The staring was a bit odd, but, honestly, what about this experience hadn't been? White simply watched him in return, waiting to see what would happen next. At Gabriel's comment, he cocked his head to the side for just a moment before breaking into a surprisingly sincere smile.

"Thank you," he said, pleased. He had been greatly irritated to find that between the sweat, the sun lotion, and the sand, he had actually felt itchy, but as their walk went on it had been relegated to unimportance — both because there had been other distractions and because he was hardly going to try to clean himself off.