We drop onto the sand, both panting from the last sprint. Nathan pulled his t-shirt off somewhere around the one-mile mark and tucked it in his waistband. His chest lifts and rises with his breaths, sweat sliding down the cut muscles of his abs.

“Good God, woman. You can go forever.”

Five miles has never felt better. Running next to Nathan… yeah, that’d inspire anyone to push a little harder.

Sitting ten feet from the water, we both stare out into the ocean. The sun is still rising in the sky behind us.

“I love it out here,” I admit. “Reminds me how small and insignificant we all are by comparison.”

When I turn to him, he’s staring at me with stormy blue eyes.

“What?”

He shakes his head. “You just surprise me sometimes is all.”

I stand and brush the sand off my shorts. I’m sweaty and dirty and need a shower in the worst way. “Ready to head back?”

He doesn’t budge but holds his hand up like he wants me to help him up. I grab ahold of him, except when I pull, so does he and I fall to the ground—half on him and half sprawled in the sand.

“Is that a no?” I chuckle and move off him so fast I wonder if I dreamt the burn on my skin from the contact.

Wrapping his arm around me and pulling me back close, his voice reverberates against my back. “May never be ready.”

Nope, definitely didn’t dream the scalding feeling of his skin touching mine because it’s back and lighting my insides on fire.

I stay quiet then, sinking into his hard chest, listening to the ocean and enjoying the gentle lull of his steady breathing. I feel so safe and untouchable like this. I don’t need Nathan to protect me, not here, but the idea that he might want to makes everything else as insignificant as we are to the ocean.

An older couple walks by hand in hand. I’ve seen them before, though it’s been a few months now. They walk the beach together every morning.

Today I notice how they’re smiling at one another and looking more in love than I would have guessed possible at that age. Funny, I never noticed that before. I’d always assumed they were married, but I’d never been able to see the love surrounding them.

“Alright, I guess I’m ready,” Nathan says, sounding like he’d rather eat sand than leave.

“No.” I push harder against his chest to prevent him from moving. “Just a few more minutes.”

“You’re on my team,” Camila says to our friend Jill, who joined us for a day at the beach. Jill is one of the few who didn’t turn on me after the shit last year, but we’re not as close as I am with Cam.