The Coast

Jameson doesn’t plan the trip to the beach, it’s just something that happens while him and Gina are travelling through Georgia towards the rodeo in Cartersville. The small convoy from Alabama Pines has been driving along the coast for almost six hours and it’s only now that it occurs to Jameson that he can’t actually remember the last time he felt the sand underneath his feet.

It’s five in the morning when he pulls into the vacant car lot. He tells the guys with the horse trailers to carry on without them, they’ll catch up at Bartow County Saddle Club before registration.

He leaves Gina sleeping in the passenger seat, his lips brushing over her temple before he shuts the driver’s door quietly behind him. The sun is just starting to rise in the distance, the orange glow playing over the soothing waves as they lap against the shore.

He strips off his boots and then his socks, smiling at the sensation of his feet sinking into the sand. There’s something so cathartic about being near water, he’s always thought that. He doesn’t get much of a chance at home in Texas, there’s a couple of lakes a few hours away from his ranch but nothing as stunning as this.

The rest of his clothes come off then, his jeans, his shirt, his underwear. He leaves a trail down the beach before he steps into the cool water, immersing himself. The sensation of it is bracing, it sends a rush of exhilaration through his aching muscles as he swims out a few meters before ducking his head under the water.

There’s silence underneath the surface, the noise in his head vanishes and there’s nothing but vastness of that moment. He doesn’t think about his diagnosis, that he barely has a year left in him if he’s lucky.

When he comes up for air, it’s the most alive he’s felt in months.

Gina’s waiting for him on the beach when he finally decides to return to the shore, a towel in her hand, her blonde waves fluttering in the salty breeze. Despite the fact she’s spent the past six hours sleeping in the truck she’s still the most beautiful woman he’s ever laid eyes on.

Her gaze lingers on his naked body, the rippled pink scar on his left shoulder, the pinprick dappling of screws that hold his ankle together. Rodeo life is hard on the body and Jameson, he just keeps getting up and doing it because it’s in his blood. He takes the towel from her hand before wrapping it around his waist. In a couple of hours this beach will be a hive of activity and he doesn’t want to scare the tourists.

“You didn’t want to join me?” He asks as he dries himself off.

Gina begins to spread out the horse blanket she’d retrieved from the back of the truck upon the sand before she sits down on it. Jameson takes up residence in the space beside her, his legs stretched out in front of him, the towel barely covering his muscular thighs.

“I thought you may need a little time for yourself.” She tells him, her thumb playing over the red woven worry bracelet on her wrist. He gave it to her a while back when her ex-husband appeared on the scene, causing all sorts of mischief.

She’s been playing with it a lot lately, every time he falters, or she hears him vomiting his guts out in the bathroom. He hates that he’s doing this to her, that he’s the reason behind her anxiety. When the time comes, when he gets too sick to function, he’s going to disappear, take himself off somewhere private so she doesn’t have to watch him die.

“Yea. It’s been hard to make peace with it.” He says quietly before he tilts his head up to look at the ocean. “I don’t want to leave this earth with any regrets but I don’t feel like there’s enough time to rectify all the stupid shit I’ve done over the years.”

“You need to let it go.” She tells him, nudging his shoulder lightly with her own. “What you did in the past it doesn’t matter, you have to focus on the time you have left.”

The edges of his mouth tip up into a smile as he looks at her. She is everything to him, the sun, the moon, the stars. He wishes they had more time, that he could spend years loving her instead of the months he’s got.

“Let’s skip the rodeo today.” He says quietly, his fingers interlacing with hers. “Let’s just spend the rest of the day right here instead.”