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Chapter 78

Cause we're having too much fun
Too much fun tonight

– Lana Del Rey Ft. The Weeknd, Lust for Life

. . . .

The week goes by too quickly and, sooner rather than later, we're saying goodbye to Harry's family as they're about to get into their cars to go home. After they pull out and are halfway down the road, Lilly takes off around the house in her little pink bathing suit, her bare feet slapping the pavement with every step she takes, and her blue towel flying like a cape behind her.

"After you."

He takes my hand and we walk to the back of the house where Lilly's running through the dunes to get to the water. Hanging at her side is her plastic sand bucket that's been housing her growing collection of seashells.

Harry and I take a seat in the sand. He has a book in his hand; meanwhile, I'm sprinkling and packing his feet with sand. When he wiggles his toes, causing the sand to crack and his big toe to show, I smack his thigh and yell at him to stay still. Soon enough, I have his entire right leg buried in the sand.

"Why are you doing this?" He looks over the top of his book, the wind pushing his hair back.

"I could do what Phoebe did to Joey on Friends and make a mermaid tail for you, but you and I both know that I have the artistic capabilities of a pebble."

"You're not that bad."

"I can't even draw a straight line let alone a square without one side being lopsided."

I've now moved on to his other leg as he continues with his book, Lilly still running around searching for shells.

"Do you really think I'm any better?"

"No," I say, packing the sand tightly against his limbs. "But it's a damn good thing you're intelligent."

"You have an unusual way of complimenting people," he states.

"I'd call it a gift."

Lilly runs over, plopping down beside me, shows the both of us her variety of shells, then helps me out with burying her father.

"What would you do to me if I stood up right now?" he questions.

Setting his book to the side, he folds his arms behind his head and looks at me through his sunglasses.

His shirt's gone, showing off his bronzed tan that he got throughout the week—same with Lilly. She looks like a goddamn goddess-child. Meanwhile, I'm a bright red across my chest and back. On top of that, Harry pointed out this morning that I have a tint of red across my nose and under my eyes.

"I'd have to murder you."

"You're halfway there burying me alive." He pushes his sunglasses up on top of his head and picks up my arm, inspecting it and my chest at various times. "You should've listened when I told you to wear sunscreen."

"I did, but it wore off after like an hour and a half." I start on his arm while Lilly begins on the other one.

"I'll rub some aloe on your back when we get back to the house."

"You're so sweet."

It takes about ten to fifteen more minutes till Harry's buried from the neck down. I take a few pictures and a video of him standing up, the sand blowing off of him, but a lot of it is stuck to his skin. He jumps into the ocean with Lilly in his arms, the both of them becoming soaked with the incoming tides.

We head back inside after the sunset fades off. Once they're both dried off and she's in her robe before she gets her bath, she sits on the floor with a coloring book and her crayons. Harry changes into a pair of shorts, walks out to the balcony, and cuts off a leaf of the large aloe plant. With the knife, he slices down the side and cuts it in half. I take off my bikini top and lay chest down on the bed. His hands rub up and down my back with the cool gel. The tips of his fingers dip into every hollow and swell of my back and waist.

"You're putting sunscreen on every two hours for the next couple of days," he says, deeply massaging my shoulders.

"How did you get tan so easily?"

"I'm blessed," he smugly says.

"Clearly. I've seen where you came from. Your mum is gorgeous."

"I can't deny that."

He makes me lay on my back with a towel spread out beneath me. Checking Lilly on the floor with her back to us, he repeats the process across my chest, abdomen, and my thighs. Occasionally, he'll give my breasts a light squeeze then proceed with working the goopy gel into my tinted skin. To top it all off, he takes a little bit on his ring finger and swipes around the burns on my face.

"Do you want one of my shirts to wear?" he questions as he stands up from the bed and tosses the exterior of the leaf in the garbage.

"Please?"

He searches through the dresser where he has his clothes stored since we got here and tosses a light blue t-shirt onto the bed. My suitcase, on the other hand, has been laid open and unkept the entire week so far. He's begged and nagged me constantly to fold them in the dresser drawers, but I figured it was useless since we're only going to be here for three more days.

The plant gel has dried on my skin already and he's already pulling me back to sit on his lap. He falls back to lie on the bed with my head on his chest and his fingers stroking my cheek as well as my hairline. Lilly stands up and zooms to the bathroom, clicking the door shut behind her.

"I think I might start applying for jobs when we get back," I tell him through the calming breeze blowing through the screen door and the fan spinning above us.

"If that's what you want to do, then go for it," he says. "Where do you want to work?"

"I don't know, maybe retail. I just don't want to keep freeloading off of you. I hate that I look to you or my dad for money. I'm going to start helping out with groceries and other stuff around the house, too."

"Well, whatever you decide to do, I'll support you."

Lilly opens the door of the bathroom and zips around the bed to the balcony where she sits on the floor to sort through her seashells.

I look up at him to see him rolling his eyes with a crooked grin on his lips.

I roll onto my stomach and run my hand along his tanned chest. He has a tiny double chin as he stares at my fingers swirling his dark designs with his arm supporting his head. "I don't know if I tell you that often, but you're extremely attractive."

He grins widely, his eyes never getting sidetracked from my index finger gliding over the goosebumps on his body. His toes crack and the hairs on his legs stand when I press a gentle kiss just below his belly button, simply to get a rise out of him.

"Do you ever think of getting another tattoo?" I ask him.

"Yeah."

"What would you get?"

"I would probably get another one for Lilly. I already have one for Gem and my mum, but I want more for her, " he says. "Would you ever get a tattoo?"

"I don't know. I have no clue what I'd get."

"Something for your mum, maybe?"

"Maybe," I say. "I guess we'll see."

Lilly walks back into the room holding a small light pink and an off-white conch shell. She shows it to Harry then sets it on the bedside table, crawling up onto the bed in a fetal position against Harry's side with her head resting in his lap. He stares down at her with so much admiration and love for his tired little girl.

"Daddy?" Lilly says with puffy cheeks, her eyes sealed shut and her hand resting on Harry's arm.

"Yeah?"

"When we go back home, can we see Mummy?"

He looks at me, rolls his eyes, but he doesn't answer her question. She's already falling asleep and I know that he doesn't want to say yes, but he also doesn't want to get her hopes up.

She falls asleep soon enough, forgetting about her question from earlier and Harry moves her small body to the center of the bed so he can go get a shower. Once he's out of the shower, dressed, and in bed, we turn off the lights and fall asleep together.

. . . .

I hope you liked the chapter!

— Re-uploaded on March 11, 2021