Beachin’
The past two years had been a whirlwind for the almost thirty year old. He had experienced great joy and immense pain within months of each other with the birth of his daughter and then the passing of his wife not long after. After losing Sarah, it had been an easy decision for Jeremy to pick up and move to a new town where he and his daughter would be able to have a fresh start without the overwhelming presence of Sarah preventing happier memories from forming. Of course, she would always be part of their lives. She had been Jeremy’s soul mate and Rosie was growing into the miniature version of her mother but the male hardly kept anything of hers on display in their new home. At first it had been too hard for him to look at but now he didn’t think it was fair to the woman who had made the last year and a half nothing but good for the young father and his baby daughter.
Elle coming into Jeremy and Rosie’s lives had been a blessing in disguise. At first, he had been skeptical of the barely legal blonde and tried to maintain a safe distance from her. She was a student and being a professor at the very school she went to, Jeremy couldn’t condone anything beyond friendship with her. But she was intriguing. Her wide-eyed naivety was what initially caught his attention and though she was so young and barely capable of handling herself, she had been a natural with Rosie from the very beginning. The girls shared a special little bond and Jeremy knew Rosie adored her. That’s what made it easy to keep bringing Elle around. Over time, his own feelings began to develop for the blonde. At first it had been a strange feeling; He never thought he could feel something for a woman who wasn’t Sarah but Elle had proven him wrong. The next stage he went through was guilt. He felt guilty for moving on so soon and, though it took some time to come to the conclusion, he knew Sarah would have wanted him to be happy.
That happiness was apparent as the trio made their way on the beach that day. With Rosie in one arm and Elle’s hand occupying the other, Jeremy couldn’t have been happier. His blue hues covered by a knock-off pair of Ray Ban aviators were set on the ocean but his gaze averted when he felt a light tug on his hand. “Of course,” he agreed and let his fingers slip from hers so that he could set down the two chairs, cooler and second beach bag down on the sand. Using his free hand, he pulled a towel out from the bag and haphazardly spread it out on the sand before setting Rosie down on it so she didn’t get too sandy while he set up their little area. As he set up the camper style chair for himself, Jeremy thought to himself that he should have brought an umbrella in case Rosie fell asleep while they were out. He shook the thought out of his mind as he unfolded a beachier chair for Elle next to his and drug the cooler so that it was between the two. While Elle was busy slathering lotion onto Rosie’s little limbs, Jeremy peeled the thin cotton tee from his torso and tucked it into one of their bags. His palms curled around the arms of his chair and he was about to settle into it when he heard the blonde’s request. An almost inaudible chuckle fell from his lips as he nodded and stood back to his full height to take the tube from her.
His blue hues shamelessly danced over the back of her already slightly tanned figure as he squeezed a quarter sized amount of lotion into his palm. Instead of applying it directly to her skin, he pressed his palms together and worked the lotion into a small lather to warm it up first. Then, he carefully brushed his palms over her bare back and worked the lotion into her skin, careful not to get any on what looked like a new and expensive bathing suit. Once he saw no more streaks of white, he allowed his arms to wrap around her petite waist with his palms closed to prevent the transfer of any remnants of lotion left on his hands. He himself hardly ever wore the sun protection; After many months spent in the Middle East, his naturally tanned skin had grown accustomed to the rays of heat beating down on his face and shoulders but he couldn’t resist asking. Leaning his head down so that his lips were level with Elle’s ear, Jeremy pressed a kiss to her temple before mumbling “Can you get mine?”
Elle smiled as he stood back up and took the tube of sunscreen from her. “Thank you,” She sang happily, as she admired the view of the ocean from where they were all set up. A moment or two later, she let out a quiet giggle as she felt his hands rub all over her bare back. Jumping slightly as a reflex to Jeremy’s arms wrapping themselves around her waist, Elle’s face lit up even more so than usual as he pressed a kiss against her skin. She tilted her head to the side just a bit, before nodding and replying, “Of course I will.” Once he released her from his arms, the girl took the bottle of sunscreen and squeezed a little bit in her hands before moving them to rub around his muscular back and shoulders. “Do you usually get sunburned?” Elle asked curiously, before continuing on with her train of thought, “I used to be one of those little kids that never had to wear sunscreen because I never got burnt, but then as I got older I started to get burned all the time. Isn’t that kind of strange?” She asked, more rhetorically than anything, knowing that Jeremy and herself were not really that interested in talking about how her skin’s relationship with the sun had changed over the years. “There you go, no chance you’ll get burnt now!” Elle exclaimed excitedly, before turning around and seating herself down in the chair that Jeremy had set up for her. Resting her head back against the chair, Elle closed her eyes briefly before letting out a content sigh, “I’m really happy that we got the chance to do this, and that we’re away from campus for a little while.” She explained, before looking down at her skin, “I hope I get tan today. Sometimes I tan really well, and then other times you can’t even tell that I was even in the sun at all. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen today.” Laughing softly to herself, the blonde then shifted her eyes to the little girl sitting right by them, “Do you think Rosie would like going in the ocean?” She asked curiously, before lifting her gaze to match Jeremy’s.
