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“You mean to tell me you live in the beautiful state of California and you never go to the beach?” Larry asked over worn Formica tabletop of the diner they had stopped in at for a quick bite. They were between errands for Joe; Larry would bitch about it but driving around beat sitting in the hot sun, watching and waiting in front of the jewelry store.
“Just not really my thing,” Freddy replied around a bite of his burger, sprawled across the wide booth bench. Larry held back the urge to roll his eyes at his lack of manners. Kids these days.
“Sand, sun, half naked women; what’s not to like?” Larry asked, his eyebrows raised. Miles of coastline and the kid didn’t even bat an eye.
“Not a fan of crowds, y’know? Plus parking is a nightmare,” Freddy scrunched up his face and shook his head twice, derisive. It tracked with everything else Larry knew about the kid, which admittedly was very little. He knew he hadn’t been on any big jobs before; liked to work alone, from what Larry could tell, and that he was local. Weaseling his name out of him had taken hardly any work at all; Larry had almost felt bad about how easy it had been, but then again he’d given up his own.
Larry laughed, set his crumpled paper napkin on top of his now plate, “You don’t know what you’ve got, kid. No beaches like this where I’m from.”
Freddy smiled, sly. “No? And where’s that, again?”
“Nope; so you best appreciate what you have here, kid,” Larry said with a wide, sweeping gesture, ignoring the question. For a moment, he could picture it. Freddy laying on the sand, sun-kissed and smiling like he’d just heard a particularly good joke, nose just a fraction sunburnt. Larry wondered if he freckled easily, thought about kissing every one of Freddy’s freckles, thought about how the sunlight would light up Freddy’s hair; a halo in the dying light of sunset.
“Yeah, yeah. ‘Paved paradise” and all that,” Freddy grouched affectionately , his voice cutting through Larry’s daydreams.
“So, you agree,” Larry smiled wide and signaled for the check.
“Sure; you’ve convinced me,” Freddy said with a toss of his head, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet. “You convince Joe to let us go on a field trip and I’ll be right there. Maybe I’ll even let you rub sunscreen on my back.”
Larry laughed, loud, and Freddy ducked his head and smiled, pleased with himself.
“Guess we better get our permission slips in order, then,” Larry grinned, put cash down on the table, laid on top of the bill. “C’mon, kid, we got another place to hit or Joe will have our asses.”