Summer Love, Hidden Feelings, and Mistakes

Eva-
We set our stuff down at our usual spot, right next to the smoothie shop. A few people from our group went straight towards the ocean and went right in. Tori spread out her towel and started tanning right away. Spencer offered to help her with sunscreen. She accepted. Ew..
“Hey, I’m gonna go tell my aunt and uncle what’s going on, ok?” Ian came up and asked me.
“Alright, hurry back,” I said with a flirtatious smile. He smiled.
“I will,” he said, and jogged off to a family on the beach on the other side of the smoothie shop. As soon as he got there two little girls with long, blond hair grabbed his hands and started pulling him towards the ocean. He resisted, but they were insistent. He looked back at me. I made ‘just go ahead’ motions at him, and he smiled at me thankfully. Then he turned back to the girls, scooped one up under each arm, and ran with them towards the ocean. I could hear them giggling all the way from where I was.
Aww. It’s so cute when guys are nice to kids. He looked back at me, and with his hair blowing in the breeze, and the ocean making waves at his feet… I think that was when I fell for him.
He gestured for me to come over, so I jogged across the sand towards him and the two little girls. When I got there, the girls hid shyly behind him. I smiled at them.
“Eva, this is Lauren Marie,” he said, gesturing to the girl hiding on his left side, “and this is Briana Leigh. My little cousins.”
I bent down to their level and said, “Hi, girls, I’m Eva.” They giggled and ran back towards their parents.
“Kinda shy..” Ian said. “Sorry about that.”
“That’s fine. I have a little sister, so I know what they’re like in that stage,” I said. We started to walk down the beach, away from all the crowds and towards the rocky cliffs and caves.
“Oh yeah? What’s your sister’s name?”
“Sienna. I have a brother too. Sebastian, he’s older..” I had a feeling I was babbling just a touch, but I wanted to avoid awkward silences. “Do you have any siblings?”
“Nope. Just a lot of relatives. My parents both came from big families, so I have a lot of cousins and stuff,” he said. “But honestly, I wish my parents had had a couple more. I love kids.”
“Well who knows, maybe they’ll surprise you and have some,” I said. A sadness filled his eyes. It was like one second he was cheery and happy, and the next everything just clouded over. “Well.. My mom passed on a couple years ago.. So yeah..”
Oh shit. Oh shit shit shit. I just screwed everything up. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to-”
He cut me off. “No, no, it’s fine, you didn’t know,” he said with a small smile in my direction. I still felt incredibly bad though. A silence descended, where the only noise was the sound of the waves crashing and the distant yells of the families on the beach. I tried to think of something to say, but I didn’t want to screw up again.
Out of nowhere he stops walking, spins me to face him, and puts his hands on my shoulders. “Look, you didn’t know, ok? You don’t need to feel bad, and you don’t need to worry about it changing how I see you, because it doesn’t. Ok?”
I smiled. He just totally read my mind. “Ok.”
He smiled back, then moved his hand from my shoulder to my hand. And then, just like that, we were holding hands. I was holding the hand of a sexy British boy on a beach in Florida. It was like something out of a movie.
The only way this could get better was if he kissed me. I turned my head and looked up at him. He was looking out to sea, a smile on his lips. I wondered what he was smiling about.
“Wow, just met the guy and you’re already holding hands,” I heard someone say. I whipped my head around while simultaneously dropping his hand.
One of my friends, Lara, was walking towards us holding the hand of her long-time boyfriend Hunter.
“Hey guys,” I said. “What are you doing down here?”
“Well, we were gonna go for a walk, and then Tori asked me to tell you to get your skinny little butt back there. That’s a direct quote,” she said smiling. I sighed.
“Alright, I guess we should go back then,” I said, and looked over at Ian. He looked back at me a nodded. We started walking back in silence. Not awkward silence, but comfortable silence.
And, halfway back, I felt his hand slip into mine.