Page 138 of All at Once

I snort. “With that face, you’dstillgo viral.”

“If you think I’m blushing right now, I’m not. It’s just from my sunburn.” He winks at me, and if I didn’t know him better, I’d think it was such a fuckboy thing to do. But instead it sends a wave of pleasure throughout my body.

I try my best to contain my smile when Luca hands me a tiny piece of plastic that resembles a mini fork. “Oh my God. It just gets worse…”

“Just wait until you see my shovel,” he says as he rummages around the paper bag for far too long.

“Was that a euphemism?” I ask. But before he can even answer, I immediately cover my mouth with my hands and lose it when he holds up said shovel. “What in the world isthat?”

“Have you seenThe Little Mermaid?” heasks.

I raise my brows. “What type of question is that? Of course I have. Ariel is my favorite Disney princess. Why?”

He holds up the tiny shovel comically. “Well isn’t it obvious then? This is adinglehopper.”

I don’t even bother suppressing my laughter any longer at his reference to my second favorite character from the movie. “Stop. I relate to Scuttle on a daily basis,” I admit.

“He’s a wise bird. Isn’t he?” Luca’s cheeks practically beam as his lips curve even wider. “So are you ready to make the rest of the sandcastles here look like a joke?”

I smile. “Let’s do it.”

After meticulously piling up the golden sand and morphing them into various uneven shapes, our castle is complete. And it’s exactly what you’d imagine it would be with one mini bucket and two tiny fork shovels.

I stare at the piece, wondering if it’s not half bad or pretty awful. “Why is it so crooked though?”

Luca cocks his head. “If you tilt your head it’s not.”

I snort. “You’re ridiculous.”

As we fix some of the edges, he looks up at me mischievously and says, “Aren’t you going to ask me whomyfavorite Disney princess is?”

My brows crease. “Youhave a favorite princess?”

“Everyonehas a favorite princess.”

“Please don’t say Jasmine.”

He shrugs sarcastically. “Am I not allowed to have the same favorite from before I met you?”

“So sheisyour favorite?” I say, trying not to smile.

“Yeah.” He looks at me with a glimmer in his eyes that’s starting to make me wish we could return back to last night’s activities.

“What are the odds that your favorite princess also happens to share my name?” I tease.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s fate.” Luca smirks.

I feign surprise. “I’mdefinitelyhallucinating now.”

“I know,” he says, eyes widening. “Who would’ve thought that I’d be the one telling you something’s fate?”

“The tides have freakishly turned,” I say.

When the realization of what we’re doing hits me, I confess, “I don’t think I can ever explain how much this all means to me.” I choke on the words that I don’t know will be enough to express the magnitude of what he’s done for me.

It’s not just making a sandcastle. It’s so much more than that. He’s brought back a moment of my childhood that I always felt would be out of my reach. The lost pieces of myself somehow now feel as though they’ve returned.

Luca holds out his tiny shovel in the air with an amused expression. “What makes you thinkthiswas foryou? Did it not occur to you that maybeIwanted to make a sandcastle?”

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