. If she was being honest, she had been distracted. There were so many different moments between the two of them to choose from to focus on in the past eighteen hours alone, that when she stopped moving for a second and thought about them all, it was a little bit overwhelming – but in a good way.

He chuckled at her as she set her ball down and stood near it, then looked at him helplessly. Without a word, only a smile, he walked over to her and turned her shoulders to face the ball, then stood behind her and held her hands in the proper positions on the club, helping her practice her swing gently. "Like this," he said, leaning over her shoulder. She had to force herself to focus on what he was trying to teach her, and not just the fact that he was pressed against her back, holding his hands and arms over hers.

Though he didn't move away from her, he let her swing the club on her own then, the ball not ending up anywhere near the hole despite the small size of the green. "Now who's distracting?" she asked him with a smile. He winked at her, wondering how many holes she would try to insist that she didn't know what she was doing in order to get his "help."

After the second hole, just because he knew he'd get a reaction, he asked quietly, "Are you sure you're not just saying you don't know what to do to get me to stand closer to you? You could just ask, you know." Her jaw dropped slightly in surprise, and she stood, speechless for several seconds while he chuckled in amusement.

"Maybe I'm just really bad at this," she replied defensively, crossing her arms in front of her. She had actually been trying, after all.

He looked like he was considering the idea, then replied, "Right… you speak thirteen languages, you know I don't even know how many different styles of martial arts, but mini golf? That's just too hard."

She scowled at him playfully, knowing that he was only teasing, but feeling her competitive streak kick in. A few more holes of practice, and I'm going to be winning this thing, she thought.

By then they were following the path to where Sarah and Sawyer had already started hole three. "So does that mean you won't help me?" she asked quietly, standing directly in front of him as he lined up to hit the ball from its starting point, hands on her hips. He couldn't quite tell if she was seriously concerned about this or not…

Leaning over slightly, peering down the green to line up his shot, he turned back and raised his eyes to look into hers. "I would never say that," he replied, smiling the same sincere smile that always had such an effect on her, and she couldn't pretend to be mad any longer.

The answer to the question of 'how many holes she would try to insist that she didn't know what she was doing in order to get his help,' it turned out, was four, after which she did actually start hitting the ball relatively in the right direction, all on her own. She didn't quite accomplish her goal of beating him – not that there were scorecards – but then, he did have the advantage of not having had his memory wiped less than two years ago, and if she'd ever played before, she didn't remember it.

Despite the fact that there was shade to hide in as they went along the course, the sun was brutally hot. Even in the shade, they were all sweating, and the knowledge that her bathing suit was under her clothes almost made it worse for Jane, because she would have given anything to leave the course then and there and run back to the beach so she could plunge straight back into the water. This was a fun game and everything, but she was ready to be done.

"How many holes does this mini golf thing have, anyway?" Jane asked Kurt as they each took their final shot on the green they were currently on… whichever one it was. She'd lost count, and there were no numbers anywhere.

"A standard course for both golf and mini golf both is eighteen," Kurt replied, looking at her curiously. "Why?"

"Because I'm melting," Jane replied dramatically. "How much longer can this possibly take?"

Kurt chuckled at her. Yes, it was really fucking hot, he had to agree. They were all soaked with sweat, and he actually did share Jane's desire to just leave things as they were and go cool off… But they had been playing for a while, so surely they had to be almost done…

"Hey, Sarah," he called, seeing her peek back around the corner where she'd just disappeared with Sawyer. "Any idea how close we are to being done?"

Sarah rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head. "I have no idea," she moaned, "but why does it feel like we've been playing for about four hours out here…?" She waved her hand back and forth in front of her face, as if she could create enough of a breeze to make a difference. Her face was rather pink, Jane noticed, and she wondered whether she was sunburned or just pink from the heat.

After Sarah had ducked back around the corner, Jane leaned towards Kurt to whisper, "Is my face as pink as Sarah's? I'm trying to figure out if she has sunburn or if she's that pink just from being outside in the heat." He was surprised that it was Jane bringing up the subject of sunblock, albeit indirectly, but he wasn't one to let the topic slip by without taking advantage of it. With his thumb and index finger, he tipped her chin up towards him, allegedly to get a better look. "Let's see," he said, turning her face slowly from one side to the other as if he really wanted to look carefully, and not just to let his fingers linger on her skin. Of course, getting a long look at her was just an added bonus. She grinned at him, her stomach flip flopping a little. It had been a serious question, but she couldn't say she minded the attention.

"You are definitely less pink that Sarah," he said finally, "Someone's done a great job with your sunblock so far today." When she smiled, he felt the muscles in her face move under his fingers, and he forced himself, reluctantly, to let his fingers drop from her face. As his hand slowly withdrew, she reached up and grabbed it loosely before it fell any farther, smiling at him and holding it at waist level.

Just then, Sarah looked back around the corner once again, rolling her eyes at them. "Alright, I take it you guys are finished with that hole. Let's let the poor people waiting behind you continue playing, and keep in mind that some of us would like to finish this game. You guys can stand and stare at each other after that, okay?"

Without taking their eyes off each other, they both burst out laughing, and they followed Sarah to the next hole, which she and Sawyer were about to finish, with their hands still joined. It turned out that a mere four sweaty, somewhat torturous holes later, the game was over, and they were able to emerge from the make believe jungle back onto the sidewalk, once again surrounded by beachgoers. The little hut by the entrance sold refreshments, so when Kurt asked if they wanted anything, Jane asked only for "something very cold to drink." Though they sold water in bottles, for the two of them he opted for large cups of lemonade, filled first to the top with ice, the lemonade only of secondary importance, and more normal ratios for Sarah and Sawyer.

The four of them found a shady spot on the sidewalk nearby and just stood, drinking as fast as they could, feeling as though they'd been in the desert for days, instead of playing mini golf for less than two hours. For a few moments, no one spoke because they were all drinking as fast as they could. Predictably, Sawyer was the first to recover, and spent the first few minutes raving about their game.

Unbeknownst to Jane, Kurt had taken an ice cube out of his cup, and, since it began melting quickly as soon as it touched his fingers, he wasted no time in placing it, along with his now chilled fingers, on the back of her neck. As expected, her eyes widened immediately and she gasped, open mouthed but almost silently in surprise at the unexpected cold sensation. Sarah and Sawyer were so involved in drinking their lemonade and story, respectively, they didn't even notice.

What is he trying to do to me? Jane wondered. Of course, anything cold felt good in that heat, but at the same time, she felt her cheeks flush even hotter. That was… She found that she couldn't finish the thought. The ice was melted and gone within seconds, leaving cool but rapidly warming droplets of water soaking into the neck of her t-shirt, his fingers still on her neck.

Jane just looked at Kurt, her eyes still slightly wider than usual, in place of any words – she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to say just then, but she was fairly sure she didn't want to say whatever it was in front of his sister and nephew. He smiled back at her, innocently and yet anything but innocently at the same time, glad to see he'd had the desired effect on her. He moved his fingers off of his neck, holding his cup and sipped his drink again, just watching her. She, on the other hand, found that she had to look away.

Damn him, she thought. He's enjoying this way too much. Not that she wanted him to stop, of course.

While she was looking away, flustered, he removed another ice cube from his cup. This time he had a slightly more ambitious goal. She was purposely distracted, looking around at anything but him just then, and he wondered if he really could get away with it a second time…

Her t-shirt was bunched slightly where it met her shorts on the side of her waist closest to him, and he took advantage of this fact, sliding the hand with the ice cube under the back of her shirt – which, he reasoned, was allowed because he'd been much closer to her only a little while ago when she hadn't even been wearing the shirt – and, bending his elbow to quickly bring his hand higher up her back, pressing the quickly disappearing ice cube against her skin, watching for her reaction with a grin.

This time, she bit her lip to stifle a gasp, her eyes even wider than they'd been the first time. He couldn't believe he'd just surprised her the same way twice. The ice cube was now melted, leaving only cool water running down the middle of her back, and he gently traced the skin under his fingers as he brought his hand back down to the line of her shorts, reluctantly removing it and wrapping it back around his cup as if he hadn't done a single thing out of the ordinary. It wasn't that he was doing anything indecent, but they were on a crowded sidewalk in the company of an eleven year old…

She looked at him, feeling like she should say something… but what? She settled on trying to send her message wordlessly, as they were able to do surprisingly often, and just looked at him as if to say, I'm not complaining about what you're doing, but don't try to one-up yourself on that one. To her only partial surprise, he nodded, smiling the "only for Jane smile," the one that wasn't mischievous, wasn't pretending to be innocent when he was teasing her – though she liked those, too… No, this was the absolutely sincere smile that told her, as it always had, that he would do anything for her. She couldn't be sure, of course, but she thought he'd gotten the message.

"Mom, can we go back to the beach?" Sawyer was now asking.

Sarah sighed heavily. "Sawyer, I think I just need to lie down for half an hour first, then we'll go, okay? And remember, you said you wanted to go to the carnival rides at the other end of the boardwalk? We'll do that too… but let me rest for a bit first."

"Hey Sawyer," Kurt said, "I've got an idea. Why don't we let your mom go back to the house and rest, and maybe, if we ask nicely, Jane will want to go back to the beach for a quick swim – a quick one, just so we're not so hot and sweaty, and then we can come back and get your mom and we'll go down to the rides. Because I know Jane's going to want to check them out."

"What kind of rides?" Jane asked curiously. She knew nothing about any rides at the other end of the boardwalk, though apparently everyone else did. He just winked at her, smiling mischievously, then looked back at Sawyer, who was obviously already excited about his uncle's plan.

"But Uncle Kurt, don't we need towels or something if we're going swimming?" Sawyer asked curiously, looking from his uncle to his mom.

"Well, buddy, usually we would bring our towels to the beach, but if I have to choose between going back to the beach and jumping in the water right now, since we're already practically there, or walking all the way back to the house, and then all the way back to the beach… well, I say we go without the towels. After all, we'll dry on the way back, right?" Kurt asked, hoping to get the eleven year old to be adventurous. That would give Sarah some time to rest, and considering that she'd brought them there this weekend, watching Sawyer for her for a little while was the least he could do. It would also give them another dip in the water… which, despite the icy lemonade, sounded really good just then. He knew he'd been sweatier before, but it hadn't been recently.

Sarah's face was flooded with gratitude at the idea of a little time to herself, and she was the first to agree to the plan. "Sounds great to me, Uncle Kurt. What do you say, Sawyer? Sound good?" Sawyer nodded vigorously, turning to look at Jane pleadingly.

"Jane, will you come to the beach with us? Please…?" Sawyer asked, turning on what he understood to be his best puppy dog eyes, which usually worked on his mom when he wanted something really badly. Jane could think of nothing – well, maybe just one or two things, but not many things – that she wanted more than to jump in the water just then, but even if she hadn't, she had a feeling that she would have said yes to Sawyer, because he looked so cute. He really was a good kid.

"Absolutely," she replied. "I agree, this is the perfect time to jump in the water again." Sawyer, in response, was bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Okay, so we'll see you later, mom!" he called, ready to run toward the beach.

"Hey! Sawyer, come here," Sarah said, calling him back. Then, he reached her, she said sternly, "Stay with Jane and Uncle Kurt, okay? And do as you're told."

He nodded seriously. "Yes, mom, I will," he said. Then, turning to Jane and Kurt, he grinned and asked, "Are you ready? I'm ready!" Sarah shook her head at her son, rubbing her hand on his head to mess up his curly hair and smiling at him.

Just before Sarah started down the sidewalk, Kurt dug the house key out of his pocket and held it out to her. "You might need this," he observed.

"It might help, yeah," she agreed, taking the keys with a smile. "Thanks, Kurt, Jane… have fun, guys…" And with that, she began walking in the opposite direction.

"Let's go!" Sawyer exclaimed, and started walking quickly toward the beach.

"Hey, Sawyer! Slow down!" Kurt called. The kid was already a good ten steps ahead of them. Looking at Jane beside him, he reached for her hand and said, "We'd better catch up… I have a feeling he's not going to wait for us, despite what he just promised Sarah."

Jane smiled in agreement, not against getting back to the water quickly. They jogged after Sawyer, catching up with him just before he reached the crosswalk across Atlantic Avenue, and Kurt pretended to put him in a headlock with his free arm. "Slow it down a little, buddy," he said affectionately, letting go of his "captive." Sawyer just laughed, pushing his uncle's arm away.

They were back on the beach in a matter of two minutes, and made it across the dry, shifting sand without Jane even noticing any frustration. Sawyer managed to walk with them, instead of running ahead, but after leaving his sandals and his not quite empty lemonade cup, which Kurt anchored securely in the sand, he continued on into the water while Jane and Kurt stopped. They were about ten feet away from the line in the sand that the water was currently reaching when the waves were at their highest, which seemed like a safe distance at which to leave their belongings for a few minutes.

Kurt took out his phone and the few other things he'd moved into the small pockets of his bathing suit when they'd left their towels and everything else at the beach house. Moving closer to her, he asked in a low voice, "Can I put a few things in your pockets, since I assume you're not going to wear those shorts in the water?"

She'd already taken off her t-shirt, once again feeling suddenly very exposed, as if her tattoos were inked on her in neon colors instead of mostly black. As she nodded at him, however, smiling as he proceeded to slide the things into her pockets himself instead of giving them to her to do it, she forgot all about anyone who might be staring at her. Once again, he was so close to her that she swore he was going to kiss her, but instead he just stared into her eyes, and, with everything in his hands now securely in her pockets, he withdrew his hands slowly.

Removing her sandals and then her shorts, folding them and setting them down carefully to try to avoid filling her pockets with sand as much as was possible, she saw that Kurt was waiting for her. His sandals sat beside hers in the sand, and for just a second she paused at the sight of them. Two pairs of sandals, lying beside each other on the beach. Somehow the image made it all the more real – that the two of them were actually there together, on vacation. Of course, she knew that it was real, but there was something wonderful about that small, additional reminder.

"Ready for a quick dip?" he asked.

"Definitely," she replied, and this time she was the one to reach for his hand as they followed Sawyer out into the water.