What was his love, compared to her roots?

Thankfully, he spotted Elli getting out of her uncle’s car, so he pushed his questions to the back of his head, put a huge grin on his face, and headed towards her. Her eyes were bright with excitement, and his grin grew bigger with every step he took. When he wrapped his arms around her, basically picking her off the ground, she let out a little squeal before he placed his lips on hers.

They parted only because Bryan Fisher cleared his throat. Shea looked over at his boss with a sheepish grin.

“Hey, Mr. Fisher.”

“Adler,” he said with a raised eyebrow, before looking over at Elli. “Darlin’, I’ll have these taken to your room.”

“Oh, I’m coming, I need to change. You still wanna hit the beach, right?” she asked Shea, but Shea was still confused on the whole “her room” part of Bryan’s statement.

“Yeah, baby. Where is your room?”

“Um, Papa, where is it?”

“Right next to mine,” Bryan said without looking at her, as he took the suitcases out the trunk. Shea looked over at her, but she wouldn’t look at him because she knew he was trying to figure out why the hell she wasn’t sleeping in his room.

“Alright,” she said, before looking up at him.

“Wanna meet down here in a few?”

“I’m already dressed. I can come up with you and then we can leave,” Shea said, but wished he didn’t when Bryan’s eyes cut to him, basically killing Shea with his eyes. Elli noticed the look and shook her head.

“It’s alright, honey. I’ll be done in a sec.”

With that, she was gone, while Bryan still gave him death glares as he walked away. Shea stood there speechless as he watched Elli getting her room key before heading up to her room. He seemed to always forget that she had to put on this good girl act in front of Bryan and her dad. But damn, it was annoying as hell. He hadn’t been with her in four days. He was hoping to get some before heading to the beach, but it wasn’t looking like he was going to be getting Elli naked until Bryan left, which wasn’t until Saturday. Which was fine, at least she was there. He had missed her so much.

Elli came down about 20 minutes later in a little yellow sundress, her flip flops, and a huge yellow hat. He could see that her bathing suit was black, and he couldn’t wait to see it on her. She came straight to him, a small smile on her face as she wrapped her arms around his middle, walking with him out the door.

“I sometimes forget I’m dating a southern belle,” he teased as they walked through the beautiful white sand. The sun was slowly making its way down, and the beauty of the ocean was breathtaking, almost as much as the girl who was wrapped around his middle.

“Oh hush. You don’t forget, you just hope to be the Rhett Butler of our time, and deflower this little southern belle in front of God and everybody,” she said, breaking apart from him and giving him a haughty grin as she backed away slowly. He let out an arrogant laugh as he crossed his arms.

“I don’t know if you realize this, darlin’,” she glared at his failed attempt at being country, “but I’ve already deflowered you, many times.”

He added the last part just for good measures. Her eyes narrowed before pushing him down in the sand. She caught him off balance, and promptly starting running down the beach.

“Oh, you’re gonna get it now!”

And off they went, chasing each other across the beach. At one point, Elli’s dress and hat joined Shea’s shirt as he chased her into the water, grabbed her by her waist, and pulled her to his dripping wet chest. The waves ran up against their legs as they held each other, basking in the feeling of each other and the warmth of the setting sun. Elli looked up at him, a small shy smile on her lips as the sun warmed her face. Shea couldn’t help but gently run his fingers along her cheek bone, then down her jaw before cupping her neck, and bringing his lips down to hers.

Shea held Elli’s hand as they made their way to the beach chairs he had requested for them. Elli threw her dress, shoes, and hat down before sitting down on the chair, looking over at him with grin.

“I love the beach.”

“Me too,” he agreed as they sun started to make its way down. It was almost completely set, only peeking out a little above the beautiful bluish green water. When Shea felt Elli’s hand move into his, he looked over at her, admiring the look of peace that was all over face.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked.

The questions from earlier weighed heavy in his mind, and since Shea wasn’t the one to keep things inside, he decided to bring it up.

“Sure, what’s up?

She looked over at him and he got tongue tied. It was the whole rejection thing all over again. It was crazy how scared he was of her rejection. Before, he never cared. But with Elli, it could rip him apart if she rejected him.

“What would happen if I got traded?”

Elli’s eyes went wide, and he knew he should have gone with another way of asking her.

“Not that I am, as far as I know, but what if?”

“It’s just crazy that you asked that. Papa had asked me that same exact question before dropping a bomb on me on the way here.”

“What bomb?”

Elli pulled her hand from his, and started picking at her nails as she looked out at the ocean.

“He asked me that because he’s giving me the Assassins when he retires.”

“Say what?”