SANSA
"Do you want to go to the beach?"
Sansa looked up at her uncle, her brows wrinkling. "Aren't you too busy?" she asked worriedly.
"I made some time for you. I want you to have some fun. I know you have been stressed this week," he said.
"Well if you insist," she declared, pretending to roll her eyes, but a wide grin had spread across her face.
"I bought you a new swim suit," he told her, holding out a package that had been hidden behind his back. "It has already been washed so try it on."
Sansa flushed with pleasure. "Thank you, Uncle Petyr," she said, before giving him a quick peck on the cheek and hurrying up to her room.
She held up the bikini top and bottom, taking in the creamy white material with grey stripes. It was beautiful. She quickly discarded her clothing and stepped into the swimwear, admiring it in the mirror. She knew that Petyr would want to see it so she slipped on a t-shirt and went downstairs to his office. She knocked on the door. "It's me," she announced.
"Come in," was his immediate reply.
Sansa entered the office and shut the door behind her. His eyes didn't leave her as she lifted the t-shirt over her head and pulled it off. "Do you like it?" she asked nervously because he had gone silent.
"Oh sweetling," he finally said, his voice sounding choked. "Come here."
She walked across the room to him and he pulled her onto his lap. She tried to ignore the fact that she was only in a bikini as he kissed her, his lips demanding a response from hers until she gave in.
There was fire in his eyes as he finally released her lips and stared up at her. "You are exquisite," he said.
She blushed. "Thank you."
He stole another kiss before dismissing her to finish preparing for the beach.
Sansa felt her heart soar as she took in the sparkling water on the nearly empty beach. It was a private beach, only opened to the wealthy residents whose homes bordered it. She spread out her beach mat on the clean sand before planting the large umbrella into the sand to provide shade. Once everything was settled into place, she stretched down on her mat and closed her eyes blissfully.
"You were excited to come to the beach just to sleep?" Petyr's voice teased her.
She popped her eyes open to see that he had placed his mat close to hers and was also stretched out on it. "I'm not sleeping," she clarified. "I'm taking it in." She heard him chuckle as she shut her eyes again.
When the peacefulness nearly lulled her to sleep, she sprung up from her mat, ready to enjoy the beach. The pretty sand called to her, so she picked up the small bucket and shovel near her mat, then hurried over to the water. Once the bucket was filled, she found an area to start digging.
Sansa lowered herself to her knees, using the small plastic shovel to dig a large sized water hole in the sand. Once she was satisfied with the water puddling at the bottom of the hole, she shoveled some clean sand into the bucket of water blending the two, then she poured the mixture into the middle of the hole, leaving space between the mound of sand and the edge of the hole. Next she went to work packing the sand and securing them together by creating bridges.
Sansa tested the sturdiness of the sand, gently adding pressure to see if it would collapse, once she assured herself that it would not, she focused all of her effort into sculpting the sand into the picture her mind had conjured up. Slowly but surely her sand sculpture started to take shape, which encouraged her to double her efforts.
"Do you want some help?" she heard Petyr ask. He had crept up so close in the sand without her being aware. "You don't even know what it is," Sansa replied as she worked.
"I do. It's your childhood home, isn't it?" he asked.
She bit her bottom lip and nodded.
"Here, let me help you," he said. He knelt in the sand beside her and together they labored over the sand house. She giggled when he rubbed sand into her hair. "I guess you will have to enter the water after all," he tsked, his grey-green eyes filled with playful mischief.
"I guess you will have to too," she retorted as she surprised him with a handful of sand that she caked into his hair.
He laughed and she joined him, breathless as he wrestled her to the sand and tickled her. They soon went back to the sand sculpture, giving it their undivided attention until it was complete, then they both stood back and admired their work.
In Sansa's mind, it resembled the home that she used to live in with her family as a little girl. "Thank you, Petyr," she said, turning to him and smiling shyly.
He kissed the tip of her nose. "Anything for you, sweetling."
Sansa turned back to the sand replica of her childhood home, feeling a mixture of pride, warmth, and an underlying sadness at the reminder of what she had lost. Determined to shake off the sadness, she turned to Petyr. "Race you to the water!" she challenged, and took off running.