“It was the sweetest summer of my life, Evie.”
She smiled. “Mine, too. Without a doubt.” She slowly brushed a foot up and down his calf. “What do you remember most about that week?”
Clancy raised his eyebrows. “You mean besides the fact that you blew up my world?”
Evie grinned.
“Well, I’d have to start with that day we ran on the beach together. I was in awe of you. So graceful. And you were incredibly easy to be with. You never made me feel awkward or clueless. You were nice to people. You were cool and smart but very much a girl—exactly the way you are now. I had fun with you, Evelyn McGuinness.”
“I had fun with you, too, and I remember being amazed at how easily we fit. It was effortless. Remember the wind chime you gave me?”
“Absolutely. It was one in a million.”
She laughed. “Yes, and I still have it back home.” Evie paused. “Do you realize that you saved my life the first time we met, just like you saved Chrissy?”
Clancy felt his eyes go big. “I guess you’re right. That’s pretty weird.”
“And the way we danced, talked, and kissed . . . those kisses were da bomb.”
“They still are.”
“Do you think it’s possible the connection is still there, after all this time? I’m not sure there’s any other explanation for how we’ve . . . reacted to each other.”
“It’s there.” Clancy tipped up her chin and kissed her again. “You will always be the girl who showed me the meaning of life.”
Evie sighed. “It really was that big of a deal, wasn’t it? I know that for me, the girl who left for vacation was not the girl who came home to Maine.”
“I wonder . . .”
“What?” She waited. “Tell me, Clancy. Don’t stop.”
He took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking that what happened with us that summer wasn’t just because you were a girl and I was a boy, do you know what I mean?”
“I do. You were the boy.”
“You were the girl. I don’t think I really understood that until today.”
Evie sat up on the bed, running her fingers through her short spiky hair. “It would be easy to make yourself insane wondering how things would have been different if you’d gotten my letter. Maybe we would have been together all this time.”
Clancy sat up, too. “Or, maybe we would have been in too much of a rush and burned out right away. What if this is the exact time and the exact way we’re supposed to meet up with each other again?”
“True.” She smiled at him. “All we have is right now. It’s all anyone has.”
They sat in the quiet for a long moment.
“Clancy?”
“Hmm?”
“I know this might sound terrible.”
“You might be thinking the same thing I am.”
Evelyn bit her bottom lip. “Really? Because I’m going completely nuts being so close to you and not being able to”—she looked up—“you know . . . express myself with you.”
He smiled, trailing his fingers down her bare arm. “Yeah. I think we both need to express the hell out of each other.”