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Nathan marched forward until he got to the soggy part of the sand and stopped. I felt him shiver. “Shit. It’s really cold.”
“Do it quick,” I said. “I just want to touch it.”
“Hang on,” he said. He turned me over until I was dangling upside down, facing out toward the ocean. He hooked his arms around my waist, my legs over his shoulder. “You okay like that?” he asked.
It was perfect. I was upside down, but I could reach to feel the waves with my hands. He marched forward and I spread my hand out over the surface and touched the most chilling water I’d ever felt before. If it would keep still, I was sure the water would turn to ice.
“Got it!” I said and burst out laughing. “Holy crow, it’s cold.”
Nathan laughed and hoisted me a little higher on his shoulder, though leaving me upside down, as he bolted for the dry sand. I dangled in his arms, jostled by his movements.
When we were away from the water, he hauled me up even further until my stomach was over his shoulder. I giggled and patted this butt as he marched back to the picnic table.
“Are you done playing with the ocean?” North asked as we got back.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s too cold to swim.”
“No swimming.”
Gabriel was putting a stereo on the table and then he adjusted an orange wool hat over his head. “Oy, Trouble, where’s your hat?”
I stuffed my hand into the pockets of the jacket, pulling out my pink gloves and hat.
Gabriel walked over, taking the hat and adjusting it, pulling it over my head. “No sense in buying you shit if you don’t wear it.” He reached his fingers into the hat, stuffing my hair in, and then tugged out two locks of hair to frame my face. “You can leave those out,” he said.
It was like how he wore his hat, with his two blond locks sticking out. It was a funny look for him because it made it appear like he had only blond hair and blue eyes with his contrasting dark eyebrows.
I put on the gloves, too. My nose was chilly, but it wasn’t that bad.
North hovered over the grill, looking at the ocean and then down at the coals. “I don’t know if I should light this.”
“Just do it,” Nathan said, brushing his feet clean of sand while sitting on the table. He groaned and wiped and wiped at his feet. “This is going to be my life this week. Sand in every little cranny.”
“You like dirt,” North said and then eyeballed me as I inched closer to the grill. He waved a hand at me. “Don’t,” he said. “Wind is blowing. I’m pretty sure I want to keep your face flame-free.”
“Pretty sure?” I said, although I was joking and took a step back.
He said nothing. He took out a stick from a kit, and lit one end of it with a lighter, shielding the flame with his body. He stuck the still-burning stick into the coals.
The coals flamed up instantly. The breeze wasn’t horrible, but there was no protection from it off the ocean, so it was constant, bending the tall flames away from the water.
North backed away from the grill. “Maybe we should eat sandwiches. This might be too dangerous.”
“I can eat cold hot dogs,” Gabriel said.
“The coals will simmer down after a bit,” Nathan said.
“I don’t have a lid to this thing,” North said. It was a standard park grill, sticking out of the sand on a pole without a cover. “I should have brought one.”
“There’s a grill back at the camp,” Nathan said. “And I bet it’s better because the trees block the wind more.”
Gabriel and I stood behind North, watching the flames. Nathan put his shoes back on and took turns poking at the charcoal. Eventually, the charcoal started glowing more and the flames simmered down, so North could place hot dogs on the grill to heat up.
North turned his head, looking toward the dunes. When I turned to see what he was looking at, I spotted Silas, Victor, Luke and Kota materializing over the hump of sand.
Luke broke into a run toward me, hurrying down the path while scooting the others out of his way.
He was carrying a soccer ball under his arm. “Hey,” he called to us. “Let’s play something.”
The others carried ice chests and extra folding chairs and started to set them up around the table.
Gabriel took one of the ice chests, dragging it down the beach to where the sand had flattened out and was relatively dry.
Nathan tagged along and he and Luke set up a few lines in the sand.
“Sang’s on my team,” Nathan said.
“Are we playing soccer?” I asked.
“I guess,” Nathan said.
No one said anything about rules, so I assumed we were going to play was basic soccer. The only rules I knew were to use your feet, or any body part except your hands, and kick for a goal.
I started out trying to just chase the ball, but they were all really fast. I ended up just aiming to block Gabriel and Luke while Nathan took over trying to kick the ball over the goal lines.
Nathan and Gabriel were struggling for the ball near the middle, and I zagged in front of Luke. Luke held his hands out as if he was going to catch me. I sprinted and when I thought he was going to zag out of the way, he held out his arms instead, catching me around the waist. I lost my balance, folding over in his arm toward the sand, but he shifted quickly, bringing me down on top of him as he sat down hard on the sand.
I luckily caught my knees in the sand and not in his stomach or groin.
“Ow,” he said, laughing. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, drawing me in to kiss my cheek. “It’s too cold for tackling.”
“You started it,” I said.
“Oh yeah?” Luke slipped his hands under my jacket and shirt, his chilled fingertips finding the bare skin of my stomach.
Icy waves seared through to my center and I yelped, slapping at his biceps as I tried to crawl off of him. “No,” I whined. “Let go.”
He laughed but didn’t release me. “Warm up my hands.” He sat up, sitting cross-legged on the sand and kept his arms around me.
“Argh,” I said, but I found both his hands, pulled the off me and stuffed them into my jacket pockets instead, securing them with my own arms. I bit my tongue as if that would stop the shivers—remnants of his cold hands on me.
“Oy,” Gabriel called to us as Nathan made another goal. “Get your hands out of her shirt.”
“Warming them up,” Luke said.
“Wear your gloves.”
“You’ve got gloves?” I snapped at Luke. I should have known, but had gotten caught up in the moment, not thinking of them. I wasn’t really annoyed, but he had ice fingers.
“Maybe,” he said. “But you’re a better heater.”
I pushed to try to knock him back over into the sand, but he was too strong and remained upright. He yanked his hands out of my pockets, capturing my hands and grinning.
He had such a wicked, yet warming smile. I had to scramble out of his lap; my heart was melting too much around him.
When I made it back to the center of our soccer field, Kota called for Nathan. They were going to move the table out a little and wanted an extra hand taking all the stuff off and carrying it over.
Gabriel turned up the radio. It was a little hard to hear around the waves, so he faced it our way and turned it up loud. “Oh my god, this song is awesome,” he said. He twisted around again, kicking the ball away where it rolled into a hill of sand and stopped. He dashed toward me, snagging my hands and pulling me toward the stereo and then to a section of smooth sand in front of it. “Come on, Trouble. You’ve got to learn this one.”
I didn’t recognize the song at first until I heard the guitar intro as we got closer. “Beat It?” I asked.
“Michael Jackson.” He positioned me in front of himself and then backed off a couple steps. He started snapping his fingers. “Learn this. Next time we go to a club, we’ll do it.”
I hesitated, looking at the other guys, but they were busy moving around supplies for the
picnic. I’d danced once in front of them before. I focused on Gabriel moving around and I tried doing the same thing next to him.
Gabriel stopped instantly, snapped his fingers again at me and then pointed to the spot beside him. “No, no, just watch first. I don’t want you to learn it backwards.”
How do you learn a dance backwards? I grunted, stopping. I learned better by diving in. Luke sat on the ice chest next to the stereo, turning up the sound more.
Gabriel started swinging his arm out, snapping his fingers. He did some hip swivels and spins. The more he did, the more I vaguely remembered a music video with this song and the dance he was doing.
Gabriel did the moves again and started explaining how he was swinging his body. He clapped his palms together, gesturing to me. “Come on, you do it now. Luke, start the song over.”
