As a reply to the guest that asked if Sally met Jenny and Kim after her parents died in the car crash, the answer is yes. Thanks to camilu57, PJO-HoH-super-fan, and crimsonDream01 for your reviews!

And his eyes, oh his eyes, they seemed as deep as the ocean itself and just as green.

Sally regained her senses and slowed her heartbeat to a normal rate. "God, I'm usually not this jumpy," she said with a hand over her heart.

"Well your reaction is pretty understandable," he said with a lop-sided smile. "Can I sit down?"

Sally patted the ground next to her, "Sure."

The man plopped himself down on the ground next to her, sending up a puff of white sand.

Desperate to start a conversation and develop a sense of normality to calm herself down, Sally offered the man the cookie tuberware, "Do you want a cookie?"

"Of course," he said, reaching into the container. He took a bite and fell backwards into the soft sand. "Oh. My. Gods. This is the best cookie I've ever had," he moaned. "And I've had a lot of cookies."

"Really?" she laughed, with a swift raise of her eyebrow.

"Yeah I mean, I've had macaroons, oatmeal raisin (but those are gross), ginger bread cookies, chocolate chip cookies, fortune cookies, Oreos, snickerdoodles..."

"I got it."

"Anyways," he continued with a wave of his hand. "These are my absolute favorite."

Sally laid down on the sand next to him, "Well thanks."

"There's nothing like eating cookies on the beach."

"Exactly," Sally smiled.

"Something about eating these tiny morsels of deliciousness makes the whole world seem nicer."

She laughed, appreciating the stranger's optimistic outlook on life. "But you know what this needs?"

He shot her a glance, a smile playing on his lips, "What?"

"A good book."

What started out as a small snicker turned into a booming laugh, "I should've guessed".

"What do you mean 'you should've guessed'?" Sally asked incredulously.

"I dunno, you just strike me as a book person," he shrugged.

"Is that a bad thing?" Sally said, her voice nearing an offended tone.

He seemed to notice this and quickly began to backpedal. "I mean people who usually zone out like you were earlier are bookworms and I don't know you seem nice and nice people are usually book people and..."

"You can stop now," Sally said, holding up a hand to silence the babbling idiot that was the god of the sea. "You're good."

"Sorry," he smiled bashfully. "I'm not really a book person myself."

"How are you not a book person?" Sally asked. "That's like... not liking language or I don't know something else that provides an unlimited excess to information or takes you to an entirely different world." (an: I spun this off of the book Fangirl, if you haven't read it already, its by Rainbow Rowell and you should go read it right now)

He chuckled, "I don't know, I guess I just like experiencing it all first hand."

Sally felt determined to convince this stranger of the magic of books, "I'm going to find you a book, something you can't do yourself."

"Doubt it."

"I accept this challenge."

"So does this mean we'll get to meet again?" he asked, she could practically hear him smirking.

Sally felt a blush blossom across her cheeks and was glad he couldn't see her. She silently cursed, "I don't know...maybe."

The guy flipped to face her, his head resting on his hand. "So I've almost given you a heart attack, named your chocolate chip cookies my favorite cookie of all time, slightly offended you already, and you've promised me another encounter with the guarantee to find me a book that I'll like and I still don't know your name."

"Its Sally," she said laughing, propping herself up on her elbow to match his position.

He made a big show of thoughtfully rubbing his chin and studying her, "It fits."

Sally rolled her eyes and laughed, "So are you going to tell me your name?"

"Poseidon."

Sally mimicked him and squinted her eyes and turned her head to the side, "I can see it." And she did. His face, while gorgeous, seemed ancient, like something carved thousands of years ago. He belonged in one of the ancient stories that Sally loved so much, just like his name. But whereas he seemed flawless at first glance the longer they talked the more she noticed, like how his face was sprinkled with freckles and he had deep lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth from smiling. And this just made him all the more attractive.

Poseidon smirked and started chuckling, "Well I'm glad it has your approval."

She flopped over onto her back and stared up at the sky, where the sun was climbing higher in the sky, bathing everything in an amber light. "God, thats beautiful." Sally thought she heard Poseidon mutter something like "I liked Helios better" next to her, but she couldn't be sure. Lazy clouds drifted across the sky and the breeze stirred something in the air that smelt like seawater and cotton. They laid there in a comfortable silence until Sally glanced at her watch and realized how late it had gotten.

"Crap, crap, I have to go."

Poseidon sat up, sand pouring out of his dark hair as he ran his callused hands through it. "Well, damn."

Sally nodded apologetically, "I don't want my friends to freak out. They've taken it upon themselves to act as my parents."

"Well it was nice to meet you Sally...," he paused, waiting for a last name.

"Jackson."

"It was very nice to meet you Sally Jackson, chocolate chip cookie extraordinaire and bookworm," he said, shaking her hand.

Sally ran of with a wave, trying to ignore the sense that all the nerves on the hand he just shook were on fire.

Sally slipped through the backdoor, careful to make sure it didn't slam like it did every time Jenny flung it open. She busied herself at the kitchen counter, making coffee and chopping up fruit for breakfast.

She had already settled herself in the window seat with her worn out copy of the Count of Monte Cristo when Jenny stumbled in, Kim close behind her. Jenny's curls were smashed on one side of her head from sleeping and Kim's hair was piled on top of her head in a bun.

"Morning," Kim yawned.

Jenny grunted a incomprehensible greeting.

"There's blueberry muffins warming in the oven," Sally said, flipping her book page.

"Awesome," Kim said, drifting into the kitchen.

"Grab me one," Jenny shouted, plopping herself down onto the couch and turning on the TV. She flipped through the channels until she found one playing a movie, one of the ones with the really hot guy who falls in love with the classically gorgeous girl, you know, that one. That was the thing Sally liked about books, she never had to worry about reading the same plot over and over, each author was too different.

"That McLean is one hot piece of man," she heard Jenny say.

Sally glanced up and admired the man on the screen, his chiseled jaw and warm eyes justified Jenny's comment, but Sally couldn't help but think that Poseidon, with his freckles and lines from smiling and sea-green eyes, looked so much better.

Any reviews are appreciated and they help to make sure the story gets better. I hope you like the encounter with Piper's dad.