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“All right,” Sarah announces as she tosses some fruit snacks into the cooler and closes the lid, “Cass, you put the towels in the car and, AJ, I need you to carry this cooler. Thank you, baby. I’m gonna get the chairs and umbrella—”
“I’ll get the chairs and umbrella,” Bucky chimes in as he enters the kitchen, clad in a faded gray t-shirt that clings lovingly to his chest and shoulders and a pair of pale blue swimming trunks.
She watches him saunter into the mud room, drawn in by his long-limbed grace and sun-kissed skin. It takes her a moment to remember she was saying something.
Giving herself a mental shake, she says, “Okay… I’ll get the bag of beach toys—”
“Cass can get that, can’t you, Cass?” Bucky asks, easily picking up all four beach chairs in one hand and grabs the umbrella with the other.
Cass agrees readily and fetches the bag, eager to show Bucky just how strong he is.
“Well, how about the door? Are y’all gonna let me get that at least?” She teases with a fond smile.
“What do you think, guys?” Bucky asks them.
AJ and Cass share a look then turn back to Bucky. They nod decisively and AJ says, “We’ll allow it.”
Stifling her laughter, Sarah heads to the front door.
*
“You know,” she drawls, watching Bucky stick the umbrella in the sand, spread the beach blanket beneath it, and arrange the chairs, “I could help you with all this…”
Flashing her a heated look that makes her toes curl, he says suggestively, “Nah, you should take it easy today. After the night you had.”
“Bucky,” she hisses in admonition and jerks her head in the direction of the boys.
“They’re not payin’ us any mind,” he shrugs and angles her chair under the shade of the umbrella so she can put her toes in the sand without being in direct sunlight. Reaching for her hand, he pulls her close and brushes a kiss along her jaw under the guise of helping her into her chair. “See? Didn’t even notice.”
She grudgingly concedes his point as she lets him fuss over her, bringing her the beach tote she filled with a book and some fishing magazines.
“I’m gonna help them build a sandcastle, you need anything else before I go?”
Smiling at him over her book, she shakes her head. “No, baby, you go have fun.”
He gives her a jaunty salute and lopes away to join Cass and AJ near the waterline.
Sarah stretches her legs out in front of her, digs her toes into the sun-warmed sand with a happy hum, and opens her book. She tries her best to be drawn into the words of her favorite author but she keeps finding herself rereading the same paragraph again and again. It’s much more interesting to watch all three of her boys playing in the midday sun.
Finally giving up all pretense of reading, Sarah marks her page, puts her book away, and settles back to enjoy their antics.
She laughs to herself when AJ distracts Bucky so Cass can dump a bucket of sand on his head. Bucky howls in mock outrage and chases Cass; catching him about the waist, he lifts Cass over his head and dodges flailing limbs as he wades into the waves. Cass’s laughing pleas to be set free are cut off abruptly once Bucky tosses him into the waves.
He comes up spluttering and yells, “Get him, AJ!”
AJ charges at Bucky with a fierce battle cry and leaps on Bucky’s back, arms going around Bucky’s neck. Bucky pretends to stagger under his weight then lets out a pained groan when Cass jumps into his arms, trying to drag him down.
Sarah laughs until her sides hurt as the three of them fall into the water in a chaotic mess of arms and legs and howls of glee.
The longer she watches Bucky goofing around with the boys, the harder it is to recall why she ever thought it would be prudent to take things slow. To keep their relationship a secret from everyone just in case something went wrong. Or some bit of gossip made its way to AJ or Cass’s ears.
Sure, people might talk, but tongues in Delacroix have been wagging since the day Sam moved back to D.C. and Bucky moved into his old bedroom. Is she, Sarah Darlene Wilson, really afraid of what a few old biddies might say or think about her?
No, she damn sure is not.
And when she takes the fear of gossip away, what is she actually left with? The fear of the unknown? The fear that it might end before she’s ready for it to be over?
Haven’t the past ten years shown her that she—and the boys—can survive whatever life throws their way?
Hasn’t Bucky shown her that just because she can do it on her own, it doesn’t mean she has to?
Maybe it’s time to trust a little. Maybe it’s time—
“Hey,” Bucky says, out of breath, as he drops onto the blanket and sprawls like a starfish, “you all right?”
“I’m fine. Just,” she shrugs, “thinking.”
Lifting his head a bit to look down his body at her, Bucky searches her face for a moment before asking, “About what?”
“You.”
“Should I be nervous?”
“A little,” she quips and he flops back down to the blanket with a grumble.
Sarah watches the boys dig a moat around their castle for a beat or two before she says with deliberate casualness, “I was just thinking it might be time for you to move out of Sam’s room.”
Rolling into a sitting position, Bucky cocks his head at her and narrows his eyes in thought. After a minute, he asks, “Did you have a particular destination in mind?”
“Well, you know, there’s all that space in my closet… and my bed is awfully big for just lil’ ol’ me…”
“It would be a shame for all that space to go unused,” he agrees solemnly.
“Wouldn’t it just?” She nods, trying—and failing—not to smile.
He opens his mouth to say something when Cass’s squeal of “Mo-om!” shatters the moment hovering in the air between them.
Sarah sighs and gets up, waiving away Bucky’s offer to handle it for her. “I needed to stretch my legs anyway. But,” checking her watch she’s surprised to see that it’s already noon, “they’re probably getting hungry by now—”
“Already on it,” he assures her, pulling the cooler close to him and getting out sandwiches.