Liam

The sun was high and unrelenting, painting the sky in a blue so pure it felt like a dream. The beach buzzed with life—families building castles, kids chasing waves, couples sprawled across towels—but for them, the world had shrunk to a quiet little bubble where time slowed down. She leaned over him, her sunglasses slipping slightly as she tucked a strand of salt-kissed hair behind her ear. His head rested against her chest, damp from the sea, his curls warm beneath her fingertips. She brushed them back gently, as though smoothing the worries right out of him. “You’re staring again,” he murmured without opening his eyes. “Maybe I like what I see,” she teased, her voice soft but steady. He smiled, that half-sleepy grin that always made her heart race. To everyone else on that crowded shore, they were just another pair of young lovers tangled in the sand. But to her, this moment was everything—proof that even amidst the noise and chaos of the world, they had found something still, something tender. He shifted, tilting his face toward hers, and she bent down instinctively, pressing her lips to his forehead. A kiss that wasn’t about passion, but about promise. About being there, through sunburns and storms, through laughter and silence.