We pull onto my street, but I continue to drive past my house. The beach access entrance is just at the end of the road here and I asked one of the volunteers from the Rec Center to set something up for me while I picked up Abby. She doesn’t ask any questions as she gets out of the truck when we pull up and I see a little smirk inching up on her face. The entrance here is private, only residents on this street can access it and luckily, there are only a handful who are home right now. Most of them are older couples who don’t live here full time so I basically have this spot to myself most of the time.
“Ford, what is this?” She jogs out in front of me and grabs her shoes from her feet to run into the sand ahead. There’s a blanket set up with some cushions and a small cooler with water bottles and a few beers, if she wants one. There will be pizza, chicken wings and nachos dropped off in five minutes and I brought my iPad if she wants to watch a movie on it. And there’s an ice cream truck that will make its way down here in about an hour.
Abby turns around and stops to wait for me as I pull my socks and shoes from my feet and toss them in the bed of the truck. She smiles at me and her eyes sparkle in the sunlight as she stares in my direction. I’ve never done something like this for a woman, hell a woman I’m not even dating no less, but with Abby, I’m just finding myself wanting to give her anything she wants or needs and I felt like she needed something like this.
The sun is about an hour from setting, so we’re right in the middle of the golden hour and I’m just soaking in the way that Abby looks in this setting. She looks peaceful, happy, and comfortable. A text comes in that the food is here so I excuse myself and run to grab it. When she sees me walking back, her chin drops and her mouth hangs open as she sees what’s in my arms.
“You didn’t!” she squeals.
“Pizza, nachos, and chicken wings. Pick your poison, Princess.”
“Oh my gosh, it’s heaven.”
She grabs a water bottle from the cooler and we both sit there inhaling our share of pepperoni pizza and loaded nachos. She doesn’t even hesitate to scarf down three of the buffalo chicken wings either. I fucking love that she can eat.
Once we’ve finished eating, I pull her closer to me and have her settle herself in front of me. She lays back on my chest holding her stomach,
“I’m so full, that was delicious, thank you.”
“There’s still dessert to come.” She elbows me in the ribs, assuming I meantthatkind of dessert and not actual food. “Ugh, easy tiger, I mean literal dessert. Food. Christ.”
She turns to face me and laughs. She plants a small kiss on my cheek and relaxes her body into mine as she stares out over the water watching the sun on the horizon.
“Will you tell me about him?” I ask her.
“Tell you about who?” She takes a sip from her water and twists the cap back on.
“Your dad.”
My eyes are already stinging at Ford’s question, but I blow out a breath as he runs his hand down my arm.
“Where do I even start? He was… the best.” I quickly wipe a lone tear that falls from my eye.
“He wasn’t perfect, but he was such a good dad. My love for the ocean comes from him. He helped make my childhood so much fun. We’d spend time on the water every weekend, whether it was on the boat, out riding the jet ski, fishing… Aside from Chase and I, there wasn’t anything my dad loved more than the ocean. It was like his home away from home. You could just tell he always felt so much peace when he was on the water.”
My fingers trace along the tattoo on Ford’s forearm before he caresses my cheek with his other hand,
“He sounds like he was a great dad,” Ford says softly.
“He was, he was also insanely sarcastic, he was so quick with it, so funny…” I let out a laugh as my mind runs through memories. “You’d never expect half the things he’d say to come out of his mouth.”
“Ah, so that’s where it comes from.” I scrunch my nose up at him and smile.
“I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, huh?”
Ford and I sit there while I’m continuing to tell him more about my dad and growing up, splitting holidays and every other weekend. My parents divorced when Chase and I were so young, we didn’t know any alternative. We never knew a life where they were together.
“They became friends as Chase and I got older. My mom always says she wished they would’ve tried harder in their marriage, but finally, years after the divorce, they came out as friends and I was always thankful for that. I think they were too.”
“So, he’s the reason why you and Chase are always getting lost in the water then, I take it? I noticed the first night I met you, you were hugging your knees in that giant chair out on the balcony. You were staring out at the water, like you were waiting for something to happen. I’ve noticed Chase does the same thing sometimes.”
I sit up and turn to face Ford, placing my hands in front of me, playing with a loose string from the blanket.
“I guess so, it’s where I feel most connected to him. Some people go to tombstones to visit their loved ones or a certain spot on a map, I guess, to revisit memories. With the water, I could be looking at any ocean in the world and I feel him, I feel his presence.”
Ford blows out a breath and my lips curl into a smile at the way his eyes look in the fading sun, they’re a lighter brown, like whiskey and my breath stutters when he looks at me. He leans down and gently places a kiss to my lips, soft and sweet, there’s nothing but compassion in this kiss and I’m just letting my body melt into his..
“He raised a good man.”
