By The Beach ✔

Part 14. Date

He had his hands tucked into the pockets of his blue jeans, which had his white shirt tucked into it that was mostly hidden by a black leather jacket. His hair was down and laying behind his shoulders to show off his earrings.

I raised an eyebrow "What?" I asked, curious as we stopped at the hotel desk. He hit the bell with his hand and turned to lean on the counter and look down at me with a mischievous look.

"I love that you give your cousin as much hell as I do Doug."

"Well, you can take that part over. I promised I wouldn't give him hell on the trip and I think Dini is now angry that she asked me to do that because now all of my insults are strictly towards her."

Sawyer shook his head at me as a woman walked over to the desk holding a basket, he thanked her and gave a tip before smiling at me and motioning to the doors. "Shall we?" he said, I smiled at him as we walked to the doors.

I looked at the basket and back to him, curiosity getting the best of me.

"What are we doing? Going to the park to find Yogi and have him steal our picnic basket?"

He laughed as we walked around the hotel and walked down the hill to where the beach is, I followed him down the hill. We walked to the edge of the beach where he set down the picnic basket and took out a blanket, he laid it down on the ground.

"Huh. I wouldn't figure you to be this kind of guy."

He grinned as he sat down on the blanket and looked up at me "Your cousin told me that you hated going anywhere crowded. I figured you might like this better" he said and motioned to the spot he had picked out, most of the people were further down the beach playing in the water or volleyball.

I smiled a bit as I sunk beside him on my knees and took my purse out from around my neck "Your right. This is nice" I told him as I watched the waves crash into the sand, he took two glasses out of the basket and a bottle of red wine, he poured it into the glasses before handing me one of them.

We sat there like that for a moment as we watched the waves, the nervous feeling was almost gone and it was a comfortable silence. I looked over at him and decided to sit down as normal as I could in the skirt beside him, I held my wine glass in my hand as I looked at him.

"Just how great are you and your band?"

He raised an eyebrow as he looked over at me amused "Pretty good. You will have to come to my town to hear us some time. Our drummer is trying to get us a record deal, he called me last night to tell me" he said, taking a drink of his wine.

"That good. I hope that it works out" I told him as he took the glass from his mouth and looked at me with his eyes, full of amusement.

"If it does, you can be a groupie" he joked making me snort an unattractive laugh and roll my eyes "But, seriously if it does work out I would like you to come to a concert. I like your choices in music." Remembering us on the beach surfing made me smile, then remembering how I had wiped out made me wince.

I shrugged as I looked down at the floral blanket "Maybe I will. Right now I am kind of thinking about switching colleges so I can finish becoming a teacher" I told him as I picked at a loose string on the blanket.

"A teacher? I wouldn't have thought that. Doug mention it but I wouldn't think teacher when I see you" he told me as he looked at the glass in his hand.

I raised an eyebrow "I don't look smart enough?" I joked this made him shake his head as he turned and looked towards me.

"You don't look old enough. You are what, twenty-one?"

"Twenty-three. I am a year older than Dinah."

He smiled and shook his head "See? Most teachers are ... like thirty-something" he said as he took a sip of wine, I looked down at my glass and shrugged.

"No. My kindergarten teacher was twenty-seven and she was the nicest one."

"Most kindergarten teachers are the best" he pointed out as he leaned forward and dug around the basket to grab a sandwich from it, that was made by the room service people. "It is always the easiest class to graduate from."

I rolled my eyes with a half-smile "All of this from the singer. Alright, you know my age what is yours?" I asked as I took a sandwich from him and unwrapped the plastic from it. He raised his eyebrows as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

"Thirty. For now."

I just looked at him for a second before nodding my head up and down, taking a sip of wine "Not as bad as I had thought."

"How old did you think I was?"

"Thirty-five?" I said in an unsure voice which only made him laugh and caused me to smack his shoulder with my hand "Not funny. I'm being serious. You act more mature than Doug, and he is almost your age."

He shrugged and looked out at the waves "Growing up in my family, I had to mature quickly" he smirked and looked at me with a raised eyebrow "You thought I was that old and you still wanted to go out with me?" he asked as he shook his head. I hesitated as I thought for a reply, my mind drifted back to the only boy I had ever dated.

"The only guy I ever dated was my age. And that did not end well."

Sawyer looked over at me, a look that was a cross of knowing and sadness on his face as he looked down at his sandwich and sighed.

"Sometimes, you got to look around and realize that .. maybe the person you thought you loved was a total no count human being and not worth your time."

I just stared at him for a moment and thought about the words he had said, he did get this heartbreak crap, I looked at the waves and a smirk appeared on my face as I turned back to him with a look of amusement.

"So, are you reading Zeke's Romantic novels too?"

Sawyer raised an eyebrow with a mischievous smile as he turned to look at me "Zeke reads romance?" he questioned with a laugh.

I nodded my head up and down slowly "That is what he told me" I said which only made Sawyer laugh harder. Listening to him laugh made me smile as he finished off his sandwich and poured more wine, I held my glass out and he poured.

Who would have thought that there was an actual guy out there in this world that would say something like that and don't look annoyed about it? A guy who would go on a picnic on the beach because the girl he was on a date with hated most public places.

He gave a playful smile towards me "Maybe I like romance. Or maybe I just like speaking my mind and it comes out in a weird way" he put his hand to his chin to pretend thinking which made me smile as I watched him, eyes filled with amusement.

Why is different always a good thing?