Free Autumn Adventure (Summer Unplugged #6) by Amy Sparling Page B

pretty good.”
    I reach up and kiss him, threading my fingers through his hair. “I’ll tell you later.”
     
     
    The beaches of Florida are where it’s at. Seriously. Best beaches ever. Jace and I rented a car and stopped at the first place we found after leaving the Fort Lauderdale airport. It was an apartment complex, a nice one, with a crazy beautiful view of the shore.
    “Why are we stopping here again?” Jace asks as I yank of my seat belt and bolt out of the rental car.
    I bend down and take off my shoes, tossing them into the floorboard. “I need the sand in my toes,” I say as an explanation. The wind blows through my hair and it’s warm and it’s sunny and this is the most gorgeous place we’ve been.
    Maybe not as gorgeous as the Grand Canyon, but it’s perfect in its own way. I take off running through the parking lot of an apartment complex we don’t belong to, past some picnic tables and straight to the sand. Jace is behind me, his feet splashing into the water just a second after mine.
    “Wow,” I say, mesmerized. Unlike in California, this water isn’t cold. And unlike at home, the water isn’t brown. It’s warm and crystal clear and I can see my pink toenail polish sparkling up at me through the water.
    It’s just after noon and there’s a ton of people outside enjoying the beach like we are. But all I care about is Jace and me, here and now, in our own little world. We stand in the water about calf-deep and I lift my arms up and around Jace’s neck. He grabs my waist, his fingers lacing together around my blue sundress.
    “This place is amazing,” I say, wiggling my toes as I look up at him. The sand here isn’t like the sand back home. It’s thick, chunky and super soft. The only thing around is sand and water, no dirt or debris or old tires. This is the perfect beach.
    “We should have come here first,” he says, looking out over the horizon. “The weather is perfect.”
    I nod, thinking it’s a little bit humid but I’m not going to say that and ruin the mood. “Let’s find a hotel right on the water like this.”
    Jace looks around and lets go of my waist, grabbing my hand instead. “What about that place?” he says, pointing to a Hilton just down the beach.
    “Well, that was easy,” I say. “What should we do now?”
    Jace grabs the beach bag from his arm, and I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed that he grabbed it until now. He takes out a beach towel and spreads it out on the sand. I sit in front of him, facing the shore. He wraps his arms around me and I lean back into his chest, taking deep breaths so that I can forever remember the smell of the beach and the feeling of these perfect little moments with him.
    “So what were you smiling about?” he asks after a few moments of serene silence.
    “I was thinking about how our son will grow up to be just like you, and how happy that makes me.”
    He chuckles. “I guess that’s a good thing. Think you can handle two of us?”
    “Jace—” I take a deep breath and tell myself that now is the time. “It bothers me that you don’t seem to care about what we should name him. I mean, it’s your baby too. Why don’t you care?”
    I look up and back at him and he frowns. “I’m sorry, Bay. I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. I do care. I just, I figured you’d pick a name.”
    “I want you to pick a name with me, not just settle for whatever I come up with,” I say, running my fingers through the sand. “I don’t want to be the wife that makes all the decisions. We should be a team.”
    “We are a team, babe.”
    I turn back to look at him and the wind blows my hair all in my face. Jace brushes it back, gently tucking the strands behind my ear. “I’m sorry I left you to decide by yourself. Let’s do this now. Let’s figure out our kid’s name.”
    I sit up and turn to face him. “Really? What do you have in mind?”
    Jace’s lips move to the side of his mouth. “Umm…how about…”
    I