I pull her against me, feeling the pebbled skin beneath my fingertips.
Richard needs to fuck off ASAP so we can get out and I can get her warm.
“Is everything okay there?” Richard calls out.
“Just fancied a skinny dip,” Mia calls out.
He pauses for a moment, likely debating whether to warn us about getting naked at the beach.
“Don’t stay too long. It’s too cold.”
“We’ll get out as soon as you l-leave,” she chatters.
“Alrighty, come on Geraldine,” he says, turning around before muttering, “fucking lunatics” just loud enough for me to hear.
My breathing is barely under control. My body is fighting desperately against the cold, and the short, sharp breaths I manage to get in make me fear my lungs are close to collapsing.
I take Mia’s hand in mine as I swim back to shore, scared that if I lose my grip on her, she may just float away.
We pull ourselves out, the water cascading off us as we fight our muscles to gather our things.
“Take off your jeans. I’ll help you.”
“I’ll just leave them on.”
“Mia, please,” I beg. “You’re going to get hypothermia if you don’t get out of the wet clothes. Just take off the jeans. Put your T-shirt and jumper back on and we’ll head to mine to dry everything, okay?”
“I sh-should just go home.”
“Mia, I’m not leaving you alone right now. No arguments.”
My jaw aches from clenching as it fights the chatter of my teeth.
I grab her things, helping them over her head. They’re going to be drenched by the time I get her to my house, but I’ll find her some clothes whilst we wait.
She ceases her arguing and leans against the rock to pull her jeans off. Sand is everywhere, over her, me and all our clothes. I remove my T-shirt and watch as her eyes jump down to my chest, lingering until they dip low to my stomach. Yeah, I fucking work out. Not that any of that will matter if we don’t get warm in the next five minutes.
“Come on.”
???
Thank God my house is only fifteen minutes from Coral Cove. Forty minutes after we dragged ourselves out of the water like some slime-riddled sea creatures, we were almost warm. Mia is sitting near my wood-burning stove in one of my cable knit sweaters and a pair of my sweatpants. They swamp her completely, but she somehow makes it work. At least her lips are no longer blue.
“Here.” I pass her a mug of hot chocolate and a pair of thick socks.
She takes the socks, untucking her legs and ungracefully tugging them onto her feet before taking the hot chocolate and cradling the mug with both hands.
“Can you come sit with me?”
“I was going to get some food ready for us.”
“Just for a minute. Aren’t you cold too?”
Fucking freezing, actually. But I’m more concerned about her right now.
“I’ve warmed up; come here.”
I take a seat next to her, and lift my arm so she can settle in against my chest. The tip of her nose is an icicle as she snuggles into the crook of my neck.
