This Old Town ✖️Muke

Chapter 17

"wow" I mumble when we pull up to the beach. even from the parking lot you can see how beautiful the water is. 

"come on, we can change in the Bath house" he tell me, grabbing the bag with our swim shorts in it and jumping out of the truck. I turn the engine off and slip out of my jean jacket i definitely don't need it here.

"ok, i'm ready" i say, walking up to him and following him up the boardwalk. we change into our new swim shorts and put our clothes in the bag. 

"come on lets go find a spot." he says, grabbing my hand and racing towards the sand. I stumble after him again, holding my shoes in my hands.

"do you think this is a good spot?" he asks, stopping in the middle of the beach. i look around and then shake my head. 

"where?" he asks as i point to the empty area near a lot of big rocks. he shrugs and we walk over there, plopping ourselves onto the hot sand. I pull my shirt of and stuff it in the bag, it's really hot today. when I look over to Luke and he's laying back on the sand, arms behind his head.

"not going swimming?" I ask. he shakes his head and i frown. 

"come on its like 30 degrees out Luke, if we were on the ranch we would be in the river or having a water fight right now." he just shrugs. 

"come on, come swimming with me" I whine, grabbing his hand and pulling him to standing. he just sighs. 

"i don't want to though" he protests.

"you were the one that was just making fun of me for never being to the Beach, and now you wont even do anything with me?" i pout. he sighs.

"fine" i grin triumphantly and run to the water's edge. i step in and let the cold water cool my legs. I grin. this is amazing. i must look like a kid in a candy shop because when i look back at Luke he's laughing. 

"what?" i ask.

"you look so weird, you would think you'd never been to the beach before." he jokes.

"funny" i say turning back to the water. I close my eyes and take in the sounds of people talking and children playing. the water crashing onto shore and the water birds singing. I love the feel of the waves hitting my calves, and the smell of the salt water, the hot sun beaming down on us. and even though it's winter, it never get's really cold here, hence why there are actually people at the beach in the middle of July.

"hey Michael" Luke startles me. i snap my eyes open and look at him, his phone is out again and i'm assuming he just took a picture of me. 

"Luke" I whine, "get your ass in the water." I demand, he laughs, puts his phone in the bag and follows me in.

"going swimming in your shirt?" i ask.

"huh?" he looks confused. I motion to his chest and he looks down. 

"oh, uh ya" he says awkwardly.

"whats up Luke?" i frown. "you only have that shirt, you don't want to get it wet do you?" I ask. he shrugs and crosses his arms over his chest. then it clicks. on the first day at the ranch, when Cal sprayed me with the hose and told him we were going to get him 'Rancher abs', he seemed so ashamed about not having any muscle.

"Luke, Just because you don't have abs doesn't mean you cant take your shirt off."  i say. he looks down. hit the nail on the head there. I sigh and walk over to him.

"hey, when you came a month ago you were doing drugs, you never ate so you had no muscle and were really skinny. you haven't done drugs in three weeks, you've been eating better and you look a lot healthier to me. Look around you, barely any one here has great muscles, they don't care, they are enjoying the beach. you should too." i finish my mini rant. he sighs and walks back out of the water, i sigh in defeat, thinking he was just going to stay on the sand for the rest of the day, but he surprises me by pulling his shirt over his head and stuffing it into the bag as well.  i grin at him. he really does look so much better.