Page 29 of Passing Ships
I screech as he tosses me over his shoulder and sprints back toward the shore with Leia on our heels.
“Don’t you dare!” I scream right before I’m sailing through the air and into a wave.
I kick my way back to the surface, sputtering as I blink the salty water from my eyes.
“Oh, you two are going to pay for that,” I cry and lunge toward Lennon.
He catches me with one arm as I wrap both of mine around his shoulders and try to pull him under the surf. Leia launches herself at his legs and starts to tug.
“Are you turning on me, munchkin?” he cries as he loses his balance and starts to topple.
Both of us land on his chest as his back hits the wet sand.
“We got you!” Leia bellows as she buries her face in his neck.
His arm that’s wrapped around my lower back tightens for an instant before it drops to his side. “No fair. You guys ganged up on me.”
“’Cause we’re girls and we have to stick together, right, Auntie Miya?”
“That’s right, kiddo. Now, let’s dry off so we can make dinner.”
I take a moment to appreciate the hard planes of his chest beneath my fingers and bask in the feel of his warmth before I scurry to my feet and take Leia’s hand to help her up. Then, we head to the towels while Lennon takes a final dip to wash the sand off his back. Leia lets out a yawn as I rub her down. The exhausting effects of a day in the sun are sinking in.
Lennon joins us and rubs a towel over his wet hair before settling in beside us, and we spend the last few minutes of daylight lying on our backs, pointing out characters in the clouds.
Lennon
“Are you wearing nail polish?” Wade asks as he passes me a beer.
“Yep.”
Last night, I let Leia talk me into letting her paint my fingers and toes while Amiya made us ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner.
“I played beauty salon with my niece last night. The shit wouldn’t come off this morning,” I add.
I spent an extra thirty minutes in the shower this morning, trying to scrub the peachy color off, but only the bits clinging to the skin around my nail beds would budge.
Amiya promised to stop and get what was needed to remove it while she was out and about today.
Wade laughs. “Thank God I had a boy,” he quips.
“Go ahead and laugh it up. I hope you and Eden end up with a houseful of girls.”
His eyes go wide at the thought, and then his face softens. “Me too.”
“Did you get the ring?” I ask.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black velvet box. He thumbs the top open, and tucked inside is an oval diamond ring. “Picked it up on the way here.”
“Nice,” I say as I examine the bauble. “Have you decided when you’re going to give it to her?”
He snaps the box shut. “Not yet. I’m thinking I might take her to the mountains or something after the summer and do it there. The house is chaotic at the moment with Dillon home, her brother visiting, and all the wedding stuff. I’d rather wait until things calm down a bit.”
Wade’s first marriage ended when Dillon was young, and he’s lived the carefree, single-dad life for over a decade. Until Eden moved across the street and he lost his mind and his heart.
Seems the bachelors of Sandcastle Cove are dropping like flies.
Wade looks at his watch as he tucks the ring back into his pocket. “We should probably head that way soon.”