AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Where are we going?" she mumbled.
"It's a surprise." He was taking her car, so he'd reclined the passenger seat. As she settled in, she noticed he'd put a tote in the back that looked like it had some snacks and a change of clothes for her, which was good, since she was naked under the blanket.
"Don't get stopped for speeding," she said.
"If I do, showing the cop what's under that blanket will get me off the hook."
She snuffled a laugh into the blanket. "Unless it's a girl cop."
"If it is, one of my most prurient fantasies could come to life." Tucking a bed pillow under her head, he kissed her before he circled around the front bumper and took the wheel.
She fell back asleep easily and didn't wake until dawn. When she did, it was to the cry of seagulls. She opened her eyes to find she wasn't dreaming. They were at the ocean.
The car was parked and she was alone, the windows down so she could inhale the fresh sea air. When she pressed the lever on the seat so she could sit all the way up, she saw they were parked at a public beach access, where the low rise of dunes and gently waving sea oats gave her a panoramic and peaceful view of the ocean at sunrise. The sky was a mellow hue of rose-grey and pink, the sun close to making an appearance.
Des was close by, not a surprise since she knew he'd never leave her unguarded in the car. He was standing on the hard-packed sand closer to shore. His hands were tucked in his back pockets, hair fluttering over his shoulders as he contemplated the view.
She understood why he'd wanted to look at it by himself first. There'd been so much unsaid, when they'd talked about seagulls and a postcard from a mother he never knew. But she suspected he could stand some company now.
Deciding she didn't care about the clothes, since it appeared to be just them on the beach, she wrapped the blanket around her and left the car, trudging over the sandy path through the sea oats.
When she'd opened the car door he'd turned, warming her heart with his awareness of her. His brown gaze caressed her from mussed hair to her bare feet framed by the trailing blanket. Turning back to the view as she approached, he lifted his arm and she slid under it.
"Good morning," he said, gathering her close and kissing her forehead as she nuzzled his throat.
"Good morning. Where are we?"
"Cherry Grove. North Myrtle Beach."
"Like the postcard Christine left you."
"Yeah." He stroked her shoulder, pushing the blanket away enough to find skin and coil his fingers in her loose hair. "I was wondering if she stood at an access like this while she was pregnant with me. If she was thinking about what to do. Maybe she intended to drive home to Elaine, ask her for help, but she reached Charlotte and lost her nerve or something. Maybe she needed a fix and the city was just too tempting. Whatever."
He lifted a shoulder, banishing a darkness she suspected he hadn't intended to summon. She put her hand on his chest, tugged on his T-shirt.
"All that may be true. But when she stood here, maybe she thought about how it could be if she was different, if life was different. Maybe she had one pure moment, you know. I think everyone does that. No matter how many bad choices you make, there are these blinks in time where you wish you could be the kind of person you should be. Maybe she thought about being a good mom, about loving you. And if she did, that's good. That's cool. That one moment's enough. Right?"
He touched her face, his eyes caressing her. It made her want to hold him tighter. He made her knees weak, and she knew he'd make her feel that way now or in a hundred years. And he could make her laugh when her heart was breaking.
She opened the blanket, wrapping it around both of them as he held her and found her mouth, parting her lips and sliding in to stroke her tongue with his. As he became more demanding, his hands closed around her waist, sliding down to cup and fondle her ass until she was pressing more insistently against him.
He broke the kiss, glancing ruefully at the rows of beach cottages that flanked the beach access and gave way to high rise timeshares and hotels. "Much as I'd love to take you right here on the sand, I think we might get busted. Want to sit and watch the sunrise?"
"I'd love that." She beamed up at him, reaching up with both hands to cup his face. He uttered an amused oath and grabbed for the blanket, salvaging her modesty.
"Woman, you have no shame."
"I trust you to take care of me."
His mouth firmed. "I will, you know. Even if I can't promise that you won't sometimes have to take care of me."
"Progress." She lowered her hands to his shoulders, fingers curling inside the neck of his T-shirt. "Taking care of each other is kind of the point. I want to take care of you. I want you to take care of me. I want to finally know what it is to love someone until the end of our time here on earth. To know what those old couples walking on the beach hand-in-hand know."
He brought her down to the sand with him, holding her cuddled up against his side so they could watch the sun start to break over the horizon. As it spilled the light of a new dawn upon them, Julie lifted her face to its warmth, even as she savored the feel of Des's warmth and life next to her.
She thought of sitting with her feet in the Hampton Inn pool. That hadn't been so long ago, but the paradigm shift since then made it feel like a lifetime. She was certain she'd found now what she'd hoped to find then, in the complex yet intriguingly simple man beside her. Even better, she thought he'd found it with her.
Glancing up at his profile, his absorption with the sunrise, she thought that type of gift made a change of heart possible. Des had said he'd embrace life for her, and she'd hold him to it, because she fully intended to live the entirety of hers with him.
