One Day At A Time - Revised Edition

Chapter Thirty

She looks beautiful when she's happy, so stunningly beautiful.
Ava's happiness is radiant and breathtaking and it makes Lilly's heart explode a million times over as she hastily puts her shoes and socks near Ava's and runs towards her.

Ava grabs her hand and walks towards the water, but she doesn't get in it again. She stands back a bit, letting go of Lilly's hand and watching her toes go into the water.

Lilly jumps back instantly, squealing and laughing,
"Holy shit! You're right, it's fucking cold!"
"I know! I'm not getting in there again." Ava states, moving farther back to sit herself down in the sand. Lilly shakes off the cold and follows suit.

They're happy with watching the waves together, running their hands back and forth through the sand.

They sit there for a long while, basking in the sun.

Ava turns to Lilly and looks at her; her heart is thumping giddily in her chest.

She could scream with how happy she is right now.
Scream it out for the world, and everything other person on the beach, to hear!

But instead of screaming in absolute bliss, she wipes sand off of her hand.

Lilly mimics her and wipes off her own hand, so she can hold Ava's without any issue.

Ava loves the feeling of sand between her fingers, but she knows without even feeling it that the feeling of sand between their hands will freak her out.

So, they press their clean hands together.

At one point or another in their wave-watching, Lilly leans towards Ava and presses a kiss to her cheek out-of-the-blue.

Being allowed to do that is the best feeling in the world.

As time goes past them, they both remember that they have to make the walk back to the car, since they have the half hour drive ahead of them.

They're both sharing the same disappointed look in their eyes, but Lilly takes a deep breath and reassures Ava,
"We can come here again. I promise you that. This definitely is not our last time here, okay?"
Ava looks back at her, relieved.

They go back to the picnic table and start to get their shoes and socks back on after they brush the sand off of their feet.

To stall for the tiniest bit longer, Ava silently walks away from the table and bends down, her eyes and hand landing on a smooth pebble.

And then she finds another one, and another, and another, momentarily stuffing them into her pant's pockets.

Lilly takes a mental picture joyously.

After she comes back from collecting a thousand rocks, Lilly brings Ava closer to her, pulling her phone out of her pocket to take one final picture.

A simple picture of them, both grinning and pink.
It's frame worthy for sure.

The hike back to Lilly's car is tiresome, but they survive it.

The drive back is a peaceful one and both of them are happy to watch the sunset together.

Lilly has her own playlist of calm songs, which she shuffles for the trip back home.

A quarter of the way down the road, Lilly feels her stomach grumble.
She should've packed them lunch.

She makes a mental note for next time.
"Are you hungry at all? I think I have some money in my backpack. We can pull over at the next convenience store."
"Yeah, I am hungry. That sounds like a good idea."