"What shall we do now?" he appealed to her.

She suggested a swim at a secluded beach with the backdrop of sunset behind them. "If we go by bike, we'll get there just in time."

"I'll follow you."

They cycled out to the West Road and climbed a hill crowned by the white steeple of a church. The road fell and rose, winding past houses, fields with horses, ponds, and overgrown orchards. Eventually, she guided him onto a dirt road cobbled with sea-smooth stones, which ended abruptly at the top of a cliff. There they parked their bikes and followed the path down to a beach in a cove ringed by boulders.

They were alone on the beach. The tide had recently turned, and was coming in. "It's smoothest now," said Althea. Smiling, she abruptly stripped and, without hesitating, ran over the stones into the water. He followed her, a newcomer taking his time. She was a flash past the breaking surf when he submerged. She hadn't watched him enter the water without his clothes. She floated on her back, eyes shut and face up to the sky, whose color deepened as the sun lowered.

Before she noticed him, she felt his touch on her toes. She raised her head and lowered her legs to see him treading water. Like seaweed his wet hair clasped his head. A single drop of water hung from each earlobe like a transparent pearl. Moisture fretted his eyelashes. He shook his head, the water flew. The sun slipped into the cloudless horizon. At her eye level, across the raised pattern of water diamonds, she watched it disappear, watched all the gold leaving the sky to soft pink, more floral than atmospheric, that reflected back on the rocking surface of the sea. She backstroked. He dived under her. They touched again, and she broke away into a crawl.

She didn't swim too far, for she was out much deeper than she could stand, near the edge of the cove, where the surf spilled and roared on a rockier coast. He followed behind her. She faced him, and, tentative, reached out to touch him. To her dripping fingers his arm was both warm and cool. She felt his tightening tendons and between them she found his pulse.