Tweethearts

It was mid-July and neither Abi nor James could believe how fast the summer was going. All but two of their friends had gone back to their summer homes, with promises of meeting up at the end of August in Montreal. The weather that morning had been perfect, with the temperature reaching 88 degrees and the sun shining against a bright blue sky with white, puffy clouds. Because of this James and Abi decided that going to Kiwanis Heydenshore Park, knowing that everyone would enjoy the beach and that Abi’s goddaughter would enjoy the playground. They were both fully aware that the other three members of their party would be late, but the couple decided to head to the beach early and meet the others there.

@aBEEgail_: lazy day at the beach w. @jneal_18 pic.twitter.com/0gtyP793xXz

“Abi,” James said as he rolled onto her towel. “Can you put some sunscreen on my back?”

“James, I swear to God,” Abi huffed before sitting up and digging through her straw bag for the yellow bottle of SPF 30. “Turn over please,” she said, watching as she rolled onto his back before opening the cap and putting the lotion onto his back before rubbing it in. “I swear James, you are either white as snow or as red as a lobster.”

“I can’t help it,” James mumbled with his face resting in his towel.

“I know baby, I know,” Abi told him as she bent her head down to press her lips on his back. “Now if you don’t mind, I am going to get back to working on my tan and you keep lookout for Paul and Lana,” she murmured as she fixed the makeshift pillow that she had her head resting on.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t get to comfortable,” James told her. “They’re walking over to us right now.”

Taking a deep breath, Abi sat up, fixed her bikini top, and then stood up all the way. After giving Paul a hug and a kiss on the cheek, Abi gave her best friend a hug before taking the little girl she was holding into her arms. “Hey guys.”

“Hey,” Lana said, setting the towels down before setting the baby bag down on the towel. “Did you and James have fun?”

“We had as much fun as you could at a beach with James. He whined about his skin burning, asked me to put sunscreen on, settled down, started whining again, and before you guys got here, I put another coat of sunscreen on his back. So to sum it up, James is a baby and should not be allowed to come to the beach.”

“So I guess a beach wedding is out of the question,” Lana said laughing.

Giggling along with her, Abi sat down on her towel and began to lather the toddler that she was holding in sunscreen. Once she was done, she slid the orange floaties on Mackensie’s chubby arms before leaning toward her friend. “James and I will take her into the water for a bit so you can relax.” Standing up, she walked to the edge of the lake and waited for James to join her. As they waded in the water, Abi couldn’t help but laugh as Mackensie splashed James with her tiny hands. After a while Mackensie had tired out, so James took her back to her mom before joining Abi in the water.

After the two raced each other to the sand bar, James held Abi close and whispered in her ear, “What do you think about Christmas?”

“James, you’ve known me for forever, I think you should know that Christmas is my favorite holiday.”

“No,” James chuckled, shaking his head. “I mean what do you think about getting married at Christmas time? We could have the mass early on Christmas Eve and have the reception until sunset and then go home and spend the rest of the night into the next morning together. I’m not sure what the exact schedule is, but I know we always have those two days off,” he finished his proposition before looking down into her eyes.

“Let’s do it!” Abi said, before wrapping her legs around his waist and pressing a passionate kiss to his lips.