Page 92 of Finding Us

He hands it to me.

I open it up and see a pile of sprinkled donuts, my favorite. “Donuts! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome. You want some fruit? I have some in the cooler.”

I stare at him, my mouth full of donut.

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, well, tomorrow you’re going back to eating real food for breakfast.”

“This is real food,” I say, holding up the donut. “It’s a carbohydrate.”

“Real food is not bright pink.”

“Okay, so the sprinkles aren’t real food but—”

“You’re not going to convince me, Jade.” He grabs a bottle of water and a banana from the cooler. “Just enjoy your donuts.”

“Is it warm out?”

“Yeah, it feels great. You want to sit outside? I set up some beach chairs out there.”

“You really thought of everything, didn’t you?” I set my donut down and go back over to the clothes I took out but never put on.

“How do you feel?” He comes up behind me, brushing my hair to the side and kissing my shoulder. “Are you tired? We didn’t get much sleep last night.”

I pull my shorts on, then turn around to see him smiling.

“I feel good. Wide awake. So if you want, maybe we could meet up here after breakfast?” I slip my t-shirt on, then grab my donuts and coffee.

“Like you even have to ask.” He follows me out to the beach.

“Is there a bathroom around here?”

“There’s one on the beach. It’s not far from here. You want to go?”

“Yeah.” I set my coffee and donuts down just inside the tent. “You can wait here if you want.”

“You’re not going alone.” He takes my hand. “Come on.”

It’s about a 5-minute walk to the public restroom. There’s nobody out on the beach. The only people I see are a few surfers way off in the distance.

The short walk to the restroom and back feels good. There’s a light breeze blowing and the hot sun warms my skin.

We get back to our beach chairs and I close my eyes and breathe in the fresh air as I sit down. “This has been the best honeymoon ever. Better than going on a trip or to some fancy hotel.”

“Aren’t you glad we didn’t just stay at home last night?” Garret hands me my donuts and coffee.

“Yes. I just didn’t know what to do that was close by. But this was amazing. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

We sit quietly and watch the waves roll in as we have our breakfast.

After a while, Garret says, “People won’t start coming over until this afternoon so do you want to stay here a little longer? Or would you rather go home?”

“Let’s stay here. I don’t want our honeymoon to end yet.”

“It doesn’t have to end. We’ll keep it going.”

“How?” I take a few mints from the tin that Harper left us. She insisted we have them since we can’t brush our teeth.

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