His Naughty Lessons

** Eli **

"... Oh. That must be ... a long time ago indeed." It was a few moments before Harper spoke again. The look she gave him was slightly hesitant, as if unsure of the safest direction to take that conversation. "Um ... Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it."

Eli looped an arm around her and squeezed gently. "Nah, it’s alright. Not that I was intentionally avoiding beaches for any particular reasons. I never even thought about it that way till you mentioned." He paused for a second. "I should be the one saying sorry. I didn’t mean to spoil the mood by bringing that up."

She shifted to meet his eyes again, and her gaze wavered. "Do you want to tell me about it?" she asked tentatively. "You don’t need to, but it wouldn’t be spoiling anything if you do. I’ve always wished ... well, that someday I might get to know as much about you as you know about me."

She did?

Eli pondered that. After so many years of avoiding talking about his parents, the natural denial on that topic had become almost a basic instinct to him, and to suddenly bring it up during a romantic date like this ... felt odd, like he was topping this perfect picnic with a bitter and sour aftertaste. But he hadn’t intended to keep it from Harper forever, either. The illusion of disguising his true self in front of her had long shattered by now, so if she didn’t mind ...

He rubbed his thumb slowly over her arm, contemplating where to start.

"We had an oceanfront house on the west coast," he began, "with a nice view over the bay, and a long stretch of beach shared by a small community. I liked to swim and play with the other kids in the neighborhood, so my parents used to take me to the beach every day after school. I’d jump immediately into the water, and they would sit in their beach chairs under the umbrella, sometimes with a pack of beer and sometimes just to watch over us. Occasionally, when the waves were low, they’d take me on a walk along the sand too, or help me build a castle just so that I could have fun hopping on top of it at the end and watching it crumble."

He smiled a bit sheepishly at the recollection of his unruly boyhood days. But Harper only returned him a smile without judging, so he continued. "The coastline there is different from this one. The mountains aren’t as green, and the water is a different shade of blue. Seagulls are everywhere and like to snatch up whatever you fail to protect on a picnic blanket. The sun feels different too, especially in the summer when it’s hot and dry. I was probably fifty shades tanner back then, from all the time I spent playing beach ball in that weather. It was a popular game in the neighborhood, and my school even held its own tournaments every spring. My father used to be one of the judges—"