Forever and Always

Chapter 65 - Detours (mild smut warning)

Not smut, but RHC for those that get that.

"Levi?" I asked once we had gotten our milkshakes. We were driving aimlessly now along a long, windy road in Newport beach, and I smiled as I gazed at the sun dancing on the glittering blue ocean of the Coronas. Once our milkshakes were finished, Levi spoke.

"Just a second," Levi said, turning into a side street lined with expensive almost-beach houses, less than a block away from the oddly calm Pacific Ocean. He parked the car at a curb and cut the engine. He would have had no way of knowing, but growing up, I spent the majority of my waking hours at the beaches Corona. My mother loved to walk with me down Little Corona, and I loved boogie boarding and body surfing at Big Corona, the nearly rockless shore making it ideal to get tossed around by some waves. I could feel my inner ten year old squealing with delight when he led me and Poppy down the hill to the north, leading us down into Big Corona.

I felt antsy just walking down that sharp bluff trail, like showing up fully clothed was some kind of crime. The ocean beckoned to me, even when I had no intention of going for a swim. Levi had snagged a picnic blanket from the trunk before we made our way down the steep, curving path down the bluff to the sand. I couldn't help but step out of my shoes once we reached the bottom, looping the heels of my vans through my index and middle finger and almost shrieked like a little boy at the delight of having the sun kissed sand of Big Corona between my toes. The beach was relatively empty as it was the middle of a weekday; nobody was within a hundred yards of us while we started for the nearest lifeguard tower, empty now as it was off-season.

"Have you been to this beach before?" Levi asked, reaching for my free hand while his other hand led Poppy towards tower five. I nodded enthusiastically, unable to contain the giddy grin of a boy much younger than I was. I wasn't seventeen anymore. I was eight. Tops. I wanted to peel off my shirt and sprint into the ocean, lapping at the sand, taunting me with it's glittering depths.

"This was only, like my favorite beach growing up. Dude. You don't understand how much I love this fucking beach," I gushed, squeezing Levi's hand with an excited shiver shooting through me as I heard the crunch of the wave crashing against the trough, making tantalizing tubes that I wished I could surf through. The sun reflecting on each wave crest was nearly too much to bear. Perhaps I could get away with going up to my knees and still looking like a functional member of society. I thought how I could roll up my pants so that the most of my legs possible would be submerged without getting the salty water on the light denim, which would undoubtedly get uncomfortable when wet.

"Seems like I must have picked a winner then?" Levi asked, removing his casted hand from mine and his other hand from Poppy's so that he could spread out the blanket. Before I could respond, he caught our daughter trying to escape to the water. "Bup-bup-bup, where do you think you're going, Little Lady?" He asked, lifting Poppy up and twirling her tiny body around as she tried to run for the water.

"Can I get in, Daddy?" She asked, batting her long black eyelashes at her father. "Please?" She begged him while he hugged her tiny body close to him, pecking her on the cheek before removing her shoes and placing her on the blanket. I had never been to a beach fully clothed before, I realized as I was becoming acutely aware of the sun beating down on me, frying my skin beneath my clothes, making them feel like they weighed about a hundred pounds. I could tell by the way Levi was shaking the thin black fabric of his Gorillaz shirt that he felt the same way about the direct sunlight.

"Not today, Princess," Levi sighed. "We can come back when you have a swimsuit and you can swim. How about that?"

"Okay," she sighed, folding her arms at her father and leaning into me. "Daddy?" she asked, looking up at me with the same wide grey eyes she had tried to use on Levi only moments prior.