(((July 11, 2016)))
Nicole's POV
"I thought we'd never get here!" I groaned as I threw my duffle bag down in the living room of the condo after I had just walked up from the garage.
Parker was still getting things out of the truck and making his way up the stairs into the second floor where the living room, kitchen, dining room, and two bedrooms, and one bathroom were at.
"Nick!!" Hannah squealed as she jumped up from relaxing on the couch with Payson. "You're finally here!"
She engulfed me in a hug and I hugged her back.
"When did you get here?" I asked.
"About four hours ago. Payson and I already walked down to the beach for a little while." Hannah smiled as she let me go. "And how's the little Schnabel?" Hannah cooed as she bent down and talked to my stomach.
"Being a good baby." I smiled as I set my hand on my belly. "But I had to take some Tylenol this morning because my back was killing me."
"Probably because you haven't had this much weight on you never in your life." Hannah stated as she stood up.
"Probably." I chuckled, then looked behind Hannah at Payson. "Hey to you too, big bro."
Payson smiled before getting up and walking over to give me a hug. "I was waiting for you two girls to get all your squealing out of the way."
Hannah and I laughed.
"How're y'all doing?" I smiled as we walked over to sit on the tan leather sectional. "How's married life treating you?"
Hannah and Payson laughed and Payson put his arm around Hannah's shoulder. They were so cute together.
"I swear, it feels like we're married sometimes." Payson chuckled. "But it's going really good. We have a lot of fun, right, honey?"
"Yeah, best decision I ever made." Hannah smiled. "Speaking of married life, where's your baby daddy?"
"He should be coming up. I guess he decided he would try and get all the stuff up in one trip." I chuckled.
"I'll go help him." Payson sighed as he got up.
"Thanks, Pays." I smiled.
"So how was the flight?" Hannah asked once Payson had gone down the stairs.
I groaned. "It was so horrible. I thought we'd never get here. First, we woke up late and had to rush to Juneau. Then the flight lasted 13 or 14 freakin hours. And then we had to drive from Wilmington all the way up here." I sighed and leaned back on the couch. "I think I need a nap."
"No, you can't take a nap!" Hannah laughed as she plopped down beside me and laid down with her legs in my lap. "It's only six o'clock. We have to go out to eat. You and Parker didn't stop and get anything, did ya?"
"We did about four hours ago." I smirked. "I'm sure he's hungry again by now."
"Good!" Hannah sat up and put her hands in her lap. "Me and Payson want to go eat seafood."
"Hannah." I groaned. "Seafood makes me sick right now."
"Well, you can eat chicken tenders." Hannah replied. "Tomorrow we'll go somewhere different."
"Whatever." I rolled my eyes. "Fine. So how was your flight?"
"Long, boring, and I couldn't wait to get off that thing."
I chuckled. "At least your flight wasn't as long as mine."
"Yeah, true." Hannah smirked. "The beach was packed when we went down there. We only stayed for like, an hour."
"Maybe we can go to the pier and fish when it gets dark." I suggested.
"Yeah!" Hannah agreed.
"We're back, ladies!" Payson announced as he came in with three bags in his arms.
Parker followed him with the beach towels and coolers.
"You could've left the coolers down there, baby." I said.
"And leave the beer?" Parker huffed as he walked by us in the living room and set the coolers down in the kitchen. "I think not."
"No beer." I told him. "We're going out to eat. You both can drink when we get back."
"One won't hurt." Parker shrugged as he took a beer out of the cooler and threw one to Payson.
"Parker Schnabel!" I objected. "Did I not just tell you no?"
"I won't even drink all of it." He smirked as he took a sip.
"Payson!" Hannah said. "Y'all need to quit. Come on, set the beers down and we'll go eat."
Both of the men groaned and set the beers in the fridge.
"Happy now?" Parker said as he closed the fridge and walked towards the couch with his arms up.
"Very." I smiled.
"Now come on. I'm about to starve." Payson said as he picked up his keys. "Y'all wanna drive in the Jeep we rented?"
"Yeah!" Hannah and I said simultaneously.
"Alright, come on." Payson said. "I hope you two know where we're going, because I sure don't."
***
"Aw, you suck, Parker!" I laughed as we were playing pool in the game room of the condo. "That shot was not even possible!"
"It is for the pool master." Parker said cockily as he went to take another shot.
"Miss." Hannah coughed.
Parker shot the cue ball and it went nowhere near where he wanted it to. Hannah and I laughed.
"That was messed up, Hannah." Parker said as he handed me the pool stick. "I'll get you back for it though."
"No, you won't." She scoffed.
"Y'all hush so I can concentrate." I said as I lined up a shot.
"I'm liking the view here." Parker said as he sat on the red futon behind where I was standing to shoot.
I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, Parker. I'm trying to shoot."
"All I said was I liked the view. You should be glad." Parker smirked
I rolled my eyes again and turned my head to look at him. "Shut up."
I went to shoot, but Parker interrupted me again. "You're the one that wanted to be on Hannah's team."
"Parker, shut up or I'ma hit you with this pool stick." I said.
I lined up the stick with the cue ball and a solid purple ball. I hit the ball just right and the purple ball went into the corner pocket.
"Ha!" I said as I turned around to see Parker laying on the futon. "Suck on that, Schnabel!"
The three of them laughed.
"That was pure luck." Parker said. "Bet you can't make that green ball in the left corner pocket."
I stood up and raised an eyebrow at him while leaning against the pool stick. "I bet I can."
"Alright." Parker nodded. "Do it, babe."
I shot, but the ball missed the pocket.
"Ah, shit." I groaned.
Parker chuckled. "Don't go against the pool master."
"Your turn, Payson." I sighed as I sat in front of Parker.
Payson smirked as he stood up with his pool stick. "We're about to win this, Parker."
"Just get that one ball in and then all that's left is the eight ball." Parker said as he wrapped an arm around my waist and laid his head beside me.
"There ya go!" Payson said as the ball went into the pocket.
"Ooo, no pressure, babe." Hannah smirked.
"I'll make it." Payson said as he walked around the pool table.
"When did you boys get so cocky?" Hannah smiled.
"When they're trying to win something." I smiled.
"We won!" Payson cheered as soon as the ball went into a pocket.
"Yeah, man!" Parker cheered as he held his hand up for Payson to high five.
"We're so boss!" Payson smiled as he gave him a high five.
"Yeah!" Parker cheered.
"Y'all cheated." Hannah said. "I don't know how, but you cheated."
"Obviously." I agreed.
"Nah, we're just that good." Parker said as he sat up.
"Can we go night fishing now?" I asked.
"We'll go tomorrow night, baby." Parker promised. "Let's do something else." Then he put his lips to my ear and whispered, "We'll go walking down the beach tonight if you want."
I nodded and smiled at him before turning back to look at Payson and Hannah who were sitting in a rocking chair watching TV together. "Y'all wanna play ping pong?"
"I'll play!" Hannah jumped up.
"You two girls play." Parker said as he walked over to the couch beside the rocking chair Payson was in.
"They're such buzzkills." Hannah said as she grabbed a paddle from the table. "Look, they're both going to sleep."
I looked over at Payson who had his head leaned back and his eyes closed. Parker was laying on the couch closing his eyes.
I shrugged. "Let them take a nap. We don't need them to have fun."
"Exactly." Hannah smiled as she served me the ping pong ball.
***
"We're going to be up all night." I laughed to Hannah as we were making us both a ice cream sundae.
"It's worth it." Hannah said before squirting the whip cream into her mouth.
"Do you think we should see if the guys want some?" I asked as I drowned my vanilla ice cream in chocolate syrup.
"They've been asleep for three hours." Hannah said, putting all the toppings back in the refrigerator. "We'll wake them up when we get through eating. So what are you and Parker planning on doing tonight?"
Hannah and I picked up our bowls of ice cream and sat across from each other at the wooden booth by the glass sliding doors leading out onto the balcony.
"He said something about going to walk on the beach, but I don't know if he'll still want to do it." I shrugged before taking my first bite.
"I was thinking about getting into the hot tub with Payson." Hannah said.
"It's all yours, babe." I said. "Have fun."
"Oh, I will." Hannah smirked.
We both laughed and continued eating our ice cream.
A few minutes later, we heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
"The beasts awaken." I smirked.
"It's about freakin time." Hannah said before wiping her mouth off.
"I thought I smelled ice cream." Parker said as he walked in the kitchen and took my spoon.
"There's no way you smelled the ice cream, dummy." I laughed, sliding over so he could sit beside me.
"You eating ice cream without me?" Payson said as he came in and slid beside Hannah, taking his spoon and stealing get ice cream just like Parker did mine.
"Oh, yeah, you guys can have our ice cream." Hannah said sarcastically. "It's not like we made them for us or anything."
"We know." Payson and Parker said, continuing to eat the ice cream.
"Want some, babe?" Parker asked a few seconds later, holding the spoon up to my mouth.
"No, baby, I'm full." I shook my head. "You eat it."
"Alright." Parker shrugged.
Hannah and Payson shared their ice cream while Parker finished off his.
"Well, did you wanna go walk down the beach, baby?" Parker asked me while he set his bowl in the sink.
"Yeah." I said.
"Well, do whatever you gotta do and we'll go in about ten minutes. I gotta go see if that golf cart will crank that was in the garage." Parker explained.
"Alright." I said as I stood up.
"Payson, we're getting in the hot tub!" Hannah smiled.
"Sounds good, Han." Payson said while he was still eating.
***
"See y'all later!" I called before we parted ways.
Parker and I walked into the garage while Hannah and Payson walked outside to the gazebo where the hot tub was.
"Have fun, y'all!" Hannah called.
"Y'all too!" I smiled.
Parker and I had changed clothes into something more beachy than our clothes we had worn on the plane. I was wearing a black tee shirt dress with a white 21 on it, and white trim around the bottom and the bottom of the sleeves. I wore black flip flops to match, and my hair was up. Parker was wearing a gray shirt and some black shorts, along with some brown flip flops.
Parker set two beers in the cup holders of the golf cart and set a beach blanket in between us.
"Did it have enough gas in it?" I asked.
"Yeah." Parker nodded before turning the key.
We pulled out of the garage, went down the driveway, and turned right towards the beach. Our condo was about a mile from the boardwalk that led to the beach.
"Let's take a picture, baby." I smiled as I turned on my phone and went to Snapchat.
"Alright." Parker said as he started driving with his knee.
He put his right arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to his side. I ran my fingers through the side of his hair and placed my lips on his cheek. With the phone turned sideways and the flash on, I took the picture with me kissing his cheek and him with his little smirk looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
"That's a good picture." I smiled as I saved it before putting the caption, "Somewhere on a beach" on it and posting it to my story. "One more." I said when we had stopped at the stop sign.
With his arm still wrapped around my neck, he pulled me over and kissed my temple. I smiled just in time for the picture to take.
"We're so photogenic, Parker." I chuckled.
"You think we can park there or do we need to find somewhere with a parking spot?" Parker asked as he pointed at the boardwalk in front of us.
"I think there's a boardwalk with parking down there." I told him, pointing to the right.
"I hope so." Parker sighed as he turned.
It took a few minutes, but we finally found a boardwalk with parking. Parker grabbed a beer and put the keys in his pocket.
"Babe, put my phone in your pocket with yours, will ya?" I asked as I held the phone out to him while I grabbed the blanket.
Parker took the phone and slid into his pocket before turning towards the steps of the boardwalk.
"Let's go." I smiled as I followed Parker to the boardwalk carrying the blanket in my arms.
Parker held my hand as we walked across the boardwalk to the sand.
"I'm just leaving my shoes here." I said as I kicked off my shoes by the steps.
"Alright." Parker said as he kicked off his shoes beside mine.
"I'm running." I smiled as I started running through the deep sand towards the shoreline.
Parker followed me, walking.
I turned around once I got to where my feet were in the water and saw him with his phone out. A few seconds later, I saw the camera flash towards me. I smiled and tilted my head just as he took another picture. I blew him a kiss and the flash came on once again.
"Taking pictures!" I laughed. "Quit! I look horrible!"
"You look beautiful." Parker smiled as he looked at his phone and finally got to where I was at. "And these are my pictures, not yours."
"Whatever." I shrugged happily as I grabbed his hand. "Let's find somewhere to lay down."
We walked down the beach with our feet in the edge of the water. I looked around at the waves and the moon high in the sky.
"It's beautiful out here." I said as I hugged his waist while we walked. "I'm so glad we came."
"Me too, baby." Parker said before kissing my head and placing his arm around me.
"This looks like a good spot." I said.
"Good of a spot as any." Parker said before helping me lay out the blanket.
Parker opened his beer and took a sip before setting it up in the sand. He took the phones out and set on the blanket before laying down with me in the middle of the blanket.
"I could lay here all night." I sighed as I closed my eyes and listened to the waves crashing and smelled the salty air.
"Me too." Parker said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "You can't beat this."
"You really can't." I smiled before opening my eyes and turning my head to look at him. "Thanks for coming."
"I wouldn't trade this for the world." Parker smiled.
"Me either." I smiled before placing a kiss on his lips.
He wrapped both arms around me and pulled me onto him. I smiled before kissing him more passionately. My arms found their way around his neck and my hands to the ends of his hair. He kept kissing me back more and more, both of us wanting to taste more of each other.
That night was the first time I had sex on the beach.