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I took another step and slipped on a loose rock.

“Oh!” I said, but Ryan caught my arm.

“I’ve got you,” she said as I found a better foothold.

“Thanks,” I said breathlessly.

“Maybe we should sit down,” she said, so we both climbed onto a large boulder that was relatively flat at the top and had room enough for two people to sit side by side.

The air was damp with the salty taste of the ocean. I inhaled the familiar scent and sighed in relief.

“I love that,” I said.

“What?” Ryan asked.

“The smell of the ocean. People think it smells like fish, but it doesn’t.”

She inhaled deeply. “You’re right.”

The two of us sat there in companionable silence for a while. People being quiet around me sometimes made me anxious, because my mind would go in all kinds of terrible directions and start thinking that they were mad at me, or annoyed, or bored, or giving me silent treatment.

It was different with Ryan, and I didn’t know why.

I watched her out of the corner of my eye as the sunset made her hair glow. She really was incredibly beautiful.

I swung my legs back and forth and shivered a little as the temperature dropped.

“Are you cold?” Ryan asked.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Are you? Or are you just saying that?” she asked.

“I’m a little chilly, but it’s not a big deal,” I said.

She stood up and gave me her hand. “I have an extra jacket in the car. Come on.”

My comfort won out and I took her hand as she pulled me to my feet and then helped me navigate my way back up the little path and onto more solid ground.

She dropped my hand and I wished she would have kept holding it.

Ryan pulled a folded fleece out of the backseat and handed it to me.

I started laughing as I put it on, because it nearly reached my knees and could have almost passed as a dress on me.

“Here,” Ryan said, helping me roll up the sleeves so I could even find my hands.

“Thank you,” I said, trying to be stealthy about smelling the scent that clung to the fleece. It smelled like her.

“You’re welcome,” she said, reaching down and adjusting the collar of the jacket, her fingers brushing the sides of my neck.

I started trembling, but not because I was cold.

“I should get you home,” she said.

“Why?” I asked. It wasn’t like I was a teen with a curfew. Sure, I didn’t stay out late on the regular, but that was more due to my social anxiety than anything else.

“Is there anywhere else to go in this town?” she asked. “Some hidden bar or nightclub that I’m unaware of?”