Levi’s grin was blinding. “Thank you. It’s sweet you’re trying to make me feel better,” he said, voice light and teasing. “But the way our eyes perceive color and depth and just … everything? It sometimes feels impossible to re-create, and maybe we’re not supposed to. Maybe we’re just supposed to enjoy it the way it is.” He stared directly at me as he said the last sentence, and I felt heat creep down my neck.

“Do you want to stay?” I asked, breaking the intensity of the moment.

“It’s beautiful here. We could stay a bit longer, if you don’t mind?” His eyes searched mine. “Unless we’re in a rush to get to the blueberry farm.”

The low growl of my stomach decided for me. “Nah, we can stay. I’m hungry. I’ll grab the food,” I said, already breaking into a jog as I beelined back to the car. The door was unlocked, and after I grabbed the cooler I joined Levi on the beach.

It wasn’t clean like Oar’s Rest’s beach, pristine with looked-after sand, free of trash and debris. The place we’d stopped looked like a party spot, with broken bottles near the shore, amber shards embedded in the damp, packed sand.

Sprinkled among them were flat, smooth stones in varying shades of green. Some were deep green, like moss or the underbelly of a frog. Others were almost white, resembling the surface of a honeydew melon. And falling in the middle were green stones that were the color of a dying fern, the shade dull and uninspiring.

“These are pretty.” With careful fingers I pried tiny pieces of stone from the sand, sifting through muddy grain. Using some water, I washed the grit off the rocks. “Probably just pieces of a bottle, though.”

Levi got up from the grassy patch we were sitting on, leaving the cooler lid open. He crouched at my side and took my hand in his. He lowered his eyes, gazing at the rocks. “The edges don’t look sharp.”

“I think it’s just because they’ve been polished smooth from the water.” I closed my fingers over them, made to throw them back into the sea, but Levi’s gentle touch on my wrist stopped me.

“Wait. They’re pretty,” he said. He uncurled my fingers and with an indulgent smile, I scattered the pieces into his waiting palm.

“They’re junk,” I said mildly. “Smashed glass that’s been in the water too long.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!”

“And this is beauty to you?” Amused, I smiled at him. “Treasure, even?” I nudged him in the side.

Levi grinned. “Something like that. Everyone’s a bit of a diamond in the rough, aren’t they?”

I thought of myself, all my uneven edges and chipped shoulders, and gave him a rueful shrug.