Stay: The sequel to Lost

Part 23

Penny woke the next morning, wrapped around Liam, in the tent. She could see the sky through the hole she'd cut as a child and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. Her phone told her it was only 6am, but she wasn't tired and she wanted to shower. She felt sandy and it was making her itch. "Liam." She whispered. "Liam, wake up! I am going to the house."

Liam moaned and rolled over. "It's early, let me sleep." he said, and rolled back over.

Penny shrugged, pulled on her clothes and went to the house to shower and start breakfast. After a few hours, when Liam still hadn't appeared, she went to check on him. She wandered down the beach and peaked into the tent. Carly and crawled into the tent and was sleeping with her head on Liam. "Carly!" she said as softly as she could. "Does your mom know where you are?"

Carly lifted her head and nodded. "I said I was gonna find Leem. We is gonna swim."

"Has he moved?" Penny asked.

Carly nodded. "He said morning Carly. Then he snored." She giggled.

Penny knew that Liam was very much naked inside the sleeping bag and was sure that Carly did not want to see him that way. "Maybe you should come have some sweet rolls? And wait for him in the house?"

"Nope. I waiting for Leem."

"You are both really loud, you know that right?" Liam muttered. "You need to practice whispering."

Carly grinned. "Hi, Leem. You awake now? We swim now?"

Liam groaned. "Uh, sure, but, uh, go get me a sweet roll first." he said.

Carly looked at Penny. "He wants a sweet roll, KitKit. Let's get him a sweet roll. But you gotta wait to swim for while after you eat, so we will dig, okay, Leem? Okay?"

"Sure, Car. Anything you say." Liam turned and winked at Penny.

Penny spend the day on the beach, watching Liam with Carly. He really did love her. He was so patient and calm, answering all her questions and listening to all of her stories. "I went to Pre-School, Leem. I can spell Carly. Wanna hear? C A R L Y spells Carly." she said, not waiting for an answer. "How you spell LEEM? Spell LEEM, Leem."

Liam laughed. "L I A M spells Liam." he said.

Carly nodded. "Good spelling. Spell KitKit now." she said.

"P E N N Y" he said, "spells Penny."

Carly shook her head. "Her name is KitKit. Penny is money. You are silly, Leem. Our castle is good. Now we swim."

Carly dragged Liam into the water and then back out of the water until her mother came to take her for a nap. Liam flopped onto a towel next to Penny. "How much longer until we can have one of those, Pen?"

She laughed. "Aren't you exhausted?"

"Yes. But, it's naptime. So, how long?" he asked again.

Penny thought. Did she want to have a baby right now, with Liam still trying to be famous? Was she ready for that? Was Liam truly ready for all that meant? "Can we at least get married first?" she asked.

"Sure. Tomorrow we can go do the paperwork, right? And we get married at the end of September? It's only a month, right?" he replied.

Penny nodded. "Yes. Well, more like two months? But yes. We can go do the paper work tomorrow. And Jon will be home Tuesday, so everything will should work out. I mean, you are going to start seeing someone, right?"

Liam sighed. "Yes, yes. Hey, let's go out. Just us. It's been forever since just you and I have gone out. Dinner? It's summer, everything is open. We can go down to Tawas? See a movie?"

Penny grinned. He sounded so much like the Liam she loved. The Liam who wanted to go do normal things. The Liam who wanted to play on the beach. The Liam she wanted to marry. Maybe being here would be the fix he needed, to remember who he really was. Unless, who he really was the jerk who drank too much? Penny shook that thought out of her head and laid back in the sun. After all, it was nap time.