Jimmy doesn't notice tiny details in the same way Richard does, and maybe if he'd been forced to come up with a reason why, he'd have tied it back to their military experiences. A sniper saw the world in a way that a machine gunner didn't. To Jimmy, everything was a moving target, and it didn't matter how the sand felt, or how the waves looked, or what the fucking seagulls sounded like. It was all background noise -- who cared if it was natural?

"You think Doyle really couldn't make it? What d'you think he's up to?"

He's not letting that go, even as he plops down into the sand inelegantly, already getting irritated at the way it seems to creep into the creases in his clothes after only touching it for a second.