Page 41 of Home: Posy 5

"Is that— Is that the ocean?" she whispered.

"Yep!" Ash and Wyatt told her.

She clapped her hands and squealed and, as soon as Ash put the vehicle in park, she opened her door, hopped out, and took off running. I managed to catch up to her before she made it past the sand dunes, and we ran hand-in-hand toward the water.

"It's so beautiful!" she shrieked as she reached the white foam left by the most recent wave. "And loud! I didn't think the waves would be so loud!"

I grinned at her and told her we could get our feet wet before lunch if she wanted, and she practically jumped out of her flip flops. Chuckling, I ditched my slides, then I followed her lead as she stepped closer and let the water wash over her little toes.

"Hey!" Jay shouted from the wooden walkway that led back to the beach house. "Aren't you going to help unload the car first?"

"No!" Posy shouted back before I could, not realizing he was talking to me and not her.

As if we'd let her carry luggage, I thought to myself with an eye roll.

With a smug grin, I smirked at him, and he shot me the bird before turning around and going back to help the others.

"Do we have food here?" Posy asked as she watched the seafoam sparkle and evaporate around her feet. "I mean, is the kitchen stocked?"

"Yeah. We paid someone to set everything up for us."

"Good! Then I couldn't care less about unpacking the car right now. It can wait until later. I just thought Jayden might want it emptied so they could go get groceries."

"No, honey," I smiled down at her. "We can play here for a while. They're fine, and there is absolutely nothing you need to do except enjoy yourself."

She took me at my word and began to dance in and out of the shallow waves, stopping to pick up an interesting shell here or piece of beach glass there. Soon her hands were full of "treasures," as she called them, and she turned to me with a pout.

"I can hold them for you, honey," I offered, stripping off my t-shirt and gathering it into an impromptu pouch. "See? Drop them in here."

"Thank you, pine tree." She gave me a sunshine smile, the one that showed her dimples and made my heart stutter in my chest. "I love you! Thank you all so much for bringing me here! Lark and I always dreamed of seeing the ocean someday."

"We'll take you to Bora Bora soon," I promised. "That's a little harder trip to arrange with passports and finding a resort that isn't fully booked. Otherwise, we would have taken you the moment you asked to go."

"You're so sweet." She stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed the base of my throat, which was as high as she could reach, and my heart fluttered again. "Can we build a sandcastle later?"

"Of course we can." For her, I'd build arealcastle. "We'll do it after lunch. Until then, why don't you see if you can find some more treasures?"

With a nod and a happy smile, she whirled and skipped away, and I smiled as I watched her.

Dude, you suck, Ash grouched in the alpha link.I want to be down there with her, too!

You snooze, you lose.I shrugged.Are you guys done unloading yet?

No,Mase grumbled.You should come help.

And leave our happy girl here alone? Besides, I'm holding her beach finds.

Beach finds?Jay frowned.What is there to find? Seaweed?

Shells and sea glass,I told him with an eye roll, then reminded myself that he'd never been to the beach, either. Only Mase and I had, and that was a work trip.

Ooh! I have an art project for that!Wyatt chirped.Make sure you bring everything up to the house so she and I can—

"Cole?"

The pain in our girl's voice caught my immediate attention, and I closed the alpha link to focus on her. She stood about ten feet away, wincing and hugging her arms around her middle. A few pieces of beach glass lay at her feet as if she'd dropped a handful, and I wondered what happened.

"What is it, honey? Did you hurt yourself? Did you pick up a crab and it pinched you?"

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